Day 4: Prague to Munich

Distance travelled: 250 miles approx
Start: Prague
End: Munich

The last day of the tour! Today is a shorter drive, and a straight forward run to Munich via the Czech and German motorways.

We set off early, not because we're keen at 8am after several beers the night before, but because our parking runs out. Prague parking is a nightmare, it's colour coded for what you can and can't do, but the signs don't explain what the colours actually mean... Night before we drove around looking for somewhere to leave the Volvo, navigating many 1 way streets that both Google maps and the sat nav were determined to send the wrong way down... So we parked on a street that starting charging at 8am...no better encouragement to get going.

Leaving Prague, we weren't impressed with the city. Outside of the centre (and even in the centre at times) it feels very rundown. One street had a space for a pavement but seemed to make a decision to not tarmac it, but leave as dirt and put a long, 500m piece of carpet down instead.

Pulling onto the motorway in Prague, I looked behind to see the Czech equivalent of Robocop following me on his motorbike - black mask across his entire face, sunglasses. Shit, we are supposed to have a pass to use the motorways here, and surprisingly, we don't have one. This guy doesn't look like the friendly Bobby who'd have a lovely chat about the volvos he's owned in the past and what great cars they are...

Fortunately, Robocop left us alone, passing us with a significant stare at first us, then the car, and we carried on.

The drive to Prague was an easy one - the engine warning light did not return this morning, and the Volvo is running like it was when he left Chester again... What a relief!

Munich is a great city to get around, of everywhere we've been, we found our way the easiest here. Perhaps that's because we were getting used to driving in Europe, but based on me still being reminded to drive on the right by dad at least once a day as I pull out of a junction, perhaps not.

We got into Munich by the underground system, grabbed a bite to eat at an Italian restaurant, and headed to the awards ceremony for the rally.

We met up with the same teams again who almost all made it without a hitch. One exception was our friends in the jeep who followed us the day before. After many problems that they fixed along the way, the old girl finally overheated so much it had had its final drive. This meant the guys were given another crumballer car that was going to be scrapped to drive home!

After a few awards were given out for the challenges and best car etc, we walked to Oktoberfest.

Oktoberfest was amazing, not really what we expected but brilliant. Basically, there are several enormous halls, all with a brass band at the centre and hundreds of tables and benches. Everyone stands on the benches (why would you sit down?) and drinks, dances and sings to the music while drinking 1L beers.

The music was all known pop hits rather than traditional German brass music, so we all had a great time with it.

Approximately 5L of Germany's finest ale later, we got back to the hotel for 1am.

Tomorrow, the drive home...

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