Out of Prague, in Dobrichovice with friends

The rain came at night and I rented a car and headed out into the country.Just to have fun on the roads, I prearranged to hire a BMW series 3, little zippy thing, however, the car reserved was (apparently similar) a BMW series 4. Are you kidding me? it's like an anti car. It's a slow plodding diesel which cuts the engine at every stop only to restart it when the gas is pressed. There's got to be a way to bypass that!Anyway, complaining aside, here I am at Helena and Zdenek's home for a couple of days. Lucky for me, they allowed me to use their home as a home hub and dump most of my luggage here while I go where I like.They live in central Bohemia beside a beautiful river called Berounka.We walked across the river and into the countryside yesterday under those wild skies. Happily the rain kept away.And walked up to visit the old Dobrichovice castle.The castle was quiet. Too early for the restaurant to open for supper, and just post a weekend national theater performance.Some musicians were playing in one of the kitchen rooms.In the castle courtyard the princess was just taking a post performance selfie.I found a little staircase beside the old mill house and walked down......right to the river.Isn't this a beautiful photo? A peony escaping its compound. Being here back in my home country, simple images like this one evoke so much feeling.Then back across the river to Helena and Zdenek's.That's me, Miss Forgot the Ponytail Elastic! At least my hair is a bit shorter than the usual two feet.As we were walking I talked to Helena about the fantastic little elder flower fritters my grandmother used to make. Back in her garden, Helena decided to make some for me and showed me how my grandma would have made them.She started with a bunch of clean and washed elder flower blossoms clusters.Four eggs, about a hand full of fine ground flour, and some salt were mixed lightly together.And then, only the blossom side was dipped into the batter and straight into the frying pan with hot oil.Like this!Had an AHA moment!Then Helena took some scissors and clipped the longer, tougher stems off and flipped the fritters only once.Oh my gosh you guys. The most amazingly good fritters.I'm going to have to draw some of these blossoms in my July travel journal.Have I shown you that journal yet?I will next post.Wonder where to today. :DMuch love from your wandering friend over here. ;)