I need some rest after holliday.

What should have been one of the most relaxing weeks of the year became quite stressfull. It all started quite okay. First we had a wedding of a old school friend of Agnes. It was a beautiful day, the bride looked wonderfull and the wether was quite okay. Next day we celebrated the birthday of a sister of Agnes and prepared for our trip to Prague and Rokytnice nad jizerou (where we would met the rest of my family).

Before we left, we got a phonecall from my parents that my sister and her husband had to leave early because the mother of a good friend of them died. A friend of us brought us to Dortmund where we took the plane to Prague. The trip went quite well. In Prague we had a couple of wonderfull days with just the two of us. Of course I kept my promise and kissed Agnes on the Charles Bridge (karluv most):

Prague is really a wonderfull city and really romantic =:). However you have to look to the right direction. Luckily Agnes studies art history and points my glance from the tourist shop level to the wonderfull details of buildings that are at a bit higher level. We enjoyed a wonderfull classical concert of a small chamber orchestra in the national museum (really good ambiance and acoustic) and several other bands that play music on the street. Wandered around the city enjoying buildings, people, colors, sound and sights.

On sunday my parents picked us up and we traveled with them to Rokytnice nad jizerou, a small town ~100 km above Prague. We had to get acclimatized a bit because we really enjoyed being with just the two of us, and now we where with 7 people. However the landscape there was also very great. It has some small mountains (up to 1400 metres). Agnes and I rented some mountain bikes and made a really wonderful ride in the woods and mountains.

My two brothers and the girlfriend of my oldest brother also rented mountain bikes. However, they where too lazy to climb up and did not joined our ride. In stead they took a ski elevator with the bikes and just drove down. On Wednesday they wanted to drive again and the oldest of my brothers decided that he didn’t need a helmet this time *sigh*. Youngish recklessness I guess. This became almost fatal because he flew out of a curve and seriously damaged his skull. He had a skull base fracture. He is operated the same day in a town 30 km away from where we resided. From that moment on we where only busy with driving between our vacation address and the hospital, trying to get information about his status (the nurses in the Czech Republic do not speak English nor German) and arranging the journey back to Netherlands for us and my brother. Luckily he’s quite well right now and even got back his sense of humor. (At least he could laugh when I suggested “brain breakers” after he asked for a puzzle magazine to kill time. The doctors had to shave his head for the surgery which made him even uglier then he was =:)

As it looks now he can come back to Holland somewhere this week.