Day 42: Wednesday 23rd September
I woke early and watched the sky lighten before dawn, promising myself that I’ll take a picture of the fab view as soon as the sun came up. Not to be – almost as soon as it appeared above the trees the whole scene was blotted out by a rising mist. Damn!
We’re soon on our way but the fog persists on and off for most of the morning. The roads are mixed with some fast and some single carriageway behind slow HGVs. The countryside continues to be beautiful – pine trees and mountains in the background the whole length of the Tatra range, and we now have a river running alongside the road to add to the appeal. Slovensko’s Tatra region is much more beautiful, extensive and presumably lucrative with its tourism (climbing and skiing) than what we saw of Poland’s Tatras in 2006.
We saw an Autocamping sign on the way to Zilina (near the Czech border) – a first!
The Czech border is no problem, simply a sign on the side of the road, and before long we’re on a fairly good motorway to Brno and Prague. I realise that since we crossed the border there have been few RTAs or breakdowns by the side of the road. This must be put down to better road surfaces (and EU MOT regulation?) but even so they’re not ideal – much of it concrete slabs with depressed joins – like the old arterial A127, Southend Road. A regular bumpity bump, bumpity bump. Far fewer roadkill too.
Slovensko was poorer in appearance (houses and cars older and less well cared for) and Czecho is only a small improvement. Far fewer 4x4s than Poland or Russia. We get to Prague around 4pm and join the traffic queue for the city centre. Once again we’re pretty lost though Jill has a destination in mind and then a hunch that we should turn off just past the main railway station. Hey presto! We are on a suburban street close to rail and metro. No hotels with car parks but a back street car park that looks like an ideal stopping place. (It’s Pernerova Car Park on Pernerova Street, 5 minutes from Krizikova metro station and about 10 minutes from Florenc metro station.) A word with the attendant and we book for three nights for €25 – about £7 per night. There are no services to speak of but a portaloo proves handy for dumping the cassette waste before we leave. We go off for a recce in the area as soon as we stop. It’s a student sort of area with lots of mini-markets, reasonable restaurants and bars. Ideal.
When we get back to the car park a new attendant, rather fierce, makes us move to a more remote spot, on a concrete plinth! That’s ok as it means we will be less disturbed by vehicles moving in and out.
After sprucing up a bit we go out for a meal – stroganoff for Jill and pork with cheese topping for me, washed down with the local red, which was fine. But Jill is not well, running a temperature and with other flu symptoms.
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