PRAGUE: The Czech Mate Tour

25th September 2014 A LATER FLIGHT This year our flight was set for the early evening, so the Ramblers arrived less bleary eyed than normal and after all the check in stuff we assembled in the usual place for the traditional beer and sandwiches. There was a brief explanation of our plans that evening in Prague, and the rooming arrangement was confirmed. Following the Czech Mate chess theme, the rooms were to be allocated to “The Knights” who were Pete, Crispy, Tony, and Simon, “The Kings”: Geoff, Dave, Jambo “The Bishops”: Nobby, Phil, Marcus and Leigh, and finally “The Queens”: Smokey, Dickie the Squid, and Andy, the biggest Queen of them all. Having sorted this we made the draw for the bear, and we were all pleased when Nobby got chosen to be the first bear carrier, we thought that this would take his mind off the strict fines regime, and it seemed to work, after a normal burst of activity there was very little fining on tour, which was a great relief.

WORDSEARCH After the success of the Ginger Monkey Quiz, for this tour there was to be a wordsearch and anagram competition to pass the time during the flight. So about halfway through the flight the quiz papers were handed out and the Ramblers busied themselves with trying to find hidden words. There were excuses from some of the Ramblers whose papers arrived in the middle of a late food/drink order from the stewards, and completing the task on a small table whilst juggling money, bottles, food and quiz papers is not conducive to an intellectual challenge. Nobody did well, some did terribly, but one Rambler who for the sake of saving his embarrassment we shall refer to only as “Jeff” managed 40 minutes of intense concentration then produced an entry that would only be excusable if English was not his first language. From a possible 36 points available “Jeff” scored no points at all, and as a final flourish of incompetence even put his name in the wrong place on the entry form. “Jeff was awarded 5 minus CYJ points. He was disappointed of course, and wondered how he could recover from such a terrible start to take the jacket, he thought about his last CYJ win where he snatched the jacket from the sickbed, he thought about tactics, dysentery would not be enough, he will need Ebola to pull this off ! HERBA-LIFE At the Bristol airport there seemed to be a lot of people walking around with distinctive black and vivid green Herba-life clothing and accessories, they all seemed to be going to Prague for an international Herba-life convention, the flight was full of them. By the time we arrived in Prague there were 17,000 Herba-life employees from all over the world, all sporting various black and green logo products. It was like an evangelical cult, and quite unnerving really. It must be noted that for a company that was selling the concept of healthy herbal based living, there were quite a few fat ones among them. Clearly being a salad dodger did not stop you from the selling the Herba-life dream.

THE BEST MADE PLANS Pete had informed everyone that everything was in place, bookings confirmed, and as far as he could determine, there was nothing to worry about. We met Hana and Martin** at the arrivals gate, and everything seemed perfect. This air of quiet confidence soon evaporated as we looked in vain for our pre booked coach driver, who was worryingly absent. A few frantic phone calls back to England determined that there was indeed a booking for us and the date and times were correct, the problem being that it was made for the year 2015 ! Oh dear, instant stress and with a dinner booking at our hotel soon, we rushed around like headless chickens. We tried at the airport taxi desk but none were available, (it seems as though Herba-life had taken them all - thanks !) so we went outside for the bus. While Hana went off to get bus tickets, a decision was made to take taxis from the rank outside providing that we could get an acceptable fixed rate. Martin did the negotiations and soon we were underway. ** Hana & Martin. The success of our tours is often linked closely to the contacts that we have made in the place that we are visiting. In this case, we had Hana who was in Bristol for a while, and she and Si Collins were already on good terms. In the previous months Hana and Martin advised us on all aspects of the tour and made things very easy. They were to be great hosts for us, and nothing seemed to be too much trouble, we owe them our tremendous thanks, and should they ever visit Bristol we will our course give them both a great big Bristol Rambler welcome.

MOSAIC HOUSE AND LA LOCA Our first impressions of the Mosaic House were a little puzzling. It appeared to be something between a student’s union bar and a rave. Upon arrival we saw one young guy who was clearly drunk thrown out on to the pavement. There was some local police in attendance, also a certain amount of commotion in the doorway. We pressed through the crowd with our cases, found the reception, and secured the rooms. The instruction was, to quickly drop suitcases on beds, and then straight back down to the in house La Loca restaurant. The rooms we were pleased to say seemed to be of a very high quality and the more we saw of the Mosaic house, the more impressed we became. La Loca was quite a good place for basic Mexican foods and our pre order of Burritos and chicken Quesadillas arrived shortly after, plus side orders of fries and Jalapino peppers all washed down with several glasses of beer. After an anxious start we were beginning to settle down. Then it was time for a walk out into town to familiarise ourselves with Prague and take in the city by night. We went down to the river, cut around into the Old town Square, then we proceeded through to Wencelas square. Until we reached Wencelas we had only seen the more acceptable face of Prague but 14 single men wandering around the city centre drew all sorts of unwanted attention from men trying to pimp their particular strip club or sex joint and offer us various sexual encounters. We walked on regardless, the offers became more and more outrageous and quite explicit, we were even told there was a half priced discount for midgets, so Geoff and Dave would have been particularly well catered for. Nevertheless we pressed on waving the pimps away, turned right at the top of the square and found a rather crowded downstairs cellar bar, it was ok but did not have seats for all so we left and headed for another bar, which had just closed, bugger! Finally we made our way back to the hotel for a well deserved beer in the Mosaic House and a somewhat early night** after all it was going to be a big day on Friday. **apparently the early night was not quite so early; it was 2.45 when we got into bed!

FRIDAY 26TH BREAKFAST Nearly everyone made it for breakfast at the agreed time, all except the “Bishops room” whose occupants had thoughtlessly not bothered to move their watches and alarm clocks on by one hour to European time, this was a schoolboy error which was to cost one of the Bishops dear. In the meantime the other punctual Ramblers had made the draw for the bear and eliminated themselves, so when the Bishops finally arrived there were only four counters left on the table. One of them belonged to Marcus, and he got the bear. PAINTBALL The first event of the tour was paintball, we all set off slightly late and it was all getting a bit stressful, there was some difficulty in finding the right metro station and platform. Also buying day rover tickets was not as easy as we had thought, and with the clock ticking away, we decided to take a chance and board the metro without tickets, and hope for the best. It was a calculated risk, but there was an emergency plan. This was that should a ticket inspector enter the carriage and ask for tickets, we should ask him to speak to Nobby, during the ensuing nonsense and hand waving the rest of us should all quietly get off at the next available station leaving Nobby to deal with the crisis. Any subsequent fine could be paid for by the club kitty, any subsequent overnight or weekend stay in Prague police station or prison should just be considered an interesting experience, and we would try to recover him before we returned home.

While Pete was going through his notes on the platform, the ring binder opened and spilt all the documents across the platform, the Ramblers acted quickly and chased and stood on all the documents before everything was lost down the tracks. Andy Cains said, “that was lucky… the tour nearly went down the tube” another classic statement from a comedy genius. When we finally arrived at the nearest metro station indicated on the paintball website we routinely phoned the company to find out how to get to the arena, we were told that we were in the wrong metro station, and furthermore when we got to the correct one, we would also have to catch a bus. It was getting even more stressful. Pete was constantly being reminded that perhaps it was booked for 2015. However with the public transport system in Prague being what it is, (brilliant, and inexpensive) we were able to arrive for the paintball almost exactly on time. This was a new event, some were looking forward to it, some were not so sure, we split into two groups based on the rooms to make the Knights/Kings (yellow) and the Bishops/Queens (red) armies. We had our pre battle safety instructions and then moved into the arena, both teams then moved into different parts on the field of play, to take cover behind walls and in sheds for the first game. The yellows emerged victorious, and so it proved in nearly all subsequent battles. The yellow team worked to a strict plan and the reds were outgunned and out maneuvered on almost every occasion. Marcus was shot in the face and had green paint on his face mask and in his mouth, (we thought he had been sick)

At the end of one of the battle games, which proved to be another overwhelming victory for the yellow team, everybody left the combat zone to assemble in the rest area. All except of course, Dickie the Squid. Teruo Nakamura was a Japanese soldier who was stationed on an island just off of Indonesia, he refused to surrender at the end of the war in 1945, and kept up his solitary resistance until the 18th of December 1974. We did not realise it at the time, but while we were all taking a well earned rest, re-arming, drinking some water and having a piss, Dickie was still in the combat zone completely alone carrying on the fight against a non existent enemy in a deserted arena. He stayed there on duty, and was not found until we all walked in some 15 minutes later to set up the next game. Obviously he was then the object of some ridicule from the Ramblers, but on the other hand, he was a credit to the Japanese Emperor.

Crispy had decided to get a phone video of himself in action, and gave his phone to the marshal to record the heroics. Unfortunately instead of following the strictly laid down yellow strategy he defected from the plan and went a.w.o.l to pursue a solo bid for video glory. This resulted in not only exposing his team to a side flanking attack by Smokey who shot four yellows from behind, but eventually left Crispy in a position where, and fortunately we have this on camera, he gets shot up the arse. It was just desserts. The paintball was a great success and everyone really enjoyed their experience. As we were still running late, we cut the event short and went back to the Mosaic House to get the kit etc. We needed to get some lunch so we found a place nearby and ordered 13 goulash with dumplings (+one veggie) and of course beer and wine, the perfect preparation to a full match in just a few hours. THE MATCH; FC REPORYJE V REDLAND RAMBLERS

We set off from the hotel to meet Hana at the metro nearer to the ground, Hana then guided us to the bus and we travelled a little way to the ground. As always we approach these games with more hope than expectation. With few exceptions the opposition in recent years have been a little too young for us, but when we got to the ground we were pleased to see our opponents were definitely veteran, and that there was a reassuring number of bald heads, and beer bellies on show.

Pete was very honoured to be made Captain for the match, after the pre match formalities and photographs, Geoff called everyone together for a rousing tactical speech, we were the away team underdogs, but we were confident that we could perform well. The match started and Reporyje soon took possession of the game, for the first 10 minutes we barely had the ball, it was some time before we were able to put a few passes together. Slowly we gained confidence and we had a good attempt at their goal which was charged down, unfortunately the ball broke clear down the middle to the opposition who scored and we were 1-0 down 20 minutes gone. Even thought Reporyje had more of the ball we went close on a few occasions and Dave forced the goalie to dive at his feet, and then went agonisingly close with a header just wide. We then conceded another goal which was badly deflected past Andy in goal who had no chance. Half time FC Reporyje 2 Ramblers 0

In the second half we started to have a few more efforts at goal and Dicky and Smokey both went close. Just when we thought there would be another goal there it was, unfortunately it was Reporyje who scored again with another wicked deflection and we were 3-0 down. We continued gamely but things were not going our way. A speculative cross came into the box and eluded Andy for a score line of 4-0 this seemed a little unjust but we hoped for a goal and finally it came. The Ramblers attacked down the right side of the goal and the ball broke back towards the edge of the box straight to Pete, surely after that dreadful moment in Krakow he would not miss again. He took one touch and hit it hard and high to the top of the goal, the goalie hardly moved. FC Reporyje 4 Ramblers 1. Pete was ecstatic, several Ramblers ran over to congratulate him, but he was gone, sheer gone! 63 years 4 months and he was on the scoreboard again, fantastic stuff! Right at the end we almost got another, Dicky looked certain to score but the keeper got down to make a save at close range. So that was it, a good game, and the Ramblers did well with what we had available. Smokey, Crispy, and Dave all performed well, also Andy in goal who had no chance with the goals, but he performed well on everything else. After the game we went into the clubhouse to take a well deserved beer with the Reporyje players who also had provided some smoked meat and sausages. The opposition were very interested to see from our T shirts all of the places we had visited on previous tours. We presented a couple of shirts to the opposition, and also to Hana and Martin. It was at this point that we noticed that there was an error on the back of the shirt which showed The Czech Mate tour as being in Poland! Ooops, sorry ! A real embarrassment that, and Nobby is to work on the correction. Eventually we got into some taxis and headed back towards the hotel, as we had clearly not had enough beer or food we stopped at a nearby burger/beer establishment and had some more.

Simon headed off for an early night then the rest of us having found out we were more awake than we had thought went into town and found a cellar bar near the Old Town square, where they obligingly sold Kingswood cider, then finally back to the hotel for 2.30 am and a short rest.

SATURDAY 27TH BREAKFAST In the whole history of Rambling there are only three Ramblers who have never drawn the bear. Si Collins, Phil, and Pete, finally it was time for this hoodoo to be broken and to the amazement of all Phil finally got the bear, but would he look after it? The answer was no, he was dreadful and allowed the bear to be stolen quite regularly. We stopped off briefly in the Old town square to enjoy the view, take a coffee and complete our football prediction coupons, so often a factor in determining the winner of the CYJ.

SEGWAY So this was another new activity, Segway, often talked about but never experienced. We were all new to this and watched with some trepidation while our two instructors went through the basic operations before inviting the first Rambler up to have a go. First man up was Crispy Cains, thirty seconds later we had three instructors, the two originals plus Crispy who was now Segwaying at county standard! We wobbled a bit at first but surprisingly we all seemed to get the hang of it quite quickly, and by the time we had gone down the riverside cycle path a bit, we were reasonably competent.

We then headed up towards the castle, it was at this point that Dave who had been doing well then clipped the kerb, and suddenly he was not doing well at all. It was a heavy fall for a light man, and we feared for possible broken bones, fortunately he was able to recover, but subsequent tour activities were now off limits. So Segway, was considered by all as a lot of fun, if you have to get around a city, and in particular one which is built on hills, then Segway is the way to go.

ITALIAN FOOD AND BEER We took a very nice and leisurely lunch nearby, it was decided to defer the Castle tour in favour of a more relaxed day. The food was good and the service excellent. During the meal the votes were counted to determine who was going to be man of the Match from the night before. After several recounts it was tied all points even between Crispy and Smokey, it went down to a countback rule and Andy (Crispy) Cains took the medal as voted for by his peers. This was a very proud moment for Crispy who so nearly did not tour this year after making a complete fool of himself in Pomarance with the pledge “I shall never tour again” what a plonker! During the lunch Phil managed to lose the bear on several occasions, clearly lack of practice on how to manage the situation. PIVOARSKY DUM BEER (Prague is famous for it’s beer) “Sometimes when I reflect back on all the beer I drink I feel ashamed. Then I look into the glass and think about the workers in the brewery and all of their hopes and dreams. If I didn't drink this beer, they might be out of work and their dreams would be shattered. Then I say to myself, it is better that I drink this beer and let their dreams come true than be selfish and worry about my liver” We wandered back and made a visit as planned to Pivoarsky Dum which is a brewery bar/restaurant near our hotel, unfortunately as there were 14 of us we were put in the back room which is not so atmospheric as the front of the establishment, there were many different flavoured beers on offer, coffee, cherry, nettle, Nobby asked for a banana beer…in a straight glass.

PRAGUE DERBY MATCH SLAVIA PRAGUE VESUS SPARTA SPRAGUE Through our contact Martin, we had managed to get tickets for the Slavia Prague versus Sparta Prague match. We arrived about 30 minutes before kick off. It was quite a tidy modern stadium, and security was tight as would be expected for a derby game. We were just about to order some beers then found out that they were non alcoholic, so we cancelled, and made our way up to some excellent seats high up on the half way line. The first half from a playing point of view was a bit dull, however we were kept continually entertained, as the rival sets of supporters tried to outdo each other with orchestrated, singing, jumping, and throwing of fireworks and flares. To our right the Slavia fans kept up an ever changing programme of coordinated slogans both on cards and huge banners which shot up and down the terracing in an astonishing display. Later in the second half following a massive number of flares and flag burning in the stand, the referee halted the game because it was impossible to see the ball. The whole pitch was covered in a dense smoke. Sparta won 2-0 but the game will best be remembered for the crowd, it really is a wonder how they are able to bring these flags, banners and fireworks into a game.

Sparta fans’ flares

Slavia fans’ flares

After the match we said our goodbyes to Martin and Katy, and went back to the Mosaic, It was Cowboy themed night in the club below. Some Ramblers went straight to bed, but a hardy few stayed up to have even more fun. There was a mechanical rodeo bull set up in the corner, so naturally CYJ points were on offer to everyone who had a go, and extra for the top performers. Jambo stayed on for the full 40 seconds and won a free shot and several CYJ points. His bid for the jacket was now a serious issue. Most Ramblers had a go, but the best performer of all was a girl with what can only be described as a substantial frontage who wobbled about quite a lot both on and off the bull much to the amusement of all present.

Nobby also went on the dance floor, will somebody please tell him that he cannot dance, and should not try, it is an affront to others who are just trying to enjoy themselves. It was during this night that Smokey was offered some herbal smoking mixture by a dodgy Australian, he said he singled out Smokey with his offer of a relaxant because “he looked the type”

SUNDAY 28th BREAKFAST AND KARTING We had our usual excellent breakfast at the hotel and made the draw for the bear. Phil had not made a particularly good job of looking after Eduardo the previous day, so it was only fitting that he was drawn again! Perhaps he might get used to it. Almost immediately the bear had gone walk about and was photographed on a shelf behind the bar. Another favourite tour activity is Go-Karting, and this time we chose to go to a huge circuit in the North of the city. Dave could not compete due to a Segway injury, and Dickie declined, so we had three groups of four, all eager to be as competitive as possible and out perform the others by fair means or foul.

This was a great track, and as soon as we got used to the challenging bends and overpass the individual times just got better and better. As expected Jambo and Smokey were out in front on the lap times, and most people made a good effort at it. Well almost everybody.

Crispy was having a terrible time, he was trying so hard to get round the circuit as quickly as possible but kept losing control on the same bend under the tunnel. This caused the race to be suspended many times while the track marshal, pulled him around and got the race going again, only for him to do it again on the next lap. None of us can speak Czech, but the body language and gestures of this weary marshal were very clear, exasperation, annoyance, and incredulity that it was the same man on the same bend again and again, and again. Jambo took top CYJ points, and it looked like Crispy had left his claim for the jacket on the track (and to be precise, on the bend under the tunnel) A RATHER NICE LUNCH We got ourselves back into town and headed for the area known as Little Venice on the northern bank of the river just over the Charles Bridge. Here we rested with beer and food at a restaurant with a terrace on the river where we enjoyed some fantastic views of the city. We told ourselves that there was to be a lot of food and drink later that night so we should not over order, having done so, we then ignored the warning and carried on regardless.

BEWARE THE ICE MAN COMETH On the way back we went over the Charles Bridge, and decided to visit a nearby Ice Bar. After haggling with the owners regarding a group discount we changed in to suitable protective over clothing and went into the ice cave for cocktails which were served in beakers made from ice. The music played loudly but we could have done with a few more people in there to add to the effect. Left to our own devices we wandered round and interacted with the ice sculptures, sometimes it must be said in an entirely inappropriate way.

When we came out the weather was good and the walk back along the river was very pleasant, we happened upon some local musicians who were playing at a bar / barbeque area just below that pavement area. It did not take long before we agreed that we should go down for a quick beer. This proved to be a very enjoyable experience, we liked the music, we enjoyed the beer, and soon Simon was up doing a dance that we had last seen in Zakopane, it was chilled and relaxed. Soon Nobby felt compelled to join in the dance, the effect was rather different, as somebody said at the time “why is it that some people like Simon can dance and it looks so natural, and for others the whole thing looks so awkward” we all looked at Nobby, it must be said that we had seen people on fire move better. We got back to the hotel and said our goodbyes to Dave who had to return early due to work commitments, he was naturally disappointed, but upon reflection his Segway rib injury may have precluded him from some of the forthcoming activities, and he may not have been entirely the right man for the beer fight.

“THE PUB” (Home of the Pub Burger, and beer fight) The English working classes may be said to be soaked in beer. They are made dull and sodden by it. Their efficiency is sadly impaired, and they lose whatever imagination, invention, and quickness may be theirs by right of race. It may hardly be called an acquired habit, for they are accustomed to it from their earliest infancy. Children are begotten in drunkenness, saturated in drink before they draw their first breath, born to the smell and taste of it, and brought up in the midst of it. (Jack London, The People of the Abyss 1902) So you see it was not our fault, you take a bunch of English Ramblers, with a love of beer hardwired into our DNA, and introduce them to Czech beer at very reasonable prices, and for an extra element to the fun, we add the edge of competitive drinking between groups. It was never going to make for a quiet night. The whole essence of this establishment is to get groups of people on tables each with their own beer pump to drink in competition against other tables. The beer drawn is metered, and then registered and displayed on a giant scoreboard. Furthermore each bar in the chain of pubs has a ranking so the bars are in total competition which each other across Prague, and if that was not enough there was a ranking for various countries.

The Ramblers like a challenge and we also like beer, it was an irresistible situation. We split randomly across two tables, also nearby were Hana and Martin and family, so all three tables were soon locked into a beer war of attrition. The more we drank, the more we wanted to drink, pausing only for some food to be brought, we put on a fantastic display of irresponsible boozing. We later found that in an act of desperation the table at which Tony Allan was sitting was drawing beer and giving it away in an effort to boost their beer tally. Tony was caught shamefully red handed, it was decided (by the non cheating table) that all participants should get minus CYJ points. Jambo was horrified and more than a little vexed. Nobby was goading Pete and singing “you’re not drinking, you’re not drinking anymore” Pete decided to challenge Nobby to a one pint drink off, the matter was decided in a matter of just a few seconds, completely defeated Nobby sat down, shut up, and looked a bit queasy. During the evening Jambo who was more than a bit pissed, accused Crispy of breaking the man of the match medal and demanded minus CYJ points, Crispy played along but was pleased to show that it was all in good order. When we eventually left and said goodbye to Hana & Martin & family, we wandered out into the night in search of a Ska club that was advertised. When we found it in a nearby cellar, the place was empty and a bit depressing. We had a quick one then went on to another bar nearby for some more beer. By now some Ramblers and in particular Smokey, was finding the pace of beer drinking a little too challenging, whether it was the beer or the smokes, we are not sure, but the man appeared to lose consciousness, it was a bad show. Eventually time was called and we went home, it was another late night.

MONDAY 29TH OUR GOING HOME DAY So we got to the last day, but there was no sign of any let up in the events and activities. With a later flight planned we were full steam ahead for a day packed with fun and excitement. We met for an early breakfast, Crispy got the bear, and then we quickly packed and left the suitcases in the hotel to depart and do as much as we could. We took the metro back towards the Old town square where bikes were waiting for us, and we headed off out along the river away from the centre for about an hour.

This was a fantastic day to be cycling, warm and sunny but not too hot, we stopped for a tea/coffee/beer, and then decided to head back in two groups. One group managed to find their way back quite easily, but the other group got lost and was almost an hour late, however they did manage to see some great locations and found that Prague has a lot to offer for the casual cyclist. We all met in the old town square for a beer.

CRAZY GOLF This was advertised as a fun thing to do, and seeing as we like fun we thought we should give it a go. We found the place attached to a big conference centre where apparently the Herba-Life delegates had recently attended to hear some messianic speaker talk about the individuals need to buy more Green and Black promotional items. We had the place to ourselves and split up into groups of four to work our way around the course. It was all very serious and the CYJ leaders were in deadly earnest to try to clinch the competition in the last remaining events. Crispy posted a good score and was back in the clubhouse as leader. Jambo also did well, but perhaps not good enough. The drama came late when the Sheehan brothers in the last group to finish both returned with low scores that effectively pushed Crispy down the points table, and further hampered his challenge for the jacket. BOBSLEIGH, (the threshold of fear) In the Northern part of the city, glued precariously to the side of a very steep hill there is a bobsleigh track. This is basically a metal half tube on which you are invited to propel yourself down by the force of gravity, with only a rudimentary brake to slow you on the bends should you feel it necessary. Obviously this is right up our street, and we took a few moments to read all the safety instructions and assess the situation. Marcus, Andy, Geoff all took one look and said no! The rest all said yes but there was some concern, we all opted for the five run per person option. The first efforts were reasonably tame and the brake was applied frequently, but when we encountered a camera showing a speed reading at the end of the track, it gave us the opportunity of comparing speeds, and the competition was really on!

Increasingly the speeds registered went up and up, the regular crazy guys, Jambo, Smokey and Tony Allan were all going for maximum performance. Si Collins assured everyone that it was impossible to fall out, this however proved to be untrue as shortly after both Leigh and Dickie the Squid had a nasty experience and confirmed that indeed you can fall out, and they both did (which just goes to show, never trust a gashead, their judgment is obviously flawed on all things sporting).

We all completed our set of descents, and Si Collins came out the fastest (51 kph) with Jambo in second place, close behind was Crispy, who had one run left, but it seemed as though he was not going to use it. He was told that this last run could provide further CYJ points that were badly needed after the recent golf disappointment, we encouraged him to make the final run. However shaking like a blindfolded man who had just fondled a raw sausage at a gay party he was completely unnerved. In his words “I have reached the threshold of my fear” and with these words he made his way down to the terrace for food and beer. It was a fun event and very worthwhile.

CASTLE We took the metro over to the Castle and had enough time to take a brief wander through the grounds and courtyards without actually going inside. We saw enough to encourage any Rambler returning to Prague that this place should be explored in greater detail. At the metro station below the castle Phil made the final tally for all CYJ points and told Pete that there was a winner. We returned to the Mosaic house collected our cases and set off to the airport by metro, and bus, by the time we got there is had turned to night, and we all felt extremely tired and in need of a good sleep. The airport was still full of the last straggling Herba-Life disciples which made sitting down as a group a bit difficult. Eventually we did get a place and we set about the final formalities. All agreed that it was a good tour, and things had gone very well even though it seems as though we had arrived one year too early. Despite this Pete was awarded a bottle of good whisky for his help in the organisation. Then it was time for the big event, the CYJ was held and the scores were revealed, we all knew it was a two horse race, Si Collins and Smokey were close, but it was between Crispy and Jambo. And the winner is………..Jambo. After many years trying and finishing second, he finally got it, there were sincere congratulations from Crispy who reflected on his disaster under the bridge on the karting track, and his failure to push on through his “threshold of fear”.

We should take a moment to thank Andy Sheehan for his help as treasurer and sorting out all money issues both before and during the tour, it is a difficult job without which the whole event would not function as well as it does. So there we have it, another year, another T shirt, and lots of fabulous memories. Let’s do it again in 2015.