Mark your calendars!

I believed I made a promise that we'd set a date for this wedding before Christmas. Promise delivered!
Mark your calendar folks, because the wedding will be on Saturday, August 13th at Hotel Belveder in Labská Strá ň, Czech Republic. Yes, I know, it is not in Prague. Rather, we are having the wedding near one of the most beautiful national parks in the country, only 70 miles north of Prague and 40 miles south of Dresden, called České Švýcarsko (Czech Switzerland). This is near Petr's family's cottage and it's a special place for both of us. I'm going to include a map so you all have some idea of the location:

You can see in the north of PRAHA (Prague) on the border with Germany the area "České Švýcarsko"

Here is a close-up of the area, with Germany (Německo) to the north and Lábská Stráň highlighted with an arrow above the Labe (Elbe) river. 

The nature here has a really magical atmosphere and the unusual rock formations are a climber's dream. There are kilometers of trails to hike, charming villages and a gorge where you can take boat rides. There is also a famous rock arch with an old hotel in its shadow. In about 10 minutes' drive you can be in the spa town of Bad Schandau, Germany and in the opposite direction is Děčín, CZ which has a castle open for tours. The main train from Prague to Berlin passes right through the area, so it is very accessible by public transport, though a car may give you more freedom to explore. Here is a link to the park's website, so you can see for yourself what they've got to offer:

http://www.ceskesvycarsko.cz/hp-bohemian-switzerland/

As for accommodation, the Hotel Belveder is holding five double rooms for us for the nights of the 12th and 13th. They charge about $60 a night for a double room with breakfast. I'm posting their webpage so you can check out the amenities:

http://www.belvederhotel.cz/english/?Entrance

I think they are midrange for this area. In nearby villages and in Hřensko, a town about 10 minutes away, there are more options, ranging from four star hotels where you can expect to pay more like $100 a night, to village B&Bs which may be as cheap as $30 a night. If you are considering coming, contact me and I can help you find an option that will suit your budget and tastes.

So that's it. The date is a bit later than I would have hoped, but its the only time Petr can get off. Of course, the 13th is highly appropriate, as it will be the exactly one year since our "official" wedding, of which most of you know the details. This, however, will be our "real" wedding, since the last one lacked the ceremonial aspect.

As usual, this announcement via blog is a very modern and informal way of letting you all know what's going on so you can start to think about your own plans. I will be getting formal invitations out to everyone as soon as I can figure out a way to manage it with the resources available to me in "the Motherland" as my friend Brittany likes to call it :-) You can be assured the result will be a creative and unorthodox solution to the problem of planning a wedding in a foreign country from a foreign country with limited language skills.

Story of my life :-)