We haven't usually titled the blog entries, but this one just seemed to have a nice ring to it!
Bailey's is the famous pizza restaurant in Tachov that everyone has mentioned to us at least once during our stay. We've actually only been to two restaurants in Tachov this whole time - the pub where Phil went with the firemen, and Bailey's. Bailey's is famous here for two reasons: they make good pizza, and they have delivery cars that will bring the pizza to your home. While in many American towns we are familiar with this type of delivery service, in a small Czech town like Tachov, it is a noteworthy exception. And we must say, the pizza really was quite good. But you have to be careful when ordering, because Europeans are not shy about what they put on their pizza - tuna fish, corn, chicken, sardines, blue cheese... Fortunately the menu was in Czech and German, so Phil was able to steer the boys clear of a great disappointment after 6 weeks of illustrious promises about Bailey's pizza.
Why were we at Bailey's? English class of course! The ladies' group chose this as the location for this week's lesson. Do you get the sense they enjoy having a good time together? Indeed they do. Last week they said goodbye to one of their members, Petra the forest ranger, who moved to England. She is in England for training, before she will move to Africa to do conservation work there for two years. Hopefully her English studies prepared her well. We feel she was quite proficient.
Much of the rest of the week has been focused on Bike Campy. It is a Methodist youth camp being held about 10 miles south of Tachov where the emphasis is on biking. Phil gave the evening devotions several times, to which Teresa and the boys expressed some feelings of deja vu. Okay, so he borrowed from some of his youth camp talks a little... He was pleased though, when over the past few days the topics he discussed were still being mentioned during testimony times by the camp participants.
Like all sports, they take biking VERY seriously. Biking 60 km (40 miles) in a day at a fast pace up and down mountains is standard. Daniel and Phil went on Tuesday to ride with the group. About a minute and a half into the ride (well actually not that long) it became clear that this was not a pace we could maintain, so we told Filip, the team leader who was hanging back with us, to go on ahead and that we would do our own smaller tour. Our smaller tour became a 33 kilometer (20 mile) ride all through the beautiful countryside south of Tachov. Except for the one mountain, which was about 3 km straight uphill, Daniel did superbly! We are extremely proud of him, as this was his first major bike trip. All in all, with several breaks and a lunch stop at a roadside picnic table, we spent a nice half day on the road (and one mountain dirt track through the woods which we took as a shortcut to avoid another long climb). Our hand-held GPS kept us on track and away from getting too far lost. Being on the bikes allowed us to get up close to some wildlife such as hawks and a few deer that ran across the road right in front of us. We also saw some old men hunting for mushrooms in the woods, but they didn't look too wild.
At the bike camp there is a small group from Tennessee who are riding along as part of their mission trip experience. We have enjoyed getting to know them a bit, and Phil showed them around Tachov one afternoon. After being with them it reminded us of how we were when we first came to Tachov, and it has become clear to us how much we have already learned and experienced here in just under six weeks.
Some pictures:
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