Bohemia – Page 2 – My even older Holiday Weblog

Prague at last – Bohemia #3

Day 3 – (Day 2 part c)

… and so, we said stuff it to Pilzen and headed straight through to Prague, where it was hoped we could get a hotel first thing in the morning, and sleep then …

By the time we arrived in Prague, it was about 03:30am/04:00am and we were done in. Stephen had been driving this leg and I took over as we reached the city centre. I was driving around Prague, that Wednesday morning, with no other traffic visible, no trouble with pedestrians launching themselves into the road and none of the very bust trams attacking me at any time. I drove around and around, getting a feel for the place but finding no hotels. We decided to drive back up the way we came in as we had seen a lot of roadside hotel booking agents back there. We thought we could sleep in one of their car parks and wait there until they opened in the morning.

But I got lost. I couldn’t find the road we had come in on.

We were eventually given a police escort back to the Pilzen road, after being stopped from trying to drive along some tram lines, which I hadn’t realised were for trams only. They had mostly been shared with general traffic. Whoops. The police men in the police car had obviously seen me looking either lost, stupid or drunk and decided to pull me over. Ben, our most fluent German speaker and I went to meet the policemen, we even tried French, but they only spoke Czech. We managed to convey the fact that we were lost and were trying to find the Pilzen road. I think that he tried to tell us, but saw only blank looks – so he motioned us to follow him in the car. Which we did. On the way, we passed a beautiful church, which we never found again, despite trying.

We tried a hotel up the road, that looked expensive and wondered if maybe this too would be closed up for the night. But we looked through the window and saw a receptionist playing pool. We attracted his attention and found us a room for three people at what turned out to be a very reasonable £62.00 for three nights. Bargain. It was basic, but reasonably comfortable and anyway, who at that time of night (it was already light by now) could be choosy? The room had three bench-type beds with reasonably comfortable mattresses and ‘too warm’ quilts. It was en-suite and breakfast was included. We missed the first day’s breakfast but the next two day’s fayre was interesting (which I will come to in the next post – the real day 3).

Through the night – Bohemia #2

Day 2 – part b

… We were looking forward to getting into Czech itself and finding a small hotel on the road, or at worst in Pilzen, and having an evening meal. By now it was about 20:00pm continued …

The traffic that had stopped in front of us was obviously waiting for the border crossing somewhere up ahead. This was the first for us today as all the other borders have now come down, we didn’t have to stop at all¹. We edged forward, on and off for about an hour and then stopped completely for another two hours. That was THREE HOURS in total before we saw the border post, which by now was the only light in the darkened night sky. At 20:00pm the prospect of getting a hotel was reasonable, even (we thought) in a relatively backward (tas it was then) country like the Czech Republic. But, as it approached midnight that prospect was bleak. When we got through the German side of the border, we drove for about half a mile towards the Czech side and then stopped just after their border post to get some money changed. We also had to buy a permit to drive on their roads – the whole place looked dingy, dismal and unwelcoming in the dark – and it was still wet and drizzly.

Nevertheless, the road was now clear on our side, but long lines of trucks bordered the oncoming lanes. We drove for about 3-4 miles before coming to a standstill once more – in the pitch-blackness of Czech woodlands. The problem was that because of the trucks taking up space at the other side of the road, the oncoming traffic couldn’t overtake (because of the stream of stream of traffic we Screenshot 2019-06-21 at 16.02.55 were in, heading IN to Czech). Eventually, the Frenchman in front of us took his torch and walking stick and sorted the whole thing out. We had been here about an hour. The lorries eventually petered out after about six more miles. But, even then, we still passed other long lines of wagons parked up and down the roadside – even as far as Pilzen.

The first shop we saw in Czech was a large roadside shack selling GARDEN GNOMES and cheap vodka. And, I mean lots of garishly coloured gnomes. Even those shops that were closed had gnomes outside; all chained up and placed in cages! There were lots of ‘Non-Stop’ cafes and bars, we even stopped at a couple to try for rooms, but there were none to be had. The frightening thing though, was that wherever we saw a ‘Non-Stop’ sign, we also saw ‘Sexy Girl’ or ‘Fun Palace’ signs as well. It seems that one of the major Czech industries is to sell sex, gnomes and cheap vodka to the Germans, who apparently (a guy in Prague told us this later) come over in their droves for one or more (in whatever combination?).

Petrol was now our major concern and we debated whether or not to go on until morning, when there was more chance of a petrol station being open (seeing one at all would be a change!). We were tired and very low on juice, perhaps enough to reach Pilzen if we could keep moving but experience showed that this might not be possible. Just as we thought that we might have to pull over and sleep in the car, we came across a petrol station with a couple of hotels alongside. I filled up the tank while Stephen and Ben checked out the hotels. They were both full but so at least, was the tank – so we said stuff it to Pilzen and headed straight through to Prague, where it was hoped we could get a hotel first thing in the morning, and sleep then.

Day 2 continues into day 3 in the next post.

1 – These were the early days of Schengen – https://www.acs-ami.com/en/travel-articles/schengen-agreement/ .

Czech with Mates – Bohemia #1

Day 1

We set off from Mirfield in indifferent weather, about 15:30pm on Monday 17^th July. Despite taking the scenic route through Flockton, we made good time towards the M25, despite being held up by a large load on the M1. We were then held up on the M25 by slow-moving commuter traffic, about 19:30pm. This mean that our arrival in Folkestone was a little delayed but we were still very much on time to catch the 23:00pm¹ Shuttle. As it happens, we were able to board one earlier at 22:00pm and had a smooth run through to France. Even so, by this time, we were knackered and decided to get booked into a Formula 1 for the night. The one in Calais was booked up, the next one, in Dunkirk took some finding and when we got there, that too was booked up. However, we were advised that there were spaces in the second Dunkirk hotel, in Saint Pol sur Mer, just up the road. We drove around the deserted streets for almost an hour trying to find this bugger and when we did, found it to be beside one of the major routes north to Belgium – not the one we had taken².

Day 2 – part a

After the night here in Dunkirk, we set off for the Czech Republic.

We drove up through the rest of France and then through boring Belgium, through the small finger of Holland that juts between Germany and Belgium, and then into Germany. Lunch was by a service station in the finger of Holland. Lunch didn’t include a boiled egg as they had been overcooked by Stephen. He just laughed. We passed under the giant Dortmund-Essen conurbation, and passing Cologne Cathedral on our left. We carried on down past Frankfurt and underneath the planes that were constantly landing there (we got some good shots of undercarriage through the sun roof). We drove through Nuremberg and on towards the border at Weiden. The countryside here is beautiful and despite the rain, we have had excellent views since Nuremberg. Wooded mountains faced us as we drove up and in the direction of Czech and the rain was drying up. We were looking forward to getting into Czech itself and finding a small hotel on the road, or at worst in Pilsen, and having an evening meal. By now it was about 20:00pm.

That didn’t happen. See next post (Day 2 – part b)

1 – Given that ‘Day 1’ included a trip through the channel tunnel, which only opened to the public in December 1994, I guess that ‘our’ trip may well have been 1995. It certainly wasn’t later than this. I do remember having been through the tunnel before ‘our’ trip.

2 – This entire journey turned out to be an example of what we miss when we have SatNavs – which were unthought of back in 1995!