The 'farewell' meal, Budapest. Saw Dave off in taxi morning of 9th and wished him a good Rally. Rob and Andrea headed west towards Austria and I headed north to Slovakia. The ride out of Hungary was good through farmlands and forests. Truely beautiful. It got hillier the closer I got to the border. and with that...cooler.. colder and then the rain set in! I was still wearing the same riding gear as Syria.
The houses in northern Slovakia were a mix of fairly new and some great older timber houses, almost log cabin, but square section timbers. People still working the fields as they've done for ages.... lots of back-bending hand work.
Crossed into Poland with no checks, the EU working well. If only the buggers would all use euros, it would have made the whole ride much less of a strain. Notes are easy to shed as you leave a country, fill the petrol tank. But coins are starting to mount up in the back pack.
The Poles now hold the prize for bad roadwork practice. 100 km from the border to Kracow was partially dug up, either one side of the road or the other. A bit like Albania, they decide to do the whole length, not just finish a piece at a time. 100km took almost 3 hours and by the time I rode into Kracow I was wanting a shower and bed. Couldn't find a pension\hotel with secure parking for the bike, so at about 6:30 set out riding west into the darkness.
Finally got to Kapowice (?) which looked very dodgy (or at least the part of town I stumbled into), with sleezy bars and people weighing up the bike for a quick sale, so I headed to the outskirts where I stayed at another Russian inspired office block which pretended it was a hotel. But at least it was clean and the bike off the street and being watched all night by Doris! Walked into the darkness and found a pub and had a beer and bratwurst... simple food, but just right for the time.
After ham and eggs for breakfast I was on the road to Prague. Freeway most of the way, but not before the Poles played at being roadworkers again. Along the road were many historic sites to visit (if you had the time), most appeared to be old coal mines. Every now and then I would see a beautiful castle on some craggy clifftop, real fairytale stuff.
No one at the border into Czech Republic so in I went and continued to Prague. Like most of our entries, I headed straight for the centre of town. There's always a sign to "centrum". I finally came to a hotel that didn't look too expensive (the main criteria) and had off-street parking. It was only 2 metro stops from the Charles Bridge and 66 dollars per night.... result!
A walk around to check things out, some dinner and a beer and the day was done. ATM ate my card!
Friday,
Did some overdue work on the bike. Its fine, but trim and stuff is showing wear and tear ( or is it tare?). Its going to need a big cleanup before it goes on eBay. Spoke to folk at bank. Seems that they'll send my card home. Luckily I have have a back-up card.
Went for a huge walk through the old quarters and up to the castle, supposedly the largest castle complex in the world.... I tend to believe them. Unbelievable. do a Google. I'm now typing this and then I'll slowly head back to the hotel, fold the washing that I washed in the shower this morning and pack to be ready to leave in the morning and head into Germany.
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