Day 3: Prague

Day three started at the now regular time 7.30am with the most beautiful dawn. Those from the drinking party who managed to emerge very briefly for breakfast very quickly disappeared back to their pits. Ben climbed out of his sack at 5.00pm and missed Prague.

After the now typical 10 minute breakfast of cereals, toast and a lukewarm cup of tea set off into the centre. Parked behind the palace I disembarked in shorts and tee shirt overlooking a sunny skyline. As the coach slipped away back to the campsite the sky turned grey and then black. Within 60 minutes it was pouring down. Spent most of the day in two bars with Gordon, Ted and Mac. After we'd been driven into a bar come pizzeria had an omelette and the first beer of the day. Had the second in the Café Monmatre once the haunt of Franz Kafka and the second, third and fourth in the an old communist bar. After a very short look around the wet and cold streets leading from the bar to Wenceslas Square we were driven back to the bar by the cold and my prostate. Did manage to find an internet café and check my mail before surrendering to the weather. We had gone from autumn to summer into winter all in a day. I was totally unprepared. Had a further beer in the commy bar to wash down a perfectly cooked sirloin stake in a cream, mushroom source accompanied the potato scollop's and french beans wrapped in ham. Finely before returning to the tent we retreated to a fancy wine bar and had a couple of palatable bottles of Caberngen Sauvignan from the Morava area. Arrived back at the campsite to find no bus. John Paul had to take it to have the thermostat replaced. Not a good sign after only three days.

All in all, despite the weather we had a very rewarding day. The inclement conditions afforded us the opportunity to get to know more about our three travelling companions. Mac was taking 3 month paid leave from his job as an engineer based in Dublin. Been doing his job 15 years and has spent most of the time travelling the world installing turbines. Has not touched alcohol for three years: didn't reveal why.

Gordon is far more revealing and surprisingly similar to me. After gaining a degree and getting his ideal job as the Cultural Director of a theatre in Glasgow he was sacked because he said he was not up to the job. I suspect Glasgow for him was a return to his family roots, his father had left, as many Scots did, to work in the steel mills in Corby Northamptopshire. Later his father was lucky to find employment with the post office after Thatcher had woven her spell on the area. We agreed we would have a party if she was to die while we're on route in homage to Corby and South Yorkshire.

Grimethorpe

Grimethorpe

You dug to survive like a mole underground, risking your life just to keep the bills down And what spare cash you made well you spent in this town You were born and brought up in this place
Chorus
There’s a hole in the ground where the money came from There’s hole in this town now the old mine has gone and the shop fronts are bordered from dispair and fear With no chance of work and no signs of the old winding gear
Chorus
One man knew a decade ago, that the mines would be dead along with king coal So its time to stand firm don’t give into the dole
Remember your sons and your daughters
Chorus
So you fought like a dog to keep the old ways,
for the nurses the workers and their rights to a say
But the times little change as back in old days
Betrayed by all trades and their leaders
Chorus
And the Grimethorpe band played the miners’ anthem,
as a tribute to halcyon days
Sing follow the horses oh Johnny my laddie
And the miners were forced out to graze
There’s a hole in the ground where the money came from,
remember your past and the things you have done
And don’t ever forget your part in that year
And the name and the faces of those who shut the old winding gear

The third Muskateer is much more reserved and less forthcoming than the other two. He's taking three months unpaid leave from his job as a programmer in Dublin and is very quitely spoken making it very difficult for me, with my failing hearing, to follow much of what he said.