Jon's adventure blog: Our Last Day Together in Prague

Toni

Hi again! Well, this is our last day together in Prague and it feels very strange indeed! We got up (late!) this morning and had a leisurely breakfast. That was odd in itself because we had no running around to do - no packing up the panniers and running around the room to find where Jon had flung everything the night before, trying to make sure we hadn't left anything behind!!
So here it was, a whole day stretched out before us without a specific plan of action. Consequently today has felt weird! We had a few things we had thought about doing, such as a couple of tiny (sorry!!) gifts that I could manage to fit in my hand-luggage. Then Jon wanted to go and see the Prague Communist Museum. That was quite incredible. We were both still amazed that again we had glimpsed a life situation so far removed from our experiences that actually happened within our life time.

I am sitting here (with a beer, of course!) and writing this blog and although this seems perfectly natural to me now, we have begun to appreciate how very lucky we have been to undertake this trip. Compared to other travel stories that you may read about, this has been quite a small adventure to some, but for us it has been quite a big thing. Although we have had a plan of where we wanted to go and what we wanted to see, we have also had the freedom to choose and change the plans as we saw fit. For the most part, we have started the day with an idea of where we were going, but never been certain where we will end up and how it will work out! That has been the greatest and most fabulous part of this journey.

I have thoroughly enjoyed this adventure, and I am sure that it will only lead to even bigger and better ones!! It has helped to have shared this with Jon, someone who is so laid back even when things get a little 'stressy' for me!! We have shared the experience of the journey together and I think we have both got so much out of it.

So, goodbye from me from 'Praha', and hope to see you all soon!! xxx

P.S Have a look at the following picture - I too can do an Iron- Butt!!! (1781 km.... !!!!)

Jon

The bike is parked about 3 meters from the entrance to the hotel. This is always one of my pre-occupations... where will be be able to leave the bike? But it generally seems to pan out ok - we haven't managed to drive it into the foyer of a hotel (yet) but we've come pretty close.

I've started reading a book on the history of the Gulag camps (Gulag, a History by Anne Applebaum) which won the Pulitzer prize in 2004 - already the introduction fills me with sadness. As Toni mentioned, we went to the Communist Museum in the centre a couple of hours ago and this also made me sad. I sat there wondering what I would have done if I'd found myself in Wenceslas square as the tanks and troops rolled in. I'd like to think that I'd have got out my camera and tried to document it... perhaps too passive a role, or perhaps too brave given the conditions. In my lifetime, in my country, I've never come close to anything like that - perhaps I never will...?

Tomorrow I'm going to drive to Amsterdam - this will be interesting for two reasons. First, it's around 900km (around 560 miles), and secondly I haven't found digs yet. On their own neither is a problem - but put together it will be another challenge as I'll be quite tired and shaky by the time I get there. (I sometimes get shaky after a long haul on the bike, probably due to the road/engine vibration, noise and fatigue). But then I'll give myself a day off on Saturday and hit the road for the return journey to Droitwich (another 750km, or 470 miles). The ferry will make a welcome break.

I think this trip has shown us both that we can be as resourceful as we want. The idea of just turning up in a foreign town (and country) without accommodation or local knowledge holds no fear for us (not that it really did, but it's easy to say something will be easy without having actually done it). Language barriers can be broken down with a smile and ample use of mime. For example, asking an Austrian shop keeper if he had any Austrian country stickers for my pannier involved me saying... "Haben Sie eine Schticker fur meine Motorrad mit Osteriech?" and miming the act of peeling back a sticker and placing it on my helmet, then trying to mime that it's not for my helmet but for my bike. After a couple of seconds he said, "Ja, hier, I think this is vot you are looking vor." As usual, even the people that haven't formally learnt English still speak it. It makes the English foreign language education policy look especially embarrassing.

So that's all for the joint trip folks... hopefully I'll post something tomorrow or on Saturday, and then a final entry on Sunday when I return to bonnie England.

Thanks for reading, take it easy,
Jon & Toni.

PS.. here's a couple of piccies from today...

Street life in Prague: