Last night we (and several other teams) chose to upgrade to a chalet. The facilities were pretty basic (a bed, basin, radiator, and shared toilet) but afforded us a night of relative comfort and more importantly warmth and quiet. Camping is ok, but I prefer camping with 4 walls and a bed :)
We woke up to see much of the rest of the camp site still asleep, or maybe they had already left for the day... either way we cracked on with breakfast as the route cards were handed out. Destinations for today are: The Brandenburg gate, The Adlon hotel (where Michael Jackson dangled his kid from the balcony), Check point Charlie, Poland, and then off to the Czech republic. Busy day...
Looking at the GPS, the coords we were given for the Brandenburg gate were about an hour outside of Berlin. Not knowing any better we hit the road. The destination was just outside of Brandenburg, which seemed logical. How wrong we were...
On route we saw several other teams including the Italian Jobbers. We all seemed to be heading for the same location. At this point team Axles of Evil pointed out that the Brandenburg gate was actually in Berlin. Derp. Looks like someone at ScumRun HQ got the GPS coords wrong by one degree. (deliberately or otherwise) Having been on the road for the better part of an hour, and about 15 minutes from our destination we decided to keep going to see what was there. It turns out the GPS coords take you to a small cul-de-sac, with a local fire station in it. We did take a photo however a camera + floor incident corrupted the image. So we decided to just make up our own gate :)
So it was about-face, and full steam back to Berlin to tick off the other two checkpoints. However, on the drive back we did a bit of research, and found out that the ACTUAL Brandenburg gate is literally right next to the other two checkpoints, so we could kill all three birds with one stone.
Here I am parked up in front of the gate. We may have been able to get a bit closer, but there were a LOT of people around and we weren't sure what the deal was with driving right up to the gate. Other teams apparently did so, but they did it earlier in the day when it was quieter.
At the end you can see the Adlon Hotel. And in front you can see a slightly disgruntled police officer heading our way to ask us to move off the no-parking area :D
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| Driving up to Checkpoint Charlie |
Driving *through* Checkpoint Charlie
Once we had ticked off the Berlin checkpoints, we hit the autobahns again, hoping to regain some lost time.
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| Zoom zoom |
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| While stopping for food at a service station we ran in to a few other runners |
When driving, Gregg and I have a game we play. "Smart Car". There are two versions, Standard and Pro. For standard rules you just call any smart car when you see it. For "pro" rules, you have to name the type too. So "smart for2" or "smart roadster". During this whole trip we clocked up nearly 200 smart cars (including for four's) however in the entire 3400km, we only once saw a Smart Roadster, and that was just outside Poland, and I called it :D Get in !
It was essentially acting as a billboard for some car shop, but the sheer rarity of them was bizzare seeing as the smart cars are a very European thing. We expected to see many more. Anyway, after that slight distraction we moved on with our mission. Invading Poland !
The 3rd pic is of the school that was at the actual coords that we were given. Nothing much to see, so we moved on. On the way out of Poland we ran into 4 other teams getting their photos on another bridge.
We were already running a bit behind schedule though, so we left them in our dust, and hit the road.
We rolled into Prague at about ten to 8, the light was fading, and the weather didnt look great. We were spot on with that prediction. 5 minutes after we rolled into camp the most epic lightening storm hit the area. Being near the top of a hill, the flashes were literally just above our head, and the rain was torrential. We had no idea how long this would last so we had no choice but to rig the tents ASAP...
Rigging tents in the dark and the pouring rain isnt my idea of fun, but it needed to be done as there was no upgrade option tonight.
Then, irritatingly, once our tents were all set up.... the rain stopped. Grrrrrrrrr
We had missed the coach into Prague for the partying, so along with Mike and Adam from Axles, we headed to a local pub / restaurant. We chowed down on some very nice food, and the place was ridiculously cheap. 10 pints, 3 starters, 4 mains, and 4 deserts for a little over £30. Bargain.
After dinner we headed back to the camp-site bar, for a few more beers and then bed... day 4 awaits....
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