Well Spine you know me, always making efforts to be polite when possible.

What can I say, you all have perfect Czech (or a good online dictionary). Spine meant how are all doing, right?
I come from Olomouc, Olmütz as Germans say, great place to visit if you ever have a chance. Much more fun than Hradec

[quote user="verjen" post="108820"]Lucie,
Yes, My father's mother was Czech, a Cermak (her mother, a Teska). When I walked across the Charles Bridge, I realized that it was the place referred to in a letter -- where my great-grandfather had taken his family in a cart.[/quote]

Cermak comes from the word cerveny (red) or from Cermacek, which is a very cute little bird with a red tale - not that I actually knew it before

Lucie,
Thanks -- I didn't know about the bird either. I like the idea of the red tail. I will tell my sister who is the historian of the family. So a bird with a red tail married the hearth fire ( last name of lowe). How charming.

Little bit of a funny story. Just after I had spent six weeks in Prague in 2003, I flew back to the States. There were many problems with transfers, etc. A tearful elderly woman in a line down from mine was trying to say something that the clerk did not understand -- she spoke no Englsih. I recognized some words in Czech and ventured "Dobry Den. " As she clung to me, I remembered enough Czech to say somthing like " Name of son? telephone number?" Gave that info to the clerk and told him to find someone who spoke Czech. A few words can sometimes help a lot.

that's a lovely story verjen.......it brought a real smile to my face as i read it. Good on you.....

The US immigration officers turned me into a tearful bundle of anger and despair most of the time too.

what brings me back? hmm a difficult one - definitely not the politics lets put it that way.

Fair enough ....