Merry Christmas and happy New year 2018

Mini Olympic Games at CEIP Jose Esquivel, Puerto Santiago

One of themes of this school year at CEIP Jose Esquivel, preschool which Veronika and Dominik attend, are Olympic Games. Family is involved in education and home projects with kids.

Veronika's first Olympic medal.

Halloween 2017

Los Gigantes, Tenerife

Czecho/Slovakia Summer 2017

Short summary what was happening after our return from Canary Islands.
Kids continued preschool at Vracov until end of June 2017.

In May we spend several days in northwest part of Czech Republic with family of my friend, high-school classmate,college roommate. It is pretty dry there in the Summer, you have to water plants every day. Peaks are volcanic origin. Pictures

With my mom we were  in Velke Losiny.

With my mom and sister's family we enjoyed Celebration of Pernstejn Manor.

West Tatra-Hike to Sivy vrch and mushrooming.

Trip to Prague- we attended performance Antigona at Rock Opera Praha.

More pictures and videos from Canary Islands

I am posting more pictures albums and videos from our January/February 2017 trip to Canary Islands.

Trail to Tamaimo
 Tamaimo is village above Puerto Santiago, the elevation difference is cca 600meters, the trail continues to Santiago del Teide(elevation cca 950m).

Playa de la Arena
One of the prime beaches on Tenerife.

Dolphins, whales

Nifa
Check the pictures from Nifa, hill above Puerto Santiago.

Los Gigantes
The giant rock formation (Acantilados de los Gigantes), that rise from the sea to a heigh of 500-800 m.

Trek to Taganana

Trek to Chinamada


How they drive on two way road on La Gomera.

How they communicate on La Gomera

Tenerife

After 15 days on Gran Canaria we moved to another Canary island, Tenerife.
We decided to take a plane, as it is more comfortable with kids and the price was comparable to the ferry. It was 30 min flight from Las Palmas de Gran Canaria to Tenerife North airport. We rented a car, booked in advance on-line with Auto Reisen.(second driver and car seats included in price, no additional charges for insurance, milage, etc.)
 We are going to be on Tenerife for almost six weeks. For four weeks we are going to live in Puerto de Santiago and than for last part of our trip we will relocate to La Orotava.

First impressions:
-it is little greener on Tenerife than on Gran Canaria
-the waves are bigger
-young Russian families living here
-Cliffs of Los Gigantes are  spectacular background as is volcano Teide.
-average one bed apartment price with ocean view around 140K Euros.
-banana fields (check the video)

Check pictures from our trips to:

• El Teide National Park
• Vilaflor
• Masca, hike to Baracan hill
• Santiago del Teide
• Alcala
• Guia de Isora, hike to Aripe

Gran Canaria

From -20C to +20C.
What a pleasant change. After enjoying winter in West Tatra we flew with RyanAir  from Krakow to Gran Canaria. The flight was found through azair.cz (best flight search engine for European flights)  . We picked the least expensive tickets, you have to pay even for water in the plane. It takes five and half hours with Boeing 737 to get there.
We spent couple of weeks on Gran Canaria and were staying in Monsenor Apartments at "Playa del Cura". It is located on south west shore of Gran Canaria. It was mostly sunny with daily averages between 22-25C and 14-17C at night.The ocean was cold. No rain but little windy. The area is pretty much deserted. Kids enjoyed sandy beaches, amenities of the apartment and definitely Palmitos Park.  We had to slow down with sunbathing as the kids were vomiting at night and I did not feel well either. For transportation we  just used public buses. There are two companies that provide public transportation on Gran Canaria. Global- between villages and Guaguas Municipales-in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. We did the bus City Sightseeing tour of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. The historic downtown is  small area and in walking distance from main bus terminal.

Pictures:      Monsenor Apartments
                    Puerto Mogan
                    Las Palmas de Gran Canaria

The accommodation was booked through homeaway.com. This is excerpt of the review from our stay there:

"... Apartment complex is situated on steep coastal slope. The views are magnificent. One bed apartment was clean with fully equipped kitchen. Nicely sized terrace with two sunbathing chairs and plastic table and chairs. Kids enjoyed playground in the complex and panoramic elevators. There is one tennis court, two table tennis tables, one billiard table and fuzzball table. On the top is one kids pool and adults pool with maybe 20m concrete slide.There are another three pools on lower part where the Restaurant is. Unfortunately they are not heated. There is even and outdoor gym and petangue field . All complex is beautifully landscaped and taken care of. "Playa del Cura" is right down of the complex. Its possible to walk to "Playa de Amadores"( we did it with kids) but part of coast -"Playa de Tauro"-is construction site and needs to be walked around. Supermarket Spar is just on the corner and was our main supply station. In addition what I already mentioned The Monsenor apartments also has their own Mini-market and Cafe bar. Puerto de Mogan is 13 min by bus. Do not miss Friday market. Puerto Rico is cca 10 min by bus. There is nice promenade along the coast from Puerto Rico to Playa de Amadores. Palmitos park is 75 min by bus. Be noticed that otherwise it is pretty quiet location. Few restaurants and bars, not much action at night."

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Huty, winter 2016/17

End of 2016 and first week of 2017 we spend in the cottage in Western Tatras, Slovakia. We got lot of snow and beautiful blue sky days.
Lesson #1  to make last very steep 200m to the hut, you need AWD or 4WD.
Lesson#2 it is cold out there (-20C at noon was showing the thermometer in the car, I am not even guessing the night temperature)
Lesson#3 it is not smart idea to cool the beer outside.
Lesson#4 there is Brew pub in Kvacany but the kegs need diferent coupler
More pictures HERE