Saturday, July 19, 2014

Leszno here we come

Today was our last day in Cracow. A very busy one. We will hit the road early in the morning and do a short stop in Bielsko Biala on our way to Leszno. All our pilots are already there and we can't wait to see them.
Here few more photos from today:

this is a proper timber house!

here is the proof that this car can tow ... sort of

lunch with Ziggy's mom

we tried Okocim beer straight from the brewery

Wawel Castle

Wawel again



streets of Cracow

It's sleep time now. Tomorrow will be a long day on Polish roads. Scary stuff.
Dobranoc (Good night)!

Friday, July 18, 2014

exploring Ziggy's hometown

What a long and exciting day. Ziggy is doing a great job as a tour guide showing me around all "his" places like schools, clubs, work places etc. Weather is absolutely beautiful for that.


brekky outside - you can't have this in OZ at the moment

this used to be Ziggy's favorite night club in the old days


We even visited the hospital where Ziggy used to work before he left Poland. We barely entered the building and he was recognised straight away by one of his colleagues Marta. We then met all the other doctors who remembered Ziggy really well. Well, I guess it's hard to forget him and his body also refuses to change with time.

Ziggy's "old" hospital


There is very many funky coffee shops and restaurants in Cracow. One of them had ancient school furniture in the outdoor area that Ziggy remembered really well. This was how he used to sit in class.


We've got one more day here and will be driving to Leszno on Saturday. Then the real hard work will start. We are looking forward to it though. Bring it on!

Thursday, July 17, 2014

4 days, 4 countries

We made it to Poland last night. Almost 700 km on European roads is much, much more than in OZ. We left Prague fairly early in the morning and drove all the way to Martin (Slovakia) to meet our friends competing in the F3J world championships.

Before we left our Prague hotel, we found this guy and called him master of parking. The garage was tiny and there was a very narrow winding and steep way out in front of this car as well as a solid wall behind him. I'm really not bad in parking in tiny spots but this one looks like quite an achievement to me.



this developed further when we were leaving Martin and dropped quite a bit of liquid on us
very basic and great lunch in a tent

This kid is not his dad's helper. He is 9 years old, participating in the World Championships and doing really well. Scary, just thinking what's going to happen when he's older.



Team Turkey :)

Pilots from all over the world

David won last time he's been here. Please do it again!

David's win in Martin last time was his second one in the row. He also won the previous worlds in Canada. And guess what, Ziggy was towing for him!
We are in Cracow today, Ziggy's hometown. He will show me around all places and we will enjoy some good traditional Polish food. Cracow is a gorgeous town so there will good photos.

Wednesday, July 16, 2014

Czech Republic

550 km done today ... in a car. We finally made it to Prague in the late afternoon. Traffic jams all over the place and one caused by a pretty bad accident. A truck crossed over from the opposite direction and ended up in the trees. Just imagine a little car being in the same spot at the same time ...


We checked into our hotel and went for a walk and dinner. Prague is beautiful but at the same time a bit over-rated and full of tourists. Streets are full of crowds strolling up and down. The old and beautifully restored buildings are impressive though.





Dinner was unreal ... there is no way one person can eat it. And these were the "smaller" serves:



nice Czech beer helps to flush down the food

tourist guide (the girl) with two tourists - great way, no need to walk


We've got another big drive ahead of us tomorrow. Final destination is Cracow (Poland) but we will stop in Martin (Slovakia) for a few hours to visit our Aussie friends competing in F3J World Comps.

Oh, and if I forgot to mention before - weather is absolutely gorgeous and warm and it will get even warmer in the next few days. Love it!

Tuesday, July 15, 2014

transferring to Prague

Jet lag is not our friend and we've been up since 5 am waiting for the hotel to start serving breakfast ... We are moving eastwards today and will stay in Prague over night.

We got really naughty in the Outlet Center in Metzingen yesterday. I even feel a bit of shame but will try to fight this feeling. We stayed in a very funky hotel here with amazing restaurant serving local "Schwaebisch" food and drinks. There were even flowers growing from behind our bed:


As a welcome gift, we got a packet of seeds to grow these flowers in our garden. What a great unusual idea!


We also needed to re-hydrate for the night after the whole day running around and shopping. They have a really nice, light tasting, beer over here.


OK, it's time to hit the road and see what Prague has to offer.

Sunday, July 13, 2014

Welcome to Europe

We made it. Two fairly long flights went surprisingly well. We even managed some good sleep on the second one. We landed in Frankfurt and so did our bags - the two very first ones on the carousel. We picked up our car for the next 5 weeks and wanted to explore Frankfurt but it started pouring rain and it was no fun. We decided to continue south and made it to Metzingen. Luckily our room was ready so we could check in straight away. A shower, walk, lunch and beer later we are back in the room trying to stay awake. Our goal is to watch the soccer worlds finals @ 9 pm. Germany will be world champion today so it's really worth watching!

tomorrow is the day

downtown Metzingen

At least it doesn't rain here. It's just 23 degrees but it feels much warmer. The temperature will gradually increase in the next days until it gets really hot!
Shopping is the plan for tomorrow and we'll be transferring to Prague on Tuesday.