2nd day of tour.

Breakfast was ready when we all assembled in the front room, except J-Me who needed more sleep.

We quickly ate the sausages, eggs, yogurt and juice, coffee and sundry items, then jumped into car to hit up a bank for cash conversion of US dollars to Czech crown, at 21.5% exchange rate. It was raining and quite cold. Next stop, the slivovice brewery for some slivovice, where there were barrels of apples being processed, and locals purchasing slivovice from the back door, pouring the liquor into their own bottles from small vats.

After scoring some slivovice ourselves, we headed back to the pension to pick up J-Me and headed out to a glass ware gift shop to buy some incredible art nouveau perfume bottles. Alas, it was closed for 4 days due a technical difficulty. I think the owner was sick. Strike 1.

So instead we went antik shopping, and found some goodies.

Then onto Mala Skala to see a small castle,

and a Lampworker studio who was not open. Strike 2.

Instead we headed out to Semily to make our appointment with Barbara, the owner's daughter of Rautis, an ornament company who uses hollow molds to blow glass into the molds, then coats the inside of the bead with gold, silver or colors to make beautiful beads and Christmas bulbs for ornaments and garlands. We saw the entire process. It was fascinating.

 She also mentioned her new book detailing the history of Rautis and the overall Czech glass industry that she had authored was being released on Saturday, and Brian and I convinced her to pre-sell us each a copy, with her signing our copy. We got the very first copies.

We left Rautis to drive back to Jablonec to make a 4pm appointment with a button and glassware painter, and our GPS took us over mountain roads and goat paths on a wild trip that if we had broken down we still be there with no help coming to rescue us.

This is a painting we saw that looked very similar to that goat road we drove down, except the one we went on had much larger ruts and holes on it.

But we made it and made our appointment on time. Refreshed with beer for the men and a cappuccino for J-Me, we shopped like mad for some beautiful buttons and glassware.

While they figured out the invoice for our individual purchases, Brian and Don went and picked up some pizzas to take back to our pension for a relaxing dinner with beer and slivovice. Even J-Me partook of the slivovice, for its medicinal benefits of course.

All told a busy, crazy day with wilderness trails, rain and ice hail storms thrown in.

Goodnight.