Branik
21/05/70
Dear mum and Dad
Thank you for your letter. I am sorry I have not written for so long. I will send this letter express so it reaches you before you leave.
The reason I have not written is I have not been well but I am glad to say I am much better now and should be quite fit and healthy by the time you arrive.
Tony and I had a lovely weekend on the 9th may. We went to the Giant mountains, about 70 miles north of Prague. It was gorgeous weather and we got quite brown. The countryside was lovely- like the alps with the hillsides full of alpine flowers and cowslips. There was still snow on the high mountains with lots of streams fed by the melting snow. Perhaps we may be able to go there on the first Sunday of your visit. Tony and I walked in the hills and did not meet a soul- quite different from the beauty spots in England. We saw lakes with people fishing and thought of Dad. We spent Saturday night in a hotel and came back Sunday evening. When we returned home I was still feeling well and we had tea on our balcony. It was a perfect evening. On Monday evening however I started having ‘the trots’ and stomach ache. The doctor came Tuesday and said I had gastroenteritis. Since then I have been in bed swallowing pills. I am better now and plan to go back to work next week.
The weather is not so good now- cloudy and chilly. I hope it will be better by next weekend.
I bought some lovely flowers today- tulips carnations and lily of the valley which grows in wild abundance in the woods here. I have spent a pleasant hour arranging them.
We have booked a hotel (Hotel Panorama built for the world ski championships) in the High Tatras for 4 nights- bed breakfast and evening meal at Strbske Pleso. We have also got tickets for a concert in Prague cathedral Saturday afternoon to hear Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis. Unfortunately we could not get any tickets for the week as they were all booked up. I have been sitting in bed planning what I can feed you when you are here.
Tony went to Germany last weekend and had the car serviced. It is going very well and there is nothing wrong with it. He also bought some bed clothes and lots of pillows for mum to sleep on.
I was wondering if you could bring some books with you as I have read all my stock lying in bed all the time. There are a few I would like but if you can’t get them don’t worry. They are:-
Lawrence Durrell Tunc Faber six shillings
Graham Green The Ministry of Fear Penguin five shillings
Margaret Drabble A Summer Birdcage Penguin five shillings
Margaret Drabble The Millstone Penguin five shillings
John Steinbeck East of Eden Penguin five shillings
Desmond Morris The Human Zoo not sure if it is in paperback yet
If you can’t find any don’t worry just pick the first three books you find preferably by authors I don’t normally read as I have read most of my favourite author’s books.
Secondly could you bring some tablets to treat stomach upsets e.g. ENTROVIROFORM. I say this not because I have just had a stomach bug but because a friend’s parents were here to stay and both had bad stomachs while they were here.
The only other things I would like are
A vacuum flask
Tea
Bacon
Talcum powder sandalwood or French fern
Super tampax.
I don’t think there is anything else and we can always go to Germany or Austria.
We have just had a lovely meal fillet steak, jacket potatoes and spring cabbage all bought locally and cooked by Tony.
I am afraid all the cherry blossom has gone over but the horse chestnut trees and lilac are now in bloom so I hope there will still be some spring flowers when you come.
I was sorry to hear about auntie Edna’s accident- give her love- I hope it has not put her off driving.
I can’t believe a week from tomorrow you will both be with us- wonderful. I think you are very sensible going to the airport by train. It will be much more relaxing than driving so far on the first day of your holiday.
I must close now so Tony can post this. See you soon with all the news
Lots of Love
Gillian and Tony
Sbohem (go with god)
What I failed to tell my mother and father was that I had been in the isolation hospital in Prague with suspected Cholera. Cholera was a notifiable disease to WHO but Eastern European countries often failed to notify them of out breaks. One of our secretaries contracted yellow fever during our year in Prague and we all had to go to our local clinic for injections to help fight it off. I have never been so ill before or since with a bad stomach. I passed out at one point just through the stress of the diarrhoea with blood in my stools. The isolation hospital was set on a hill outside Prague. Visitors were only allowed to speak to patients through closed windows from a balcony outside the wards. Groups of people would all be shouting in Czech through the double glazing next to each other. I was told all the clothes and books I took with me would probably have to be incinerated after my stay. I lost over a stone in one week!. I learnt the Czech for ‘blood’ and ‘injection’ and other related medical terms. Not many of the nurses spoke English so it was a difficult time. I remember we had to pay for treatment before they would let me home. The regime was a very slow return to a normal diet starting with bread and yoghurt. Luckily for me they found no recognisable pathogens in my stools and concluded it was a haemorrhagic virus causing the problem. I think I picked it up at the hotel in the Giant Mountains as the female toilets there were in a terrible state. I was weak for several weeks afterwards and had to take it easy. All in all we appear to have suffered more than normal from illness while we were there, both stomach upsets and sore throats and flu’. I guess it was partly due to the different strain of viruses in another country which we had no resistance to.
The giant Mountains were really magical. We stopped at one point just at the edge of the snowline. As the snow melted alpine flowers bloomed in the icy water as if springing from the snow itself.
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