And one week after orienteering in Jicin it was ARDF in Novy Jicin

Snap!!!! (Somewhere in Poland)

Its 80m Today

 There is always beer at the finish (in Czech that is)

Kat: M40      Pásmo:80m      Limit:150      Délka tratě: 7,1 km      Kontrol:6

 kontroly: 1 2 3 4 5 M1

 Poř. St.č.  Příjm.,jméno            Index   Kontr.   Čas    Nárok VT     Body

  1. 138 Hrouda Petr                 AFK6901   6     58:01      I.         30

  2.  81 Zach Jaroslav               ASP6601   6     58:20      I.         25

  3. 117 Ambražas Gintis             LTU6301   6     65:09     II.

  4.  22 Vlach Miroslav              DCH6101   6     65:51     II.         21

  5. 116 Navickas Egidijus           LTU6401   6     68:19     II.

  6.  19 Henneberg Jens              FTU6903   6     71:06     II.         18

  7.  10 Williams David              GBR6201   6     72:53     II.

  8.  50 Mokrý Pavel                 GBM6801   6     76:16                 16

  9.  93 Deptulski Tomasz            POL6501   6     79:43

 10.  21 Vosmík Miroslav             FTU6902   6     80:20                 15

 11.  51 Chalk Steve                 GBM6509   6     82:44                 14

 12.  27 Papež Jindřich              DCH6404   6     85:43                 13

 13. 147 Havelka Jiří                ASP6402   6     88:05                 12

 14.  80 Koťátko Jiří                ASP6202   6     89:10                 11

 15.  57 Kolář Petr                  GBM6607   6     99:28                 10

 16. 129 Jelínek Stanislav           ELB6202   5    140:08                  9

Kat: M40      Pásmo:2m       Limit:150      Délka tratě: 5,6 km      Kontrol:6

 kontroly: 1 2 3 4 5 M

 Poř. St.č.  Příjm.,jméno            Index   Kontr.   Čas    Nárok VT     Body

  1.  19 Henneberg Jens              FTU6903   6     66:29     I.          30

  2. 117 Ambražas Gintis             LTU6301   6     68:33     I.

  3.  81 Zach Jaroslav               ASP6601   6     73:07     I.          25

  4.  57 Kolář Petr                  GBM6607   6     74:40    II.          21

  5. 129 Jelínek Stanislav           ELB6202   6     76:00    II.          18

  6.  10 Williams David              GBR6201   6     77:26    II.

  7.  22 Vlach Miroslav              DCH6101   6     80:17    II.          16

  8. 138 Hrouda Petr                 AFK6901   6     84:53    II.          15

  9.  93 Deptulski Tomasz            POL6501   6     88:47

 10.  51 Chalk Steve                 GBM6509   6     94:50                 14

 11.  50 Mokrý Pavel                 GBM6801   6     99:28                 13

 12. 116 Navickas Egidijus           LTU6401   6    101:07

 13.  80 Koťátko Jiří                ASP6202   6    106:11                 12

 14.  21 Vosmík Miroslav             FTU6902   6    122:32                 11

 15.  27 Papež Jindřich              DCH6404   5    145:50               

Sadly I peaked too soon as Tomasz & Steve were well ahead of me in Croatia

 Above - bathwater in Hotel Kalac (Below)

A very clunky lift...

Don't get me wrong - the Kalac was very friendly place - just a place somewhere out of 1970's Soviet Union!  I would be glad to stay there again

Some nice buildings survived communism...

 

and others had to be 'restored'

The town was deserted - no one in the bars or restaurants - everyone spending the last weekend of summer up in the hills collecting fungi and being Czech.

"Nice Holidays" in Czech Paradise

View from my room at Hotel Pa\010\#@\²¹ in Jicin

(there is a clock in the tower and it is LOUD)

It it "Hotel Paris" really... but in Czech the last three letters get "diacritical marks" - and my pre-unicode email program renders these as garbage

Apres O food - on the right a plum and cream cheese tart (glass of beer not shown)

Would the HSE Aprove?

The orienteering was amongst the rocks of the "Czech Paradise" national park - tricky navigation and no margin for error - Big cliffs, Narrow Passageways (sub 750mm) and control sites like "between the upper and lower crags (3m, 5m)" (arrowed above)

Nice forest!

A bit of a drive

From Bournville to Brzeg (via Bruges)

Still no one using Eurotunnel - what a waste!  Just the same as two years ago

The Best Western Premier Hotel Weinebrugge is a convenient place to stop going to or coming from Calais and they have some hoopy lights in the bathroom that give you square pupils.

Wet in Belgium

Notice how the road suddenly gets better as you pass into The Netherlands

Now Germany

and finally, Poland.

Hotel Schloßblick Trebsen via Booking.com

Booking.com is a very useful site if you are travelling and have internet access - but beware - just because there are no rooms on the site available - it does not mean the hotel is full - my hotel in Olawa only offers a limited selection of rooms at the Booking.com price...

Trebsen is just off the autobahn near Leipzig - nice and quiet

View from my room (3rd floor - no lifts).  They only charged €4.80 to my card - but I told them in the morning - should have been €48

Hearty Saxon food - dumplings and mushrooms (first one on the menu card).  Shared the restaurant with a couple from Sweden - but so far south in Sweden I thought they were Dutch at first.

"It is Polish law"

"It is Polish Law" - a protest that is heard much too often - I suspect a lot of it is an over simplification (it is one of the options under Polish Law or it is recommended by guidelines) and an easy way of ending/winning a disagreement - also I suspect low grade trade protectionism...

This sign means "In case of fire this is your safe escape route" - a green man running away from fire through a door.

So what does this sign mean then?

The same man running away from fire through a doorway but this time in RED - which means all or some of "danger-warning-forbidden":

A) Also an escape route?  NO
B) Definitely NOT an escape route? NO
C) A forbidden route - but you can use it in a fire emergency? NO

It is all in the text - which means

"This is a fire barrier door, keep it shut".

The sign says nothing at all about escaping or exits - despite the similarity in the symbol.  Sometimes the sign is on a fire exit, sometimes on a barrier that closes when there is a fire alarm, sometimes it is on the door to a dead-end store room.

What you would you do if you saw a door with this sign on it?

633 Squadron (For those of us who were little boys in the 70's - on every xmas

and totally ripped off by Star Wars....

1st Place in Poland (Twice)

There are two radio orienteering governing bodies in Poland - PZK (which is the Radio Society) and the PZRS (which is the one affiliated to the national sports association)

Problem is that only the PZK is able to send competitors to the European and World Championships - as these are under the IARU

So as there are two governing bodies there are two championships - and I won M40 in the PZRS version

.

The "Jazz-Pol" - advertised as "The cheapest hotel in Warsaw"

Rooms very fine - basic but what do you expect for 25 PLN a night? (I think we were subsidised)

All the necessary facilities

Healthy food

Relaxing after day 1 - there was a LOT of relaxing going on

Day 2 map

A bit wobbely

A short stay at WAW

Well this is what I remember from last time (above)

And this is what we have now (below)

Airy and light and lots of room - Could be any post 2000 airport in the world

Lot are still using the ATR 72 on the WAW-WRO route

Are you a circle or a triangle?

In Poland there is a special code - Circle means "ladies"

and triangle means "gents" (though this one is apparently upside down)

Years ago in Malbork I got rather confused - there was a lady in the "triangle side" - so I ducked back out and tried "the circles" - a lady was also in the circles .  Eventually explained to me by a helpful but beer fuels bunch of teenagers - "Think of the triangle like the shoulders and chest of a man and the  circle like the shape your wife will become one year after the wedding".  So I guess the lady in the triangles must have been the attendant