Road trip

Saturday, 14 July 2007

The European road trip has started.  After a scary start, picking up a Ford Transit van in Prague on my own and driving it back to where I was staying, then collecting Alex from the airport, the real travelling started.

The internet said 650 km Prague to Warsaw and 10 hours.  Of course we knew better.  It couldn't possibly take that long.  Probably about 7 hours with a couple of stops.  Ha!  It was a 13 hour epic through wonderful, windy mountain roads, horribly slow road works, rutted, rainy, scary highways and finally the streets of Warsaw.  When we finally arrrived at our new 'home' it was wonderful to find our smiling host Ludomir and he show us the final few hundred metres to home.

One of the highlights of the trip was going through the beautiful village of Sklarska Poreba, the scene of the 2003 Polish World Cup MBO race.  This was a very nostalgic visit for Alex and I.  And still being the first 3 hours of the trip we were still optimistic of being in Warsaw by dinner time.  And of course we met our old friends Zywiec and Warka (strong).

Another perculiarity was Wroclaw.  Seemingly the tombstone capital of the world.  We counted 13 yards selling grave stones and crypts along the road south of Wroclaw.

Tomorrow is training on the 2006 European Champs area, just east of Warsaw, which is a superb area for MBO.  Loads of fun tracks in another beautiful Polish forest.