We've spent time over the last few days trying to sort out our rental car situation as it pertains to visiting Italy. After much confusion and hearing different stories depending upon who we called, we decided that it was OK for us to drive to Italy. Consequently, Czech Republic is in the same category as Italy in our rental agreement, so we decided to make a quick trip to Czech today. One of the biggest reasons why rental car companies prefer that you not take their car to Italy and Eastern Europe is the large number of auto thefts in those countries. To diminish that threat, we decided to avoid the traditional tourist towns (namely, Prague) and instead decided to visit the region closer to Germany. It started with a drive through Plzen, a large, unknown town not too far from the German border. Then, after looking at a map we decided to visit a local castle, which turned out to just be a hunting lodge and was more of a large house than what you would normally associate with the word "castle" or "kozel." To get there, we drove on many small, winding roads in the back country of Czech and it was delightful. The scenery was pretty (although not as green as Germany) and the villages were quaint. After parking near the Kozel, we walked up a path to get to our destination and on our way saw a nice lake. We stopped to take photos of the surrounding fauna and were astonished to find Jaws' little brother right there in the lake. In fact, dozens of his little brothers. Dorsal fin and all, cutting through the surface of the water in search of food, and the little buggers couldn't have been more than 6 inches long. It was quite a fascinating sight and we stopped to try to capture it on film. The pictures truly don't reflect the experience of seeing these fish, but we did our best.

We had a tour of the Kozel and it was cozy - some rooms more elaborately decorated than others - and then we got back in the car (which, thankfully, hadn't been stolen) and returned to the safety of Germany. We stopped in Regensburg again with every intention of getting a bite to eat at the ancient bratwurst stand, but due to an embarrassing misunderstanding with the waiter we left without filling our tummies. Which was a good thing, because a wonderful, traditional dinner was waiting for us back at "home" - ham hock and sauerkraut.

Labels: Czech, Europe 2008, Germany