A Date with Duncan & Sylvia

We got up early on Monday and packed our kit into the pannier bags and then into the boxes to put on the bike. I have to say Ann has this so well organised, she can tell if there is something missing, or if something’s not in the right place by the ease or difficulty of putting the bags into the pannier boxes, she really has it down to a very fine art. Over a good breakfast we booked our accommodation in Prague, three nights at the Hotel Arlington, (it sounded much better than it turned out to be!). The weather was much cooler, down to a mere 23 degrees, and windy with it. We’d had a heck of a storm overnight, seriously heavy rain with lots of thunder and lightning, it must have been bad, as it woke us up!


Art Nouveau Municipal House - Concert Hall

We left for Prague at 10.30am, 130 miles to the north west along the main arterial route. It was very windy especially in the outside lane of the motorway and at times quite scary, we were buffeted all over the shop particularly when passing the heavy wagons. We arrived into Prague at about14.00hrs, after, what we’ve come to call a ‘Bum’stop off (cos our bums start to go numb). After yet another few little detours with the Satnav we located our Hotel - not great, but very welcoming. We done a reconnoitre of the area and discovered we were about three miles (ten minutes by bike) from the city centre, literally around the corner was Prague’s O2 Arena, ideal for gigs, but sadly no big bands playing whilst we were there. It seemed the whole area where we were staying, was being regenerated, on the ‘up n up’ but required more time. We ate dinner in the Hotel (as we had not obtained any currency – their currency is the Koruna; about 23 koruna to the euro ). Our dinner was interesting, served with a smile, a bit like Faulty Towers, after which we retired early to do some blogging and catching up..


View of Old Town Square, Old Town hall and
Astronomical Clock on left, Church of Our Lady
 Before Tyn, with twin towers.


We got up early on Tuesday morning, had breakfast and set off to explore Prague the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic, which is situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, and is home to about 1.3 million people. Prague has a number of famous cultural attractions, many of them survived the violence and destruction of twentieth century Europe. The main attractions include; Prague Castle, the Charles Bridge, Old Town Square, the Jewish Quarter, the Lennon Wall, and Petřín hill (small Eiffel tower and parks area). Since 1992, the extensive historic centre of Prague has been included in the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites.



Rudolfinum Originally housed The National Assembly
Now the home of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra

 Like Vienna, there were many wonderful buildings and plenty of historic places to visit, but unlike Vienna, Prague was somewhat chaotic for the tourist. All the wonderful brown historic signage was in place but unfortunately there were no follow up signs, so you’d seemingly start off in the right direction, but then 200metres or so, and around two or three corners - no more signage. It was quite funny, everywhere you looked, there were people wondering around with their faces, either buried in a street map, or screwed up looking for the invisible signs!! We spent an enjoyable day in temperatures exceeding 30 degrees, discovering the wonderful sites including the Charles Bridge, spanning the river Vltava on stone piers with its sculptures and statues of the saints spread over the 515m length of the bridge, and fortified with towers at each end, it is the oldest bridge in Prague dating back to the 12th century.


View of Prague from Strahov Monastery.

  Late afternoon we visited the Strahov Monastery on Petrin Hill, a beautiful Baroque building dating back to 1140, we even managed to catch Mass in the Church of The Assumption, attached to the Jesuit monastery.The view from the Monastery, looking down across the city in the glorious evening sunshine, was absolutely stunning - I had to pinch myself again. We crossed back over the river and found our way to Old Town Square, the most significant square of historical Prague, surrounded by many important historical buildings. It was probably around 20.00 hrs and we discovered a jazz festival was about to kick off. A large covered stage had been erected in the centre of the square with a big screen to enable all to see and hear the musicians. We stayed for a couple of hours and enjoyed the jazz session, we eventually left to find our trusty steed and return to the hotel, after a long and exhausting day.



The magnificent National Museum,
 the largest & Oldest Czech Museum



A view of the River Vltava looking back from the castle

 Wednesday 13th July: We woke up feeling refreshed and ready to do some more sight seeing. The temperature was in the early 30’s and we had decided to do a guided walking tour of the old City to find out some of the history. We enjoyed the two hour tour, the guide spoke good English and was very informative, giving us facts and information you would never discover on your own. We spent the rest of the day using the by now, voluminous accumulation of maps and flyers acquired from the TI and elsewhere, to continue our sight seeing. We ate at a local restaurant and finished the evening back at the main square to enjoy an hour or so of jazz before riding off into the sunset back to the hotel. In reality, it started to look very overcast, we left the square and just made it back to the hotel before the heavens opened and the almightiest of storms broke out and lasted most of the night.

We didn’t sleep very well that night, probably due to the storm, however, by 10am next morning 14th July, we’d packed our kit and were ready to leave. I have to say we were not sorry to leave the Arlington hotel, it wasn’t one of our better choices, just another link in the chain of our incredible adventure. Unfortunately, in our rush to leave the hotel, we forgot to deposit the room key back at reception, Ann found it later when we arrived in Krakow in Poland.

The moral dilemma; should we post it back or just dispose of it ?

Yes, Poland, our next destination, country number 14 and a staggering 8000+ miles covered on our bike!!!! (another pinch of the skin).

It’s difficult and probably unfair to draw any firm conclusions from the short time we spent in the Czech Republic. The country is experiencing considerable change after the old communist regime, the people are very stand offish and reluctant to speak to you, I suspect mindful of the past when 1 in 6 of the population was employed by the secret police. It will take two or maybe three generations to relinquish the inherent reticence to converse outside of immediate family members, but I am sure, just like the butterfly emerging from its chrysalis, so too, will the people of the Czech Republic.



'A Date With Duncan'  Rob, Bev,The Groom & Us

 Some of you may know we were invited to attend the wedding of Duncan Thorpe, to his fiancée Sylvia, in Kielce, Poland on 16th July 2011. Duncan is our Godson, and son of long term friend Bev, whom we’ve known for over thirty chuffin years – Kielce was always on our horizon and, in Krakow, we were only 75 miles away with a day in hand. We were really looking forward to the wedding and seeing some familiar faces from back home. We’d been told of the Polish hospitality and their wedding traditions, and we were certainly not disappointed. Poland has its own currency the Zloty, approx 4zloty to the euro.



Krakow was over 300 miles from Prague, directly east as the crow flies, the temperature was up around 27 degrees and warm. Along the way we travelled through a couple of heavy showers, fortunately not prolonged, so by the time we reached Krakow early in the evening, our kit was dry. We found our accommodation with the help of the satnav, a big one bedroom apartment with a kitchen; a really nice place with a lovely and very helpful woman owner. We found a big supermarket and got in some supplies, including beer and wine. Ann made us a superb chicken curry, which we washed down with the vitamen B, we done some catching up on the computer and checked out the tourist sights in the old town of Krakow and Wieliczka, (a salt mine, just outside Krakow) both of which we planned to visit next day.


An Incredible Church carved out of the rock salt,
by the miners deep underground

The weather, next morning played its part in deciding our agenda for the day. Alas it was raining, so the underground salt mine was an easy choice, after which, we would take off up to Kielce, to meet up with Bev, husband Rob (BallingerBob), Duncan and Sylvia and the other guests at the hotel venue for a pre-wedding dinner. We decided we would return back to Krakow after the wedding, to complete our visit of the old city, and to include Auschwitz concentration camp, 45 miles due west of the City.


'Skeletor' Ann, 64m below the surface
about to enter the mine

 The salt mine at Wieliczka, was indeed very interesting and you do get to experience what conditions might have been like for the miners. The mine is over 900 years old and mining has been continuous right up to early 2000, there are in total over 300 km of mine reaching a depth of 327m . Though it is no longer operational today, the salt mine has been made into a fantastic tourist attraction, the 3.5 km walk through the mine takes over 3 hours, during which time you get to see some fantastic sculptures and other impressive structures including an underground chapel, cut in the rocksalt by the miners. There is even a statue of Pope John Paul 11, who visited the mine on two occasions before he became Pope. He was due to visit the mine on a third occasion as Pope, but unfortunately it was cancelled due to ill health.

When we eventually ascended out of the mine at 17.00 hrs, via a swift lift (for which we waited 1.25 hrs), we were greeted with heavy rain. We made our way slowly out of a very congested Krakow heading north to Kielce, the 75 mile journey took us 2.5hrs. We travelled along some of the worse roads we’ve experienced since our adventure began almost 6 months ago (I’ve just pinched myself again), some of the Polish roads can only be described at best as farm tracks, a patchwork of tarmac. But, to be fair I’m pleased to say there is a big push by the incumbent government to radically improve their infrastructure – the sooner the better!


Don't they all SCRUB UP well!!

 We finally made it into Kielce and the Hotel Lesny Dwor. We were greeted with hugs and kisses from Bev and Rob (before we could even get our helmets off), what a greeting, we felt at home straight away. We quickly showered and changed and joined the rest of the guests in the dining room where we spent the rest of the evening, eating, drinking, chatting and eventually singing, till it was time to hit the sack. We had us some great craic that evening, some good memories – Rob stripping off his shirt and bursting into song, quickly followed by Paul ‘the quiet one’, doing likewise, sporting a mass of hair (like the proverbial gorilla but not quite so ugly) and about to derobe his trousers, only to be prevented by spoilsport Birthday gal Christine (she who must be obeyed -Wife).


Duncan & Bro Greig- Best Man!!

There were, no doubt, some sore heads the next morning, possibly even a few that suffered the effects of vodka poisoning – lightweights..... 1st casualty was big brother and Best Man Greig hehehehehe. Throughout all this merriment, Duncan and Sylvia remained, at least outwardly, cool, calm, collected and seemingly in control?????? Having said that, we did go up to Duncans room on our way to bed, it seemed the world and his wife were in there or out on his balcony still knocking back the Vodka, Duncan meanwhile was trying to memorise his words for the Church wedding service the following day!!



The Beautiful Bride Sylvia, Bridesmaid, Best Man & Groom


Saturday 16th July, at long last the big day has finally arrived. The wedding service was scheduled to start at 5pm, which gave plenty of time, for those who needed it, to recover. At 3.30pm we had changed into our wedding garb (the first time we’d donned proper clothing in many months), for which we thank Bev and Rob for lugging our stuff over on the plane with their own. As Godparents we had been invited to the home of the bride to witness the traditional Polish blessing of the Bride and groom, and all the other associated wedding traditions – one of which was to offer bottles of Vodka to the father of the bride in exchange for the hand of his daughter (A chuffin bribe if ever I’ve seen one). Sylvia looked stunning in her wedding dress and Duncan too, in his wedding suit looked a very smart and handsome groom, we felt privileged to be a part of this intimate and very personal family experience.


Party Time - High Octane Vodka!!

 After the wedding service it was back to the hotel where the reception took place over the course of 12 hrs till 07.00 the following morning. It was a reception to remember, (that is if you were capable the next day), the food was delicious and plentiful, the vodka was high octane and plentiful, and the music, merriment and dancing continued unceasing til the early hours, a truly extraordinary day!! But we were only half way through..... OMG, At 3pm Sunday afternoon it started all over again, another 12 hrs of VODKA and partying!!!





'Keep up Duncan'
Duncan got behind with the vodka shots




Soooooo it continueeeed, Sundray, regovery till 3pm, undooo the shtops on the vodjkaaa bokkles, eat yur phill, prarty and blitz til shensless, grayzzing as you go. Annnnuther fantashtic day, carried out shelflesslhy by all asshembled gusts, in the caush of Duncan an Sylvias shelebraishun hic,hic hic!!





 
Before we knew it, Monday arrived and with it the realisation, the wedding was really over, it was time to move on, back on our trusty steed heading south to Krakow. We said our goodbyes and wished Duncan and Sylvia many happy and loving years together. Once again we set out on the road, with each other for company, and lots of great memories accumulated over the course of the weekend, for us to chat about over a glass of wine.



Till the next blog....

Luv, hugs and kisses to all back home. The easy Riders xxxx
Ps The moral dilemma ? – We posted the key back to the hotel