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.