September 26: epilogue

Distance traveled: 8,399.4 km

Maximum speed: 825 kph

Temperature range: -56 - +17 degrees    

Had a good breakfast at the Hotel Clement in Prague to get us on our way and we were down in front of the hotel at 8:30 am to collect our ride to the airport. It is interesting, when Michaela at the motorcycle store ordered me an Uber to get back to the hotel, a Bolt (competitor?) car picked me up. When I ordered a Bolt for a ride to the airport, a taxi picked us up. I think all independent drivers will have accounts with any ride service and even the taxi companies. 

Our trip home, with two stops, one in Frankenfurt and one in Calgary were largely uneventful. The

Frankfurt must be the 747 capital of the world as there were dozens.

flight out of Frankfurt was delayed by a half hour but it had no impact on our connection because we had a couple of hours. I enjoyed flying over Iceland and Greenland because it was a reasonably clear day so I had a bit of a look at both countries, albeit briefly and from afar. It at least gave me an opportunity to post some pictures on this final entry to the Euroblog. 

Some shots of Iceland.

From this perspective, it is difficult to estimate the height of the plateau but it provided an interesting perspective. The lighting was good for it.

A causeway connecting lonely roads on the Icelandic coast. There was not too much
 green out there but we could see the occasional square.

I really liked this shot because you can see a fishing village, an airport runway and a fish farm. Sadly, I mean "you" euphemistically. On the original, zooming in they are there.

Greenland mountains.

Pretty good sized iceberg off the Greenland coast. There were many.

We were picked up from the airport by my good friend Daryl, an old high school buddy. He and his wife are visiting from Toronto and are hosting some friends of theirs from New Zealand... in our house. Since they had already been staying there, they all knew their way around so Nan and I didn't have to do anything, which was good because we were pretty much pooched. Arriving home at 8:00 pm local time was 5:00 am Prague time, so we were pretty tired. It had been a long time since we had stayed up that late, and we weren't even partying!

It was a memorable trip for us, and we had fun traveling with friends for a bit and having a combination bicycle-motorcycle trip. The Czech Republic was quite affordable whereas Germany was a whole order of magnitude more expensive. Both have merits and I am pretty sure we won't wait 42 years for the next visit to Europe. I loved riding the European little back roads. Nan loved the scenery best. And we both loved having fresh, baked bread virtually every day. Oh, and of course, it was amazing being in amongst all that 1,000 year old history, to walk on the roads, in the buildings and to be able to touch that workmanship from all those centuries ago. I realize that many readers of the blog will have done all of this and likely a lot more recently than us but it was really inspiring.

Thanks for following along with us. Not sure we actually got too much kulture but we had fun in the attempt.

September 24: Praha. Check out that RAK!

Distance traveled: 9.8 km

Cumulative distance: 1240.0 km

Maximum speed: 124 kph

Temperature range: 19 - 24 degrees.

Our last full day in Europe, our last day in Prague, we had a leisurely, almost lazy morning.  Down for breakfast - and our hotel , the Clement - has one of the better breakfasts we have enjoyed here in Europe. You may know that it is pretty much standard that breakfast is served every morning in a hotel. I'm not talking a total carb load of do-it-yourself waffles and biscuits and gravy with mud served for coffee, peeled hard boiled eggs out of a bag and last summer's apples, I'm talking a variety of cheeses, a variety of cold cuts, scrambled (generally) eggs, fresh breads and buns, often hot sausages, bacon or some other, croissants, yogurt (we even had home made yogurt at one hotel), granola, cut fresh fruit, salad, cooked vegetables like tomatoes and peppers and often, much more. 

Despite the fact that I had to return the motorcycle this morning, I wasn't in too big a hurry as it was raining lightly and I really didn't want to ride in the rain however, after watching it from our window for an hour or so and it only got worse, I thought I better just get out there so I dressed, wore a hoodie under my motorcycle jacket and put on rain pants and rode away. It wasn't actually that long to get to the motorcycle place Pujcovna Motorek Praha, all of 20 minutes but I had to fill the bike's gas tank before returning it and there was a gas station literally walking distance from the bike shop so it was a few extra minutes. I met the young lady who seemed to be the brains of the operation, Michaela, which I was happy about because when I picked up the motorcycle, she had flown to Dubrovnik to pick up a rental bike that a renter couldn't manage. Over the many weeks that I had been investigating rental places, I had developed a little bit of an affinity for her so I had been disappointed when I didn't meet her as I took the motorcycle. 

I was actually quite relieved returning the motorcycle, as sad as I was about it. No longer having to worry about somebody else's property, wondering where I was going to park it and would it be safe and whether it would be lonely outside by itself all night for two weeks straight.

Michaela and me.

No expensive signage here!

There were 40 motorcycles around the corner!

She actually paid for my Uber back to the hotel, which I am sure they do for all their clients since she had it on speed dial. I was back at the Clement within about an hour. And the rain had let up. 

We started to organize our belongings for the trip home, then went for a long walk back to the pedestrian-only Charles Bridge, where we had been before. Nan wanted to do a little shopping from one of the licenced artisant merchants on the bridgefrom whom she had bought earrings before.

After the shopping, we continued to the other side of the bridge and stopped in at a little cafe where we had stopped on our first day here with our bicycle tour of Prague.We had been in such awe of the pastries I had dreamed of going back there but in fact, I actually thought it was further away. We were just wandering around for a place to have a small bite of lunch and it was Nan that realized we were at the same place as before.   

We continued to walk around after lunch, not being in a hurray again however, we did notice some storm clouds heading in the direction of the bridge so while we didn't hurry, we walked with a little more intent.  Here are some more pictures taken from the bridge and on the walk back to the hotel. I apologize that you have seen some of these scenes before but that was a month ago!

I actually had a much more extensive video but the Blogger platform told me it exceeded the 100 MB limit. By 20 fold.

Avocado sandwiches all around.

Great looking desserts.

Some interesting pitchers.

Our selections. Nan had pistachio cheesecake. I had an apple pie with meringue and almonds on top. 

For our final dinner in Prague, we returned to the Alforno Trattoria Petrske namesti, an Italian restaurant around the corner from our hotel and where we had eaten with the Dresden bicycle crew August 31. 

It was very busy, even outside despite the fact it had been raining an hour before. We could have choosen one of the two-tops you see in the centre of the floor but we opted for a four top on the edge so that we could sit beside each other.  There was a gentleman sitting alone at the table next to us and I felt a little like we were taking his private space so I tried to not be intrusive as I squeezed between the tables and joined Nan on the bench. 

We had a nice meal, very simple. Just carrot soup each then we split the pizza special, which was fennel salami, gobs of mozzerella cheese, basil leaves, pesto, cherry tomatoes and other stuff. We sat right beside the pizza chef's workstation so we watched the pizzas being made. The mostly looked pretty good (maybe not the tuna one so much) and they cooked in four minutes. One for the two of us was plenty. 

 And then we got RAKed. The fellow beside us, once he had finished his meal, got up and went to the till and paid. Then, as he walked out, he and I looked at each other and nodded our acknowledgements. Then a minute later, to our utter amazement, the waitress came over and told us he had paid for our entire meals! We were stunned and rushed to the door of the restaurant hoping to see him walking away but he was lost in the crowd. We have no idea why he chose us for a Random Act of Kindness but there it was. When we got back to the hotel, I put up a Google review of the restaurant and told a somewhat abbreviated version of this story in hopes that he would look at the restaurant online and see the review. It was a great finale to our trip.

I'll do one more post to let you know that we got home safely. Not entirely sure I will get it done Wednesday night but I will have a little wrap up to close it off.

September 23: Honour and Grace

Distance traveled: 144.6 km

Cumulative distance: 1,230.2 km 

Maximum speed: 127 kph

Temperature Range: 15 - 23 degrees

Well, this was a cluster-you-know-what of a day.

We were packed up and ready in pretty good time  to get going before 10:00 am. We had enjoyed an extra latte on the front patio of the hotel, soaking up the sun and relishing our last morning on the road before going back to Prague.

Nan took the top case down to the bike then came back and collected her pannier and helmet. I picked up my pannier up and we walked out of the room and went and settled the bill. Once I had paid, I had to remind the front desk guy that I had messed up the safe the night before and he assured me that he had a key to open it. (I always check the operation of a hotel room-safe before using it. When I was testing ours, I just assumed it would operate exactly the same as every other that I had seen in the world. Apparently I should have read these things called INSTRUCTIONS. How unmanly.) The desk attendant asked me for the room key and I said my wife had it. I yelled out the front door of the hotel to Nan and she said she had left it in the room, so I ran back upstairs thinking I would just go back in and grab it because the chamber maid had been cleaning the room next to us. Turns out the key was in the inside lock in the door so the chamber maid could not get in. We didn't know that this was a thing. Since being in Europe, I've had trouble getting used to the fact that the only way to lock the room from inside was to use the key on the inside lock. I've had visions of the the fire alarm ringing during the middle of the night and we would be forced to evacuate and looking all over our hotel room trying to find the key so we could unlock the room door and get out. Apparently, if the key is left in the inside lock of the door, it is not possible to access the room from the outside. I guess that is some kind of security measure. It works. Anyway, after the room cleaner failed to access the room i went  back to the front desk and tell the morning clerk that the key is left in the door to the room and we can't get in so he says not to worry, "he has a key", just like with the safe so I say ok and I bid him adieu.

Since we are riding into Prague today, I am hoping to get my phone screen to display on the motorcycle dashboard so that it will be easier for me to navigate the busy streets of Prague with visual navigation rather than just audio navigation. In order for it to work, the motorcycle has to Bluetooth pair with my communicator on my helmut but they can't seem to connect, so I will be relying on strictly audio commands. I had a phone holder on the bike but it fell off yesterday and was lost. (I had been suspicious of its ability to hang on so I didn't have my phone in it at the time, which was lucky.)

Well we are off and five minutes from the hotel, I realize I left my passport in the hotel room so we turn around on a sidewalk, the tightest motorcyle turn I have ever made, and race back to the hotel. I run upstairs thinking the housekeeping gal will still be working on the room and there she is, at our door, with the front desk attendant trying to unlock our hotel room door. She has tools laid out on the floor and the lock cover is spread out on the floor and they have all hardware that is screwed from the outside on the hall carpet and I am thinking "oh, this looks bad". Well, it was bad. They were both on the phone trying to reach someone who could come and help or provide suggestions. Eventually, the front desk guy called the hotel owner. Since the owner does not speak Czech, I could hear the whole conversation for myself: "Oh, that's bad. You will have to call a locksmith and charge the customer. And if he (the locksmith) f*cks up the lock, you will have to charge the customer for that as well. It could be 2,000 Crowns [$120]" At this point, I ws worried less about the money vs getting my passport back and being on the road. 

Amazingly, it took only 10 minutes for the locksmith to arrive. And it was less time for him to open the room and bingo bango, I had my passport back, all for the paltry (at that stage) sum of 500 Czech Crowns. Good thing there is two kinds of luck because I would call that part GOOD luck!

After that, we rode to Prague.

The Honour and Grace Hotel Debacle.

George, our front desk guy and the housekeeper. Both were polite and graicious over the event.

Our housekeeper and the locksmith. You will have to figure out who is who.

We were waiting outside the front of the hotel and this guy walked up. I figured he was the locksmith, so I snapped his picture and he shook my hand. I thought, PERFECT. Turned out he was the window glazier.

This is how the room numbers appeared on our rooms.  Our room number was my birthday! You would have thought that would have been good luck! 

Made it to Prague just in time to relax.

Pictures from the ride.

This is the patio at the Honour and Grace Hotel. We sat out here twice to have cappuccinos.

Don't be confused. These are CZECH cows.

Filling up for gas. Not need to insert your card at the pump because that feature is not available. What IS available, is a teller and a do-it-yourself latte machine inside!

Three Mile Island. We passed through nuclear alley on the way to Prague today.  This nuclear plant for generating electricity has three cooling towers.

It is a maze of transmission lines around here.

This nuclear power station could not have been ten km away. Four cooling towers. Both probably less than 60 km from Prague.

Old style Prague.

New style Prague.

Repeat offender!

800 metre tunnel.

Arriving at the Hotel Clement in Prague, our home away from home. It's hard to get a picture with both of us on the bike. We asked a passerby to snap this shot.