October 4th
October 4th, 2006 at 9:20am
| Woke up and got into the lovely Chevy Nabira and headed off towards Prague. There was still a little drizzle from overnight so we decided to keep going instead of doing much in Salzburg, which was really just a half way point for our trip from Venice to Prague.
We got to the Czech Republic border, all the cars with Czech or German number plates were passed thru but our box of shite was registered in France so we were stopped by this nice blonde border guard with a pistol on hip. She checked our passports and stamped them.. then there was a problem she kept pointing to the car.. A few hours earlier we saw a Hertz note saying what countries we were able to drive in (which contradicted the website) and thought for a moment we were not able to take the car in, but all it was was we needed to turn our lights on (in broad daylight).
Lunch was the next point of call so we called into the border service station and got a sandwich an drink, the girl forgot to charge us for most of it so there was a bit of confusion, but got sorted. |
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The roads got bad very fast, no more beautiful flat motorways and tunnels it was all bumpy country roads with pot holes and speed limits from 80 – 40, it was a very slow trip. Very few places to pass and quite a few trucks and farm machinery we even saw a semi trailer which had just rolled over around one of the bends. About an hour into the trip there was a police car on the side of the road, one police man was on the left videoing cars for some reason, the other was munching on his lunch and the other one in the middle of the road and pulls us over. He kept pointing to the car and yabbering, he was as confused as us. We got out of the car to see what he was on about and it was the lights, we turnt them off then back on again and he was happy, still have no idea what he was on about. Czechs must drive all day with lights on. We got it sorted and happily went on our way. |
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| We got into Prague about 3:30, the girl on the sat nav did her first stuff up and sent us to the wrong street, we did a bit of searching and from the other small map we had worked out where we needed to be. It turns out the hotels address is listed as a small street of their own instead of the major road it is next to, this small street was not in the sat nav database. Our hotel is a Botel, its a hotel which is basically a boat. We think once their boats become unseaworthy they turn them into hotels and leave them listing on the side of the river. It’s a bit primitive but its a boat which is a bit of fun. We didn’t have any Czech money so went for a walk into town and found an ATM the biggest amount we could take out was 2000 K which ended up being only $125 AU.. We had a look around the old town which is amazing, with statues and artwork and even a McDonalds arch in the middle of the world heritage listed precinct. they don’t miss a trick. The area is old and pretty beautiful but very tourist based and commercialised. |
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| We went and got a few beers and they cost 45k each they were 500ml we worked out that was about $1.70 a pot half the price of home. A bit more walking around taking some flash night shots then we found a Czech bar/restaurant and had a feed and a few beers the whole bill came to $35 Australian which was great value. It was then back to the Botel via trolley tram for some sleep. |
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