An odd, but quiet camping spot. (Image credit: Mike Broderick & Mary McConneloug)
Actually, it's just another campground in another unfamiliar European town, but it has almost all the comforts of home-- a place to get off the road and take a coin-op shower, tune the bikes, do a bit of laundry, and in this case, since we are really lucky, find an unguarded wireless signal.
Home really seems to be an abstract term, with the meaning up for interpretation and subject to constant evolution for each individual. Home could be something you own, rent, has a roof, garden, leather couch, TV, or possibly just where you are for a few hours while on the side of the road in an unfamiliar continent. This is a good thing for Mary and I since we have been driving practically non-stop for the past month competing in races around Europe.
The past weeks' destinations included Templice, Czech, for a Saturday race then a quick 800km drive down to an unusual, but well attended Tuesday race in Nalles, Italy, and then back over the Alps to for a high category race in Heubach, Germany, on the following Sunday. Driving and lots of hard racing has been taken up all our time in the dry and dusty spring that has so far prevailed for most of our time here in mainland Europe.
After a bit of a delay at the border where we discovered that not having an international drivers license could actually present a bit of a problem, we really enjoyed our time in the in Czech republic. We were treated so well by the race promoters and staff. The promoters had an English translator on hand to help with the international racers which consisted only of Mary and me, the Chinese women's mountain bike team, and Spaniard Jose Hermida. It was definitely much appreciated since we don't speak Czech, and we have found that there are very few similar crossover words that sound somewhat the same in English.
