Up and packed and off to the train station a little early as we were meeting Cosmo there for a rover pickup. As we had extra time we did an exchange, Helen dropped them, he picked up and dropped them and I picked them up. Caught the train at 9.01 and 6 hours later arrived in Prague. The train wasn’t one of the fast Inter-City trains and it took an hour longer than the bus, but the lady in the booking office said that suitcases were better on the train, so train we did. Once we hit the Czech Republic some of the stations were quite different with people walking over the tracks to get on the train and relatives standing on them to wave goodbye. We even saw a steam train pulling out of one of them. Once we found our hotel, across the road and a small strip of park, from the train station, we sat and capped munzees from our room! We headed out, back to the train station for a lasagna dinner and a little more capping. Then on for a walk around the streets, working our way into the central part, to Wenceslas Square and beyond. There are actually virtual munzees everywhere here, we only walked around 6 kms and still managed 800+. The buildings here are amazing. I know we have had plenty of cobble stones elsewhere but they seem to go better her, even if all the cars do sound like they have flat tyres, lol.

Today was a weather day, it was either brollies up for the rain, coats on because there was a really cold wind or coats off because the sun was hot!

There were about 6000 teams (a team can be one person, two people or even a whole family) registered for this first ever geocaching Giga-event, which meant 10-12,000 people attending the main part of the event today. We had seen small groups of people looking at phones on the way home yesterday and thought something was happening. It wasn’t until we got back toe emails etc. that we realised they were looking for lab-caches. So first thing this morning we started on them ourselves. Basically you have to locate a specific spot and then answer a question. It could be a date or a word or a number. The first batch of 10 took us through the city squares, including the weekly fresh-food market….lots of yummy stuff. Once we had finished that lot we headed out to the Olympic Park for the main event. Helen had thought that we would be queuing for ages for registration, but that was really quick and easy. Then we had to descend down to the main floor of the stadium and queue for brunch, that took ages, LOL. We discovered Seal & her husband, whom we had met in Cologne last year, had a look at the stands, signed the table & benches being used as the event logbook, and then left the stadium to munzee hunt. Well around 12 hours later, 850 munzees (mostly vituals, manually capped), another 10 lab caches, an earth cache, a hill climb and a hamburger dinner, we were more than ready to come home for the evening.

There was a summer fair also going on around the Olympic venues, lots of rides, food, people and kids, so with the influx of all those geocachers, lots of activity and noise around the place. The weather doesn’t seem to bother people either really. Lots of sheltering under trees and dryish places, but everyone soon moves on as soon as the rain diminishes enough. Anyway time for bed, Prague tomorrow.

It’s a public holiday today, so the roads where quiet, but a lot of the train stations were still busy. No idea how many trains we caught today and how many ups and downs we did, but it was a lot, lol. Mind you we still managed to walk 17.5 kms, so not much resting today. We started off by walking along the river Isar for a little while, such a fast flowing river and lots of water in it. Wandered over to a lovely, enormous park named the English Garden. It was full of trees, grassed areas, water and pathways. Another park and then headed back to the hotel for lunch and a short rest. We had been trying to solve a puzzle so we could find a cache, so having finally solved it, we headed for that next. Then on to another large park on the map, near the famous Statue of Bavaria and the Hall of Fame. Maria will laugh at this, but most of it was fenced off for the setting up of the big Oktoberfest festival, which is held in September. Maria & I hit Sydney Olympic Park earlier this year to find most of it fenced off for the Royal Easter Show!

Couple of interesting train observations today. There is one line where you get on the train on the left and have to exit on the right. Must be great in peak hour! The other was that we caught several trains that were just one very long train, no carriages, just the moving floor & walls at the joins, lol, it was quite a sight sitting at the front end and looking all the way back to the unseeable end, especially around curves!

Poured all night, and didn’t sleep well, kept hearing the church bells chiming the time, lol. We got on the train at 7.40 and got off at 14.41 and are now the other side of Germany in Munich. Helen was a bit headachy and didn’t fare too well with the train movements, but now on ‘dry’ land she’s much better. Dry being the operative word, it’s been raining, so we are NOT going to forget our brollies again today, lol. A very interesting sight along the way there were fields and fields of solar panels. Not high ones, but masses of them, such a good idea. Munich does not have masses of munzees, we are here primarily to attend the first ever geocaching Giga-Event. Anyway, about to pop out and get a few munzees, so will get back later.

Well later it is, 20.45 to be precise, lol. We have had a nice long walk around this part of Munich. These German’s are real night people, the shopping malls, squares, roadside cafes are full of people, and so multicultural. We reckon that if you asked 50 people their background, 40 would all be different! Karlsplatz & Marienplatz were crowded, buskers at every vantage point, several fresh fruit stalls and lots of lovely old buildings, chiefly churches.

Pretty amazing really that one can be hurtling through the German countryside at 200 kmh and still access the Internet!!!

Left at 7.30 headed for Berlin’s main train station and all the munzees that have been placed there. On the way we did the virtuals around our hotel and the memorial church. Spent a little time sitting on the platform capping what we could, and then after sorting out our seats and tickets for the next couple of train trips in the itinerary, we actually did something we talked about doing in Bournemouth & London, we took an open top bus sightseeing tour!!!!! We nearly went to get our money back as the promised 10-15 minute wait turned into 30 minutes, but it did eventually appear. It was actually quite hot sitting in top there, the occasional avenue of shady trees where very welcome. Part of the original Berlin Wall and Checkpoint Charlie were part of the tour as well as several other sights that we had already walked to, but it was nice all the same. Got off at Alexanderplatz to get some of the hundreds of virtuals there when Munzee started maintenance and we couldn’t do many, so came back to the hotel for a rest. Out again at 5 and back to Alexanderplatz for a wander around, It started raining and guess what neither of us had brought with us, either of our 2 umbrellas, LOL. Not much rain luckily for us. Managed to catch the train going the wrong way to get home, so we had to change platforms at the next station to catch another train back. Quick walk back to the hotel in the rain, and another late night. We have a long time on the train tomorrow, so will try and get enough of a signal to put the photos on then.

Left just after 8 this morning, forecast was sunny! Caught 3 trains to a small place north west of Berlin. The station was mainly closed down, just a dropping off/picking up point, and looked a bit sad. The rain started as we got off the train, so we managed to find some shops relatively nearby and bought another umbrella, lol now we have no excuses for getting wet, we have 2 each, just have to remember to take them with us, even if it is sunny!!!!! Walked about 5 kms since leaving the hotel to get to the next spot, which was rather strange. We had some very quiet village streets to walk (the rain had stopped by now) and then through some hedgerows. These had lots of wild plum trees growing, tiny little plums in various colours, and very sweet! There are a lot of mystery virtuals arranged in rows over a rape-seed field and a wheat one. At least the rape-seed one had been harvested so we could walk on the stubble, but not sure how anyone would get them when the crops where growing. Managed that lot with lots of walking and a final multi-cap to get those in the unharvested wheat field. Then southwards to another rail station for the trip home. As we had to change to another train we went out of the station, did a few more munzees then discovered the station we next went to was closed, so then a tram to the next station and a train back to our hotel. Another 15 km day, but back early, so hopefully we can get an early start tomorrow.

Rain in Paderborn and sights of Madgeburg

Awoken at midnight by rain, thunder & lightning!!! However it had all stopped when we left the hotel at 8 and got back 16.5 kms later at 8.15. It was a long 16.5 kms. Sometimes the map does not load all the munzees on, especially if there are lots and so we didn’t realise the scope of what we were headed for. We did some physical mystery’s along the road up to the Tiergarten. An extremely large park/wooded area north of the city centre. It was a lovely place, lots of pathways through it in all directions. Not quite central is a large roundabout which has the Berlin Victory Column in the centre of it. There we met a fellow munzer, JackSparrow and we did some rover swapping. There are badges for the number of unique rovers transported, so new ones are always good to have in ones kennel, even for a short time. From there we headed for the virtual clusters that just kept going on and on and on. There were lots around the Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstadt, so we did get some sightseeing done in this city as well, LOL. Sadly the camera I bought for Zack in 2003 has decided not to work any more, so the phone camera will have to suffice.  There will be some more photos, it’s just tooooo late to do them tonight, sorry.