Well, thats it, been there, done that!

Just to let you know that I got home in one piece, safe and well, mission completed.
I got up on Thursday morning to heavy rain again, got kitted up and rode from Gent to Brugge. Within 1 mile of the hotel I came to the first obstacle, the canal bridge I needed to cross was in the open position for the boats. I sat, rain running down my visor, as 1 boat went through, but the bridge failed to close, I sat, and sat and eventually, a huge barge, which appeared to be the length of a football pitch, came in the other direction up the canal. It finally went under the bridge then stared to make a turn in the wider mouth of the canal, I don't know if this delayed the bridge opening for traffic or what, but it was about another 10 minutes before the bridge swung shut and the traffic started flowing. It was then a reasonable run to Brugge although, once again, the Belgium motorways were a worry to me with the shear amount of water that they held in the ruts. I solved this by running in the wheel tracks of a coach which was pushing waves of water off the road with its tyres.
After reaching Brugge, it was into a cafe on the square where I had a hot drink and a chocolate and banana crepe, thats what I call a breakfast.
As it was still raining, and I saw little point in wandering around, I went into a Salvidor Dali exhibition, which I must say I found quite good. I know the regular Dali paintings but this opened my eyes to a different Dali. I was quite impressed, although, from his quotes on the wall I think he must have been a bit of an arse!
After another hot drink in a differant cafe I made my way to Zeebrugge for the ferry, I was very early but knew there was a cafe on site where I could at least keep dry and be in a position to get straight on the boat when the time arrived.
I got to the port and joined a group of about 15 wet bikers huddling under cover trying to keep out of the elements, great fun and a bit of a laugh really.
We were eventually allowed onto the ferry, and after a meal and a drink before sailing, the boat cast off about 20 minutes late, the captain warning that it would be a bit rough as there was a force 8 storm brewing, great!
As soon as we left the harbour the boat started rolling which was my sign to go to my cabin to lie down and read out of the way. I did not move again until 6am when I awoke to a calmer sea, washed, dressed and made breakfast.
After docking and leaving the boat, on a nice dry Friday morning, it was a nice drive across country to Liverpool where I met up with Chris for lunch and the eventual sailing back to the Isle of Man (and another rough crossing), and that is about it, journey over, and back to work first thing Saturday morning.

My total mileage for the trip was 3754 miles, I think I estimated 3700 miles before the trip so I was pretty close.
High points.......too many to mention really but I suppose, Stockholm, Tallinn, Hill of Crosses, Krakow, Auschwich and Birkenhau, the Salt Mine, the caves in Slovakia, Prague, of course, and Strasbourg.
Low points, only 2 really and both rain related, the day I rode into Riga in pouring rain and I must admit I was really down, and the other on the Sunday I rode into Olomouc, when I took shelter under the garage awning and I had no Czech money, what a bummer.
Even the tyre puncture was not really a down point, just a niggle which to be honest, you have got to expect on a journey, just a little obsticle.
Would I do it again? The same trip, No, another trip, too right I would. I have, on the whole had a great time, although like all trips its very nice to get home.
There are places that I have seen on this trip that I know Chris would like, so you never now, I may well see certain parts again, especially places like Prague, well worth a return visit. You never know, I may combine them with a visit to the Alps!
Once again, thankyou all for taking the time to read the blog, and making it worth my while writing it every day. I have had a lot of kind comments and I do appreciate them, thankyou.
That is it until the next trip that I make, so finally, from myself and Jed, Goodbye.

Sorry Gent, you don't do it for me.

I think I may have overdone the Red Bull yesterday, I went to bed at 1130hrs after updating the blog, then read till midnight, then tried to sleep, however I was awake reading again at 3am till about 3.30am, I finally managed to sleep, and woke at 8.30. That is the latest I have slept this trip.
Once I was up and showered, I looked out of the window, and yes, it was raining, the receptionist seemed delighted to tell me that this weather was set for the next 7 days, whatever, I have still got to make the effort to get out as the cleaners wanted to do their jobs in the hotel. But first, I delayed , by buying a hot chocolate from the machine and sitting outside watching the rain, hoping for a break.
Well, the break never came, so once again, on with the waterproofs for the short 3km ride into Gent. I parked up near one of the canal bridges and secured the bike, and started to wander, the very quiet streets on the edge of the old city, however, as I got closer to what I presume was the centre, it was a hive of activity, but the wrong sort. It would appear that there had been some sort of festival in the city over the past few days and there were men and lorries everywhere, dismantling numerous stage and stall areas, it was bedlam. There also appeared to be a lot of building work taking place so the first impression of the town was not good.
The second impression did not improve things either as it appeared to be just another city with the same shops as everywhere else and a general dowdy look to it.
I wandered around a bit but just could not get worked up at all, it did not do it for me in the slightest. I don't think it helps that I may have a bit of the end of holiday blues I suppose.
There are no photos today I'm afraid, one, because I could find nothing of interest, and two, I had forgotton my camera and had left it in the tank bag strapped and secured to the bike.
By 2.30 I had had enough and, after buying some fruit and a baguette for mr my tea, I rode back to the hotel in order to read and chill, do a bit of washing, and re-pack for tomorrow.
I am off to Brugge tomorrow, a city I like very much, and from there it is on to Zeebrugge for the boat to Hull. In view of this, this is the last blog entry until I get home, when I will put a post script on the site on Saturday evening.
I do hope you have enjoyed reading about this trip, and hopefully you will all read about the next one that I do......oh yes, I am sure there will be another one in the future, I just need to save a lot more pennies. I will be looking at reviving my interest in riding across Newfoundland, Canada and Alaska, but I think that that may have to wait a couple of years as the planning will be quite extensive, maybe a 60th birthday treat for myself.
In the meantime, I am looking forward to meeting Chris on Friday lunchtime in Liverpool.

What a waste of a day.

After another night that was not brilliant, sleep wise ( I will be glad to get back in my own bed,) I was up and on the road by 8am as I had a ride of just over 300 miles to my final hotel of the holiday, Formule 1 at Ghent in Belgium. I rode about 48km and stopped to re-fuel and to grab something to eat and a drink as I had had nothing when I got up. It was then back on the bike with the intention of knocking off 160km before my next stop for a stretch, at least that was the plan.
After about 30km, I was passing a lorry which was in lane 1 of the motorway, when I heard/felt something strange from the back wheel, my heart leapt to my mouth but all seemed well. I must admit I was travelling at 100mph at the time listening to my ipod. Anyhow I shot past the lorry and after a feww hundred metres realised all was not well. I cruised to the hard shoulder and found that the rear tyre had deflated. I had seen nothing in the road and can only assume something came from the lorry. I put the bike on the main stand, and turned the back wheel, and found a cut of about 1cm right in the middle of the tread on the tyre. No wonder it had deflated.
At least the view from where I had stopped was good, I was right above the Canal des Houilleres de la Sarre, pretty eh. I made a quick phone call to my european breakdown recovery people at Carole Nash Insurance and was told as I was on a French motorway I would have to call the Police who would arrange recovery, I was then to ring them back once recovered. Well, muggins here, ex motorway police officer, breaks the cardinal sin, and phones the police from his mobile phone. I explained the situation and have my position from the marker post and the officer says he will sort recovery so just sit and wait and enjoy the view.
As I said, the view was nice and it got even better when the boats started travelling along the canal.

The puncture had happened just before 1030 and I phoned the police at 1030, however by 1130 still no recovery, and it was getting rather warm by now, and there was not much shade, so, I did what I should have done in the first place....walk to the emergency phone, you've guessed it, the police had not passed over any message! After speaking on the emergency phone assistance duly arrived after 40 mins and Blackie was put on the back of a recovery vehicle to get clear of the motorway.

What a sad sight.

Truly recovered from the motorway I was taken to a garage that happened to be a Renault dealer that was unable to fix bike tyres, so it was back on the phone to Carole Nash to sort the repair. They immediatly paid for the recovery, and asked what was needed, so I gave them full tyre information, stressing that the tyre HAD to be Bridgestone BT023 GT in order to match the front tyre, and in order to take the weight of Blackie. I emphasised the GT part because this means Grand Tourer and is specifically for heavy bikes (the tread is harder in the middle than on the edges to help with the tyre wear) Peter, from Carol Nash, said he would ring around garages in the area I was in and get back to me, the only problem being that it was lunch time in France and everywhere was shut till 2pm.

Peter did eventually phone back,and told me he had found a Honda dealer in a town about 30km away which had the tyre in stock, I asked if he was sure it was the GT and he told me that the garage said it was....no problem, back into the recovery truck for the trip to Moto Concept, the Honda dealer.

We eventually got to the dealer and Blackie was put up on the ramp ready for her tyre. The fitter eventually brought the tyre over, and I checked, and it was not the GT version. Off goes the fitter again, sorry we don't have a GT (in fact he had never heard of the GT and thought it was the same as the sport tourer tyre). As he did not speak any English and I speak no French we struggled a bit but eventually worked out that he could get a tyre in 3 days!!!!!

Back onto the phone to Peter at Carole Nash and he asked if the bike could be fitted with the none GT version, I explained to him the difference and told him that with the weight of Blackie I would wear through the none GT tyre by the time I got back to England and would have to replace it again which would be a waste of my money. He then suggested that he square it with his boss that Carole Nash would pay for the none GT version and then I could replace it when I got home and I would not be out of pocket, he then hung up to sort this out.

As soon as he hung up, a very excited tyre fitter came out of the stock room with the correct GT tyre, thank god, it could all be sorted at last.

The new tyre eventually cost me 170 euro, money I did not want to spend, but hey, at least I was back on the road by 1730hrs having wasted the best part of the day, and still 250 miles short of Ghent.

I did eventually reach the hotel at Ghent (soaking wet after a rain for the last 20km, I got caught, and by the time I got somewhere where I could get waterproofs on, I was already soaked to my underpants, so did not bother to stop) I managed to do the 250 miles with only one quick stop to re-fuel and eat a banana and drink a large can of Red Bull.

I must say I have nothing but praise for the staff at Carole Nash, especially Peter, for his help. Not bad when the breakdown recovery came free with my insurance.

My room at Formule 1 is like a laundry at the moment with wet clothing hanging everywhere, but no doubt it will all be dry in the morning. I shall have a look around Ghent tomorrow before travelling to Zeebrugge, via Bruges, on Thursday, for the boat back to Hull on the evening. Then its across to Liverpool, where I shall meet Chris at lunchtime, before catching the evening boat back to the Isle of Man..........and then work Saturday morning...what a shock to the system.

A day in the sun

Woke today to glorious weather and made my way into Strasbourg for about 10am. 1st stop was for a hot chocolate in a cafe opposite the cathedral followed by a look around the cathedral itself. This was a treat in that there was no entrance fee, this made a nice change I must admit. The interior is superb, but this time I will not bore you with the photohraphs that I took.


After the cathedral I made my way down to the river and booked myself onto the 11am run around the river. This lasts some 70 minutes and has a commentry, although cloth ears here though he heard channel 3 for the English version, then heard channel 13, si I selected channel 13 and heard the childrens version for the first 5 minutes...all "ahoy me hearties" and references to a parrot, most strange I thought, before trying channel 3 and finding the correct commentry. I could not resist this picture of St Pauls Church, have you ever seen so much scaffholding?

This is the Tanners House in the area called Petit France, which was the area of the town where all the trades people lived. The upper floor of the building is all open and was used as an area to spread the hides for drying after they had been cleansed in the river water.

The building above was apparently the most famous laundry in the town where all the rich folk had their washing done in the river. The poorer people had to wash downstream, the only problem was that if the rich folks washing got swept down stream, the laundry owners had to pay the poorer people in order to get it back.

What was not pointed out on the boat trip, but was fairly obvious, was that the Tanners House was upstream from the laundry, so that obviously meant that they used the water first, then the laundry for the rich people, so just how clean were the clothes after the washing, especially as tanners also use human and animal urine in the tanning process?????

The boat trip also took us past the EU parliment buildings, some of which you can see below. The first building is the front one, but then as the EU has grown, the rotunda was built behind it for the overflow. The rotunda is donut shaped apparently, and the inner courtyard is full of trees and lawns, sounds like a nice enviroment to work in. I love old buildings but I also like modern buildings made of glass, and I was impressed with the design of these buildings.

Following the boat tour, I had a wander around the old town before popping into a shop to buy some fruit and a baguette for my lunch, which I ate under the shade of a weeping willow in the shade as it was now about 28 degrees. Whilst I ate a family of swans swam along and stopped for a spruce up, it looked as if this one needed it. Talk about ugly duckling.

By about mid afternoon I realised why I don't like the sun so strong, as I developed a blinding headache that I could feel was turning into a migraine. I hot footed it back to the hotel where I had left my tablets (Iwill learn one day to take them with me). Back at the hotel it was tablet time and an hours sleep, waking to feel much better, this was one I certainly caught in time.

A bit later one I felt that I could manage a little tea, so I walked over the Rhine and back into Germany, where I found a nice little place right on the bank of this mighty river, where I ate and watched the world go by, very pleasant indeed.

Tomorrow I have a ride of just over 300 miles to Ghent, so a long day in the saddle, with the temperature expected to hit 31 degrees in Strasbourg tomorrow, the timing is about right.

And so, into France

Yesterday I ommittedto mention that I had left the Czech republic and had ridden into Germany, I guess that most of you would have realised that when I said that I was in Nurnburg. Well today I left Germany and I am now in France (only by about 200mts as the Formule 1 I am stopping in is literally as you cross the Rhine from germany into France)


I managed to get a little wet again today, whats new, I could see some clouds gathering, and I went though a few spots of rain, then, about 500mts in front of me I could see the traffic braking, and that the road surface was very wet. I had arrived at the edge of a some pretty heavy rain. As I was on the autobahn I did not have the option of stopping to kit up, but had to ride through it. To be fair it only lasted a few minutes, but is suprising how wet you get at 90mph.


The rain did ease back to spots and I pulled into a rest place (lay-by) and I did get the waterproofs on, I was glad I did, because it rained heavy again for the last 30 mins to the hotel.


I decided to have some music today and one of the tracks that belted out was Fat Bottomed Girls by Queen, well, I did not think I would see my own sample so soon after arriving in Strasbourg. Its been a time since I have seen someone with a pair of boobs on her back as well. Sorry, uncalled for!

One place I will not be going tomorrow in Strasbourg is up the tower of the cathedral....I have been told that the tower is 142 mts high and that there are 332 steps up to the first level, my thighs have started complaining just thinking about all those steps. This, I am afraid, is one tower too far.

The cathedral is very hard to photograph due to its height and the proximity of the other buildings, but it sure is a stunning sight. It is amazing to stand at the bottom of the tower and look up, makes you feel dizzy so I don't know what it would be like from the top looking down. One thing I will be doing is taking a tour on one of the boats that travel around the town, like the one below (if its sunny) or a covered one. For 9 euro you get a 70 minute trip complete with commentry on all the places that you pass. The cruise takes in the Imperial district, Petite France, which is all the old half timbered builings and even the European district which is where the European Parliment sits. I just hope that it is a nice day tomorrow.

I've worked out the route into town via the bus and tram system so I am all set. I must admit I love the european tram systems, I think they are great, and every sytstem I have used has been so easy and clean.
Sorry its short today, but most of today was spent riding.

Jeds found new transport

Nothing much to report today folks, just a quiet run from Prague to Nurnberg, well I say a quiet run apart from the fact I had a bit of a dust up with an impatient driver of a car behind me as I left Prague.
I got caught out by a set of lights so stopped at the line as they changed to red, as they had just changed I knocked the bike into neutral but was ready to take 1st gear as the lights went to green. A car pulled up behind, me and I swear that the moment the red light went out, he was on his horn for me to go. I moved off and I must admit I made one or two hand hestures and shouted a few words to the idiot. Anyhow, he came past me but at the next set of lights he got stuck behind a car in the outside line, however I managed to cut to the inside lane so I was back in front of him. Again, as the lights changed, he was straight onto his horn again to the car in front. This must be the way the idiot drives all the time.
At the next set of lights, and after I had heard his horn a couple of more times, and after much head shaking from me, we again came to a stop. This time I put the bike onto the side stand and started to get off the bike, at which point the idiot in the car behind slammed his car into reverse and shot backwards before pulling around me and shooting across the junction against the red light. Boy, did he look worried....he would have laughed if he had seen me without my helmet but at this stage I still had my dark visor down so he could not see what an old man I am, Ha ha.

I made great time to Nurnberg, in fact I got to the hotel 3 hrs before I was allowed to book in. My idea was, book in, get changed into some lighter trousers and a tea shirt and go into town for a look around. Because I could not book in till 5pm I had to go into the city in my bike kit. Although I did manage to put my jacket in a secure bag and lock it to the bike I was still in my motorcycle boots and trousers, and boy, do you get hot walking about when the temperature is 28 degrees.

Jed spotted this cool trike parked up in the square in Nurnberg, I don't know what the engine was but the caravan behind is attached to the trike!! Jed has now decided this is what he wants for all his trips, he says it beats camping hands down and just think of the money saved on hotel bills, he says it is the only way to go. The picture below was taken in the town square, can you see how I have tried to hide the little bit of scaffholding behind a lampost?

On the way back to the hotel I passed a beer keller which is only about a 10 minute walk away, so I think that is where I will end up tonight.

I have about a 200 mile ride tomorrow to Strasbourg, where I will be spending 2 nights. I am booked into a Formule 1 hotel, so will aim to get there at about 5pm, so I can have a little bit of a lie in in the morning as I do not have to rush off.

Turned out nice again

Started out this morning a little damp, but I am used to that on this trip, however by about 11am the sun broke through and the temperature soared, just like yesterday.
I decided today to take a clser look at the Jewish Quarter of the town. This is a previous ghetto but was the jewish quarter for hundreds of years before becomming a ghetto. In fact, Hitler decided that Prague would become the cultural centre of his "empire" and that the Jewish Quarter would be maintained as a museum to an extinct race. Therefore the jewish quarter was saved from destruction. One of the places I wanted to visit was the Old Jewish Cemetary. At one time this was the only piece of land in Prague where Jews could be buried. Realising this, the Jews started to excavate the land and went down some 14 ft. They then started the burials. A coffin was placed, then covered by a very thin layer of soil, in time the next body was palced on top of the first and also covered by a thin layer of soil, and so on over the years. In time the bodies were stacked so deep that they had to import soil from other areas of the city, and so the cemetery rose above ground level. The last burial took place in 1787 but by then some 12,000 tomb stones were in place although the number of bodies buried far exceeds this. A lot of the tombstones have been used on more than one occasion.
Another place visited was the Pinkas Synagogue which contains the names of all the jews from Bohemia and Moravia that were exterminated by the nazis. The names are written in red and black in letters about 2cm high and they cover many square mts of wall, very impressive.
The synagogue also displays an exhibition of childrens drawings, the story being that a certain lady named Friedl Dicker-Brandeis started an illegal art class for the children of a ghetto in Torezin. The idea was to take the minds of the children off the horrors of the ghetto, although a lot of the drawings made by the children do show the horrors.
Friedl got wind that she was to be taken to Auschwitz, and knew that no person ever left the camp, in view of this she gathered 2 suitcases and filled them with as many of the childrens drawings as she could. She then buried the 2 suitcases but left instruction for where they could be found.
Friedl was executed in Auschwitz as she expected.
After the war the cases were recoverd and the pictures now form the display at the synagogue. The names of the children are on the pictures, however the vast percentage of the children who made the pictures were also gassed in the concentration camps. It is a very sad exhibition.

Another place visited today was the John Lennon wall, a wall in a quiet corner of Prague where the youth can express themselves. There are may mentions of the Beatles and more son of john Lennon. It is said that you can add something today but by next week it will more than likely be covered by something else. It is an ever changing display.

Myself and Jed added our names but for some reason the photo stands on its end. I have tried changing it on the computer and a memory stick but it keeps getting entered on here on its side.

We are imortal until someone paints over our bit of wall!!

I also did a bit of tourist tack today in that I visited the Chamber of Torture, an exhibition displaying various forms of torture carried out throughout history by cultures throughout the world, although the majority were medieval. It was over 3 floors and quite a number of rooms, and I must say it was very interesting. There was every torture imaginable and a few that wern't, I just cannot get over just how cruel man can be to his fellow man. It may be tacky but its history.


Finally today, a game for all................Wheres Wally?

Long day walking

As you can imagine for a tourist spot like Prague there are tours of every sort imaginable. Well, after reading loads of stuff from deifferant companies I was still undecided which tour to do today.
In the end I decided to take a tour of the Jewish Quarter, so spoke to the lady who was standing below the Town Hall in order to sign up. She gave me a free DVD with photos of Prague and then directed me to a gent who would actually conduct the tour, telling me to pay him at the end of the tour. Having spoken to him he told me that there was still time to grab a coffee and directed me in the direction of Starbucks. Whilst in Starbucks I picked up a free map of the city, they always come in handy, and on the back of the map was an advert showing free tours, also starting at the Town Hall. Free tours, how does that work then? Well it appears that the tour is free and if you enjoy it you give the guide a tip of whatever amount that you think fair. Well, that was good enough for me, so off I went to join the free tour...that will teach the other bloke to get the money up front.
The "free tour" guide was a young woman named Chrystal, who it turned out comes from Vancouver in Canada, and has only been living in Prague for 8 months, and doing tours for the past 3 months, and boy! was she good at what she does. She was a natural, and her head was packed with facts and figures, but she could put it over very well. Her tour, which lasted 2 1/2 hours was one of the best that I have ever done, and it covered most areas of the old town, including the Jewish quarter. Although it did not include going into any buildings etc, it also gave me an insight of what I needed to look at further.
During the tour she also mentioned that she was doing a further tour in the afternoon of the Castle, however, this tour had a set fee. Well she was so good that about 8 of us signed straight up for that tour as well. The castle tour would last 3 hrs, so that was 5 1/2 hrs walking and the weather was great, a nice sunny 24 degrees. Whilst on the first tour I looked up at one of the buildings on the main square and saw this statue on the top corner. It clearly shows a fireman, with hose in hand, rescuing a woman from the flames and smoke. The building was an office block, and I have no idea of the relevance of the fire fighter. There was also a golden Fire fighters helmet on the pinnacle of the front of the building.

Whilst on the afternoon castle tour we were taken into these very quiet gardens below the castle, this pond was so peacefull and full of loads of fish, and to cap it all, there was hardley anyone about. A lovely place to spend a nice warm afternoon.

There were also peacocks in the grounds of the gardens, this one is an albino, he proves quite an attraction with the few tourists that go into the gardens. There was also an aviary with about 6 Bengal Eagle Owls in it, however, due to the height of the aviery they were not easy to photograph.

This is a view over the city from up in the castle grounds, pretty neat eh.

We were also luck enough to catch the changing of the guard at the castle at 4pm which was also pretty good to watch (and a lot more proffesional than the ones at Stockholm). Note that all the guards are wearing sun glasses! They do one hour stints and have to remain at attention for that hour.

The guards at the back of the castle were in the shade and did not therefore wear sun glasses, Chrystal told us to watch there eyes. It was so funny to see the guards eyes following every female in sight, you can see why they wear sunglasses given the opportunity.

At the end of the 5 1/2 hrs I was tired out, my feet were sore from walking on the cobbles and I was hot and sweaty, so after a quick tea in the old square, I walked the couple of miles back to the hotel to grab a shower and wash my sweaty clothes for another day.

I love Prague.

After the bones it was off to the Hotel Archibald City when I have a reservation for the next 3 nights, as you have already seen, Jed has settled in and was looking forward to his soak in the bath. Leaving Jed to explore the room, and mini-bar I wandered out to have a look at the fair city of Prague.

The hotel looks very nice but is in, what appears, to be a sleazy part of the city, just around the corner are 2 strip joints, (I shan't tell Jed about them) However, once past the strip joints I was almost immediatly in Wenceslas Square, which by the way is an oblong and not a square.This is actually in the new town and has large department stores such as M & S, H & M, C & A and Debenhams, just like any major city in the UK then. Wend your way past these though and you soon find your way into the Old City, and this is a differant kettle of fish all together. Beautiful old buildings in tight streets, performers on every corner and market stalls everywhere.


The Town Hall square is something to see and is dominated by the Town Hall itself with its Astrominical Clock. This clock was ordered by the town fathers in the year 1490, and they were so pleased with it they had the clockmaker stricken blind so that he could not build another like it, nice people to deal with, not.

On the hour the crowds gather below the clock to see it go through its performance. On the hour a skeleton, representing Death, looks down at his time piece and pulls a cord that rings a bell, then in windows above the clock Christ and the apostles appear and a cock crows to announce the end of the proceedings. Then, from the top of the tower, a buglar sounds the time to the city. A real crown pleaser as there is normally a round of applause at the end.

As normal, if there is a tower, I go up it. In this case quite easy, a lift to the 3rd floor and then, believe it or not, no steps. This time there are sloping walkways going around the 4 sides of the tower, and although you still gain the height they are a lot easier than climbing flights of steps.

The picture above was taken from the top of the tower so you can get an image of the height.

This the Castle at Prague (again taken from the tower) and it is in the Guinness Book of Records as being the largest Castle in the world, theres a fact for you.

On the way down from the tower I came across this Japanese couple who were having their wedding photos taken , thats something you don't see every day.

This is the famous Charles Bridge that was built in the mid 14C and still going strong.

Although the photo does not show it, the bridge was packed. There are small stalls on either side of the bridge, and the bridge is lined with statues, it really is lovely.

I love Prague and would put it up there with Tallin as my favourites on this trip. The only down side of Prague is that it is packed, and I mean packed with visitors. However, it is a place that I would love to come to visit again and bring Chris with me.

Can you also note the blue sky, today, the weather was gorgeous.

Those bones, those bones, those old bones

Today I visited somewhere that I first heard about on the Long Way Round and pledged that I would one day visit..........The Church of Bones at Sedlec, Kutna Hora.
According to the records a church and burial ground existed at Sedlec from about the 12th c. In the 13th c, the Abbot visited the holy land and is said to have bought back a handful of soil from the grave of the Lord in Jeusalem, this soil he scattered in the grave yard of the church. The earth in the cemetery therefore became part of the Holy Land and in consequence everyone wished to be buried there. By the year 1318, following an outbreak of the plague, it is recorded that 30,000 people had been buried in the graveyard, with huge numbers following in 1421 after the Hussite wars. This obviously created a huge problem, there was just not enough room. In view of this bones were dug up and graves re-used, the bones being stacked around the outside of the Ossuary, eventually, they were stacked in the lower chamber of the church.
In 1511, a half blind monk started to pile up the bones in pyramids, and this was the start of what we have today, the Ossuary decorated with bones...The Church of Bones. It is believed that the bones from upwards of 40,000 bodies are currently stacked in the church or used in decoration. I is supposed to be good luck to leave money, buying yourway to heaven.

This is just part of one of the 4 huge stacks of bones.

The chandelier is supposed to contain every bone from the human body.

I am afraid that this one got out of order, Jed just could not wait. He is really looking forward to a nice long soak in his own bath tonight. I dare not tell him it is the bidet!

Back to the bones, this is a coat of arms of the Schwarzenbergs, in 1598 Adolf of Schwarzenberg conquered the Hungarian fortress at Raab, reducing the power of the Turks for a long time. In recognition of this achievement Emporer Rudolf II added a severed head of a Turk with its eyes being pecked by a Raven to the coat of arms. This is sean in the bottom right of the coat of arms, the skull is actually that of a defeated Turk! Gruesome eh!

Let it Rock

Well, the weather gods shone on me today, I did not get wet once, in fact, the sun shone and pushed the temperature up to a dizzy 21 degrees, wow!
Where I am staying is about 100 mile north east of Prague, and just south of the Polish border, and the main reason I wanted to come here was because a bloke in a shop in the Lake District told me about some rock formations that are pretty strange.
The rocks are the Adrspach Rocks and they are sandstone that have been carved by the wind and water. In fact they are pretty much the same as some I saw in America on what they call the Needles Highway.
The Adrspach Rocks were known by the locals but were not known to the wider world until 1700, then, following a major fire in 1824, which apparently burnt for weeks, all the trees that had grown on and around the rocks were burnt away, exposing the beauty of the place, and exploration could take place of the labyrinth of passages between the formations.
There is now a 3.5km walk around and through the rocks, and the brochure says the walk should take about 3hrs.
Well I included the 1.5km walk around the lake below, and the whole experience took me 3hrs, still pretty slow progress.The lake really did look tranquil, and the water was so green, it had to be seen to appreciate the colour, the picture does not do it justice. It is in fact a old sand pit and the whole walk is on sand.

This formation is called The Sugar Cone and appears to be standing upside down. It is some 52 mts tall with a top diameter of 13mts but a bottom diameter of only 3mts. The whole block weighs it at about 40,000kg so I would not like to be there when it topples.

In fact, in an effort to stop it falling, people put sticks at its base to support it.

Do you think it will work?

One of the stones has a small plaque on it and a line marked across it. This shows the depth of water following torrential rain back on July 23rd in 1844. Today the stream at the base of this stone was just below the level of the footpath and was perhaps 2 inches deep. Must have been some rain that day.

This rock is called the lovers, and shows a man and a lady kissing. Which do you think is the male, and which the female, the tall thin one or the short fat one........I'm not getting involved in any discussions on this point, I will just throw it out.

Following my bit of exercise, which did, once again, involve lots and lots of steps going up, and very few coming down for some reason, I got back to the bike and just went for a spin with no destination in mind. After riding some great roads, especially the one down from the rocks which was just tight hairpin after tight hairpin, I ended up high up in the mountains surrounded by ski lifts, at what was obviously a winter resort. However, it is also very busy in summer by the looks of it, the town was heaving and the cafes were doing a roaring trade.

All the ski lifts seemed to be open and were taking mountain cyclists and walker up to the higher levels above town.

It was the time for me to use the gps in order to get back to Hostinne, it was at this point that I noticed that the GPS mount has gone very slack and it appears that the rubber mount going into the headstock may have persihed so I had to make some running repairs until I get home and can order a new one. I love cable ties, a superb invention that have got me out of many a sticky situation.

Tomorrow I am off to Prague for 3 nights via the Church of Bones at Kutna Hora, but that can wait till tomorrow.

Observations

First thing that I noticed when I first crossed to Tallinn in Estonia (seems ages ago) and something that I have been meaning to write down for ages is regarding people crossing the road.
Like most places, in the towns and cities they have pedestrian controlled crossing points at traffic controlled junctions, and it appears that no one, and I mean no one crosses the road until the pedestrian lights show green, even when there is no traffic about.
Take yesterday as an example, I arrived at Olomouc in pouring rain, and the first thing I had to do after getting my room was sort out some Czech money. I got changed, and wandered across to the railway station to use the ATM. After getting my cash, I had to cross the road, and then an open square of about 100mts to get back to the hotel steps. At this time it was still raining quite hard, anyhow, I got to the road and the pedestrian lights were showing red and there was a middle aged couple standing waiting to cross. I looked around, and there was no traffic or trolley buses in sight, so I just wandered across. I heard a tut and some comment made behind me but continued across the road, and the open square to the hotel. When I reached the hotel I looked behind and the couple were still standing in the rain waiting for the lights to change, and there was still no traffic. As I looked, the lights did change, and they duly crossed.
I have seen this on numerous occasions and it is certainly not a one off. In Warsaw last week, the roads were closed off for a fashion show, but still people waited for the lights to change...most odd.
A second thing I have noticed on my travels,is that nearly all the petrol stations sell LPG, and a lot of people see to use cars that run on it. How many LPG points are there in the UK, not many!

Anyhow, this morning I caught Jed looking at his badge collection with a rather perplexed look on his face. He knows that he has had flag badges from each country, but he cannot remember which one is from Slovakia. I have not got the heart to tell him that I could not get him a flag badge in Slovakia and he had to make do with a badge from Bojnice instead. I will tell one day, promise. Still a little wet today but it did dry up later, saw this nice view just before I arrived at my digs for the next 2 nights. Thought the church looked nice across the wild meadow. As you can see the mountains in the background are still covered in low cloud.

This is the town hall in Hostinne, it is in the central square and I am staying in a Penzion just off the square. The Penzion I am staying in is a renovated 17 c property and the owner has spent the past 7 yrs converting it into a Penzion. He has done each room in a differant colour and furnished it in a 1960's theme. Now before anyone says anything, I was only 6yrs old at the start of the 60's and only 16 at the end, so I do not remember the swinging 60's OK, I was too young!
The town hall has 2 giants standing either side of the frontage.

Below is a close up of the giants, they are each about 4mts tall and there is apparently a lot of tales about them and they play an important part in the history of the town. Note the little of blue sky!!!

Jed finds himself a 17c hideaway in which to spend the night.

The owner has uncovered a lot of the original features and has made features of them. The Penzion has only been open for business since January this year. I have managed to get B and B for 2 nights for £40.00.

Tomorrow I intend visiting the Adrspach Rocks, about 20 mile from here, they form an impressive rock labyrinth by all accounts, and the only way of seeing them is to take a walk. I just hope that the weather is good tomorrow......will the little tinkers who tied those grey clouds to my bike at the start of the trip PLEASE now undo them, I need to see a bit of dry weather.I am paler now than when I left home.

What a bloody awful day!

Well last nights room at Bojnice left a little to be desired, although brand new. It was a room in a block that had just been built on top of an existing block and it is apparent that it has not quite been finished yet, The main problem being that there were no curtains or blinds over the windows, not really a major problem as the builing is quite high up and there is no way anyone can see into the room, but as daylight starts at about 5am I thought it would be a little bright. Having said all that, it was not so bad and I slept till about 6.30am. I suppose it was no worse than being in the tent really, except I was dry and warm.
Started out today, yet again in light drizzle, for Olomouc, in the Czech republic. Well, it started as light drizzle, but within the hour it was getting decidingly wet. After about one and a half hours my sense of humour was going very quickly. I seem to have a problem with the visor on my helmet, in that it does not shed the water, it just seems to sit as a smear across the visor no matter how much I wipe it. In fact the rain had got so heavy and the visor so bad that it was dangerous for me to continue, I could barely make out the shapes of cars in front of me...it really was that bad. I fact I decided that I could not continue at all as the rain was sheeting down so I managed to pull onto a garage forecourt to wait out the very heavy rain.
By now I was into the Czech republic, and you can probally guess, I had none of the local currency, so I could not even buy a hot chocolate to warm up, the temperature by the way was a chilly 12 degrees, what have I got to do to get a little warm weather?
All I could do was break out my emergency can of Red Bull and wait for the worse of the rain to pass.
Pass it eventually did, so off goes I again, following the directions of the GPS. Turn left in 250mts, which I do onto a new road, recalculating she says for the next 14km until I could turn off....I must update my mapping.
Eventually I reach my hotel for the night, and I can see why its only cost about £22.00, its as if I have moved back into the days when communists ran Czechoslavakia. The room has 2 single beds and a double put-u-up plus ancient cheap wooden furniture, and would you believe, a wash basin in the bathroom that overhangs the bath/shower! A very strange set up.....but at least it is dry and warm, and its only for one night as tomorrow I move on to a Penzion in Hostinne, north of Prague for 2 nights.
I just hope that it is dry tonmorrow....please!!!!
I have, for the first time, turned to the West, so I feel that I am on my way home now. Chris, you have less than 2 weeks of peace and quiet left so prepare yourself.
To cap it all, my phone, although set to auto search, cannot find a phone line provider, so for the 1st time I am out of contact.
You will notice that there are no photos today, the reason being, nothing worth photographing..sorry, I hope for better tomorrow.

Puss in Boots!!

Moody picture taken this morning on the road to Bojnice, as you can see, still no blue sky!! Up and out in waterproofs again this morning after another good breakfast. It was only mizzling for the first few kms and then stopped, however, there was still quite a bit of spray about until the roads eventually dried.
Whilst on a section of motorway I saw a warning sign for otters, now there is a new one for me, have seen warnings for moose, deer and cattle and now otter, wander how big they must be to warn you about them?

Had to stop for a quick confort break so thought it was about time you saw blackie all loaded up for the journey. The panniers are in fact about half empty, the roll on the back is my camping gear, and in the tankbag, things I might need like GPS, camera and locks.

Arrived at the town of Bojnice, where I am staying tonight, it had been recommended that I also take in the fairy tale castle in the town, I could have picked a better day I can tell you.

When I arrived at the castle there was quite a long queue, mainly families with young children, I wandered up to the front of the queue and the only sign I understood was one saying that no information in the castle was in English, thats a great help then. Due to the queue I assumed that it was like the castle in Krakow, where they only allow so many through at a time, to me this made sense as about every half hour another batch were admitted.

As I got near to the front I clocked a picture of Puss in Boots on a small poster together with todays and tomorrows dates, and as I eventually paid to get in I found that the play Puss in Boots was being put on today and tomorrow for the kids. All OK except that the play is performed in sequence in the rooms throughout the castle and on the route that I needed to take in order to see the castle, that meant that I had to watch the play as well.
The reason that they were only letting so many through at a time is that there were 4 performances of the play all going on at the same time, so that when one group has seen a scene and move on another group come in behind and see the same scene but with differant players.

Well, from what I could understand, the play was performed very well, the only downside for me was that obviously it was all in Slovakian and I understood not one word. The kids all seemed to enjoy it though.

From what I saw of the castle, it was very impressive, however I think that I would have rather seen without Puss in Boots, or is that me being fussy.

Just for a change, here is a view from my guest house room for tonight, at least I can see the mountains tonight, the last place they were covered in mist all the time.

Tomorrow I head for Olomouc in the Czech republic, I have just managed to book a hotel room for tomorrow night for £23.00 inc breakfast. I can only imagine what it will be for that, but as camping would cost me £12.00, who cares.

The view form the top of the climb near to the enterance to the Ice Cave, yes, that is mist rolling down the right hand hill. This is looking the other way, the Penzion that I am staying in is in the village in the cleft between the trees top right.

" There be Dragons", near to the enterance to the cave, the first people to enter the cave complex found several bones, they thought they came from dragons, however it was later found that they were ice bear bones.

Ice structures in the ice cave, spectacular, and cold!

Another view from inside the ice cave. I think a better image.

View inside the second cave complex.

Structure from the second cave.

Doesn't it remind you of ear wax, or is it just me????