Please Say it Ain't So

With only seven days to go till departure, everything should be well and truly sorted by now. All the hard work was done months (even years) ago. By this stage everyone just wants to finally get going.

And that's how the script read, until a couple of days ago when I received an unexpected, and very unwelcome, email. To my horror our hotel in Litomerice had just cancelled our entire group booking ! No, you read it right - the entire group booking.

It would not have been so bad if only one or two rooms were affected, but we had booked almost the entire hotel. Now without warning they have made the decision to hold a staff fire training session on that day, leaving us out in the cold.

This has thrown the local operators into something of a panic. Actually, I will reword that - I should have said "a real panic". I have travelled through this region before and I know that Litomerice is not a large city. It is a modest sized town with an amazing central square, surrounded by whimsical buildings. It is almost like something out of Harry Potter, and I was looking forward to seeing the place again. Now it looks like we might have 22 Ghostriders all sleeping together under the town bridge.

If travel teaches you anything, it is that panic is completely ineffective. I have found time and time again that there is always a solution to every problem. In a strange way, it often works out that the solution was actually better than the original plan. I sure hope that this is one of those cases.

So, what is happening now? It is not as bleak as it could have been. We have been able to find another 9 rooms in an alternate hotel, just a short walk from the original hotel. That means that most of our riders will have somewhere to sleep after all. We are now only about 3 rooms short........

I am sure it will all work out in the end, and we will all have a great story to tell.

In the meantime I have been watching the weather in Hamburg and discovered that the days are currently fine and warm with a top temperature around the mid 20s. I guess we will put up with that.

This may be the last update from Australia. I hope the airlines hasn't cancelled by flight without telling anyone.Læs mere