Hamburg to Prague

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 Hamburg to Prague 645 kms

The real journey has begun – we arrived in Amsterdam from Beijing a few days ago, hired a rental car to get us to our friends in Oldenburg, Germany where we stayed whilst organising the bike.

(We did 1000kms in the rental car going backward and forward to Hamburg, Oldenburg, Groningen and Amsterdam but aren't counting this as its not bike mileage). Thankfully the bike turned up in good shape and wasn't any hassle getting it out of the crate and on the road. The only problem was they didn't understand that we wanted to leave the crate behind and that seemed to be verboten!! Anything left behind was wastage and I was going to be charge for it - I dug out my documents, showed that I had already paid for storage of the crate for 3 months, and after a few phone calls they decided it was OK and we could leave the crate in the warehouse. Phew - we would have been in strife if we couldn't do that. The guy who brought the crate out was great - he was quite a rough diamond with long hair and a beard, and he came out at one stage with cups of coffee in white china served on a nice tray - seemed rather funny but we appreciated the coffee.

We stayed with our friends, Hildegard, her daughter Marie-Kathrin and her boyfriend Lukas for three nights and had a very pleasant time with them catching up with their news and laughing about our memories over the past 25 years. Thank you Hildegard amd Marie-Kathrin, we really appreciate your hospitality, and look forward to seeing you again in October. We spent that time getting the bike ready ( I have put some puncture prevention stuff in the tyres which automatically seals any holes - called Tyre Seal I think, and the idea is it will stop any punctures occurring in out of the way places which on a bike is a major problem), organising a SIM card for Carolyn's phone, and buying a few other little bits and pieces.

Yesterday we drove from Oldenburg to Prague, a distance of 645kms. It was mainly on the autobahn and the bike just cruised along at 130-140kms. We were constantly passed by a stream of Beemers, Audis and Mercs in the fast lane doing well over my speed, but whenever we needed to pass a truck or slower vehicle, they let you in if you signalled.  I just had to remember to quickly get in the right lane before the next car screamed up behind. There was only one incident where the driver behind didn't let me in, and nearly slammed into me as I pulled out but we arrived safe if a bit wet in Prague. It was a long day ( started at 8am and got into Prague at 6pm), but we are heading south as quickly as possible now. The weather has been reasonably warm, about 25 but mainly overcast so far. The last 10ks into Prague was heavy rain which wasn't nice, but the GPS found our hotel very easily – we aren't camping yet and we were glad about that as the rain would have made it very uncomfortable.

We are staying in Prague for 3 nights to see the sights here, then will press south towards Slovenia.