Didn't see this coming. Planned to end up in s campsite in the Moravian Karst, a gorge and cave ridden region, but everywhere is swarming with caravans and car camping families for the Friday holiday. Lots going on, every open space seems to have a bbq event, there's a big meet for owners of classic Trabant cars, another village has a fairground, etc.
After one look at the campsite and a quick pint of live giving pilsner its back to mapy. cz to pick out a prospective hill top away from the crowds.
Dragged Wallace up a rough forestry track and rewarded with clear skies for some night photography, accompanied by the strains of a cover band wafting up the valley until 2am.

Lots of casual railway level crossings

Recording a cicadas would make a great drum machine track

Peace and quiet punctuated by owls and woodpeckers

Next day, rode past all the tourist caves, too crowded to want to stop, but the scenery is still nice. And a big downhill to Brno. Wheeeeee!
Its hot again. Beer is cold. Pivo time.

Went underground today on a tour of caves at Javoricko, lots or stalactites and stalagmites. Unfortunately the village was torched by the Germans in the last days of the war so sombre edge on the place.
Also did some drone flying at nearby Bouzov castle.
Then descent to another nice little market town, Litovel, and following a popular riverside path to Olomouc for a day off.
Stayed at the very homely Poets Corner Hostel, a stones throw from the historic centre. What a pleasant little city, all the sights and barely any tourists, great light for pictures etc.

Apologies if I'm not writing amusing prose, I can't be bothered spending all evening tapping out sentences on mg phone.

First up, big thanks to Thomas and Ladi for organising getting my bike to the start line in one peice.

Scenery here is rolling hills, lots of patches of forest, roads thoughtfully lined with trees, ditches instead of hedges, massive fields, presumably due to soviet era collectivisation, lending the landscape a really open feel.

A fox with crosses the road ahead of me with what looks like a chicken in its jaws. Coasting silently down the road, all is quiet except for bird calls, the buzzing of bees, the flutter of butterflies chasing each other over wild flowers by the roadside.

Village tannoy systems broadcasting brief uplifting music followed by local news on the hour

Jesus on the cross, shrines everywhere, churches from tiny to oversized.

Splendid town halls, schools,

Most villages have a little bakery (great fresh pastries and bread), COOP (closed at lunchtime), and maybe a Pivovar (brewery)

Oh have i not mentioned castles yet? Castles!
In the UK we stopped building defensive castles ages ago, but here they were still a requirement until more recently. Therefore they come in all kinds of styles and such. Stopped at Svojanov for my first castle tour, including torture instruments and tales of wives bricked up inside walls and people going mad.

Camped in the woods at the highest point that stood out on the map, near an interesting looking meteorological station tower.

Tak, two days of 5 a side football in 30 degree heat, a total of 9 twenty minute matches ending with elimination at the last 32 stage, although we were all still pretty happy with that achievement, especially as players were dropping like flies with injuries and hangovers. The stadium complex is relatively new and the pitches were the best surface I've ever played on.
For a humorous introduction to the national obsession with sport, have a watch of Sunday league (subtitled).

Off the pitch, a conveyor belt of £1 a pint Czech lagers, massive plates of goulash, sví?ková, deep fried cheese (the only vegetarian option on most menus), all left me pretty exhausted before the journey had even begun! So due to fatigue and the thundery weather forecast I stayed on in Svitavy with Martin's da [...read the rest]

I've arrived in CZ during a heatwave, so sightseeing has become an endurance sport in its own right - 24km walking in 35 degrees sunshine, tourists scurrying for shade, parasols and ice creams.
The traditional hot spots of the astronomical clock, Charles bridge and the castle were predictably swarming with tour groups beetling along behind guides wielding a variety of distinctive identifiers, but aside from that nowhere seemed crowded - I visited the Communism museum (disappointingly lightweight), Meda gallery (disappointingly brief) and Miniature (microscopic) art museum (downright amazing), Vitkov national monument, Zizkov TV tower, Vysehrad castle, ate some goulash, drank some beers, took a tram, detoured for various amusing sculptures, parks, churches, and gradually became desensitize [...read the rest]

So the reason for no exciting updates recently is that i moved to London to work on a contract for 12 months.
This is my first time living in London, a place full of parakeets where it takes an hour to get anywhere in the city, no more no less.
Perks are that there are loads of gigs to go to, and i joined a football team, (last year they were effectively the 2nd worst team in London.) which turned out to consist of friends of my schoolmate and esteemed web host, Mr C. Black!
What else, what else. not much really. work, sport, noisy busy city where everyone seems to be looking forward to the day they can move somewhere else.
Colleagues trading war stories about their 3 hour horror commutes, while i walk 30 minutes to the office.
Cycling through the city is a bit crazy - happily the new [...read the rest]