Randy Lewis

DAY 1-3 – JUST A LONG WEEKEND IN EUROPE TRACKCHASING TOUR

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

EDITOR’S NOTE

 

 

You are about to read about my European trackchasing adventures.  As with all RANLAY Racing Trackchaser Reports everything presented as fact is, well, a fact.  On the other hand, everything presented as an opinion is in fact MY opinion.  As you know opinions are like elbows, almost everyone has one.

 

 

If you feel that the graphic and straight talk presented below might be so realistic as to take the luster off of a future European visit for yourself…….do not read any further. 

 

 

However, if you feel comfortable regarding the warnings issued above, sit back and come along on a journey through the “old country”.  You may pick up an idea or two for a future journey of your own.  At the very least, you will see how one fellow runs all over the world and you will not have to spend a dime of your own money “experiencing” Europe.

 

 

If, on the other hand, you don’t have time to read some 6,000 words right now, you can see the photos taken during Part 1 of the 2008 “Just a long weekend in Europe Trackchasing Tour”.  Simply click on or paste the following link into your web browser:

 

 

http://picasaweb.google.com/Ranlay8/080913CzechRepublic#

 

 

 

 

DAYTONA 500 TICKET CONTEST

 

 

Recall I offered a contest to my loyal and dedicated Trackchaser Report readers.  Anyone who could guess what my next two NEW trackchasing country visits were would win a prize, a very valuable prize.  They would be sitting in a V.I.P. suite at the Daytona 500 this February in Daytona Beach, Florida.  There admission would include free parking, food in the Daytona Celebrity tent, tour of NASCAR’s live pit road, a meeting with former Daytona 500 winners Richard Petty and David Pearson as well as a starting line seat for the “Great American Race”.  The entire package retails for more than $800.

 

 

Different readers selected various combinations of these countries:

 

UAE

Qutar

Mexico

Canada

Brazil

Guyana

Germany

France

Argentina

 

 

 

In order to win the Daytona 500 prize, my next two countries had to be picked in the exact order I would visit them.  Since nobody picked the Czech Republic, the prize will not be claimed.

 

 

In addition, some of the above picks are countries I have already trackchased in.  That’s a bit like picking a letter in Jeopardy that’s already on the board!  Anyway, if my second new country visit this weekend is one of the above then that contest player will win a valuable Wal-Mart gift certificate.  Good luck!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TODAY’S HEADLINES

 

What three things have made international trackchasing much easier for me?...................more in “Preparation”.

 

What would you consider a very good daily rental car rate in Europe? …………..details in “Day 2 – Thursday, September 11, 2008”.

 

What is the passing lane used for in Europe? “Day 3 – Friday, September 12, 2008”.

 

What unexpected occurrence almost prevented me from seeing racing in my 17^th different country? “Day 3 – Saturday, September 13, 2008”.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

GREETINGS FROM BRNO, CZECH REPUBLIC AND SURROUNDING AREAS.

 

 

 

 

I WOKE UP THIS MORNING IN SAN CLEMENTE, CALIFORNIA. I WENT TO SLEEP OVER THE NEXT THREE NIGHTS IN A BUSINESS CLASS SEAT ON ONE OF MY SPONSORED AIRLINES, THEN IN SCHWARZENFELD, GERMANY AND LASTLY IN BRNO, CZECH REPUBBLIC.  THIS IS WHAT TRANSPIRED DURING DAYS 1-3 OF THIS 5-DAY EUROPEAN TRIP.

 

 

 

Preparation

 

 

I used to spend more time trying to find out when tracks were racing than I did anything else.  This year I’ve done far less trackchaser research than I have travel research.  Now, I spend the most time trying to figure out how I will get from point A to point B (and C, D, E, F…….!)

 

 

Before I came upon my airline sponsorships, I never would have of thought of myself as an ice trackchaser.  Ice tracks have a propensity to cancel on less than 24 hours notice when they don’t have enough ice to race.  In my old world with airline tickets needing to be bought in advance and no last minute changes allowed, having an ice track cancel at the last minute would be disastrous.  My airline sponsors have eliminated this problem for me.  So far, in 2008, I’ve seen 15 ice racing tracks.  I don’t believe any other trackchaser has seen that many ice tracks in a single season.

 

 

Just like ice racing, I never would have seen myself attempting to trackchase all over the world.  However, my airline sponsors have again come to the rescue.  So far in 2008 I have made it to Canada, Denmark, Jamaica, Mexico, South Africa, Sweden, Thailand and now……..the Czech Republic.

 

 

Most foreign countries race only on Saturday and Sunday.  In the United States, you can go trackchasing just about every night from Memorial Day until Labor Day.  With most foreign countries racing just on the weekends that means it’s very difficult to get more than one or two countries in a single weekend.  With all of the foreign countries I visited this year, I was only able to have one weekend where I saw racing in two new countries (Denmark/Sweden) in the same weekend. 

 

 

Normally, I don’t want to stay away from home for two straight weekends in order to see racing in more than one country.  Most European racing takes place between May 15 and October 15.  During these inclusive dates, it takes twice as many frequent flyer miles (80,000) to get a free ticket to Europe.  I have never spent that many miles to get a frequent flyer award ticket.

 

 

Therefore, without support from my airline sponsors, I never would have considered trying to trackchase all over the world.  Additionally, Carol is not as keen on traveling the globe for the main purpose of trackchasing.  She’s concerned about her personal safety and wear and tear on her body.  Of course, those concerns, for me, don’t make the radar screen.

 

 

In addition to having a good transportation source, I have developed some expertise in two other very important areas for international travel.  I’m talking about over the road logistics and linguistics.  Heck, you didn’t think trackchasing was this involved did you?

 

 

You’ve heard me talk (a million times) about the value of my GPS capabilities.  I have access to European mapping that works with my Garmin GPS unit, “Tonto”.  This makes traveling all over Europe as easy as it does moving all over the United States.  Although I brought a European World Atlas map book with me on this trip, I didn’t use it once.

 

 

Track websites have made the hobby of trackchasing much easier and more efficient.  However, the vast majority of foreign track websites are written in the language native to the track’s location.  It’s difficult to get precise information or any information for that matter when the website communicates in a language for which I am unfamiliar.  I’m talking about every language except English!

 

 

I’ve been using language translation software found all over the internet.  I can translate more than 15 languages to and from English.  Here is an example of a message I “composed” and sent to foreign racetrack contact.  I know what I said in English.  I’m guessing the recipient understood why I said as well because he replied!

 

 

 

TISKOVÁ ZPRÁVA

 

 

Jsem ze San Clemente, Kalifornie a já jdu po celém světě se snaží vidět co nejvíce různých auto závodní dráhy, jako já. Jsem "Trackchaser." Jsem na světě # 1 rank Trackchaser.


Trackchasers počítat na závodní ovály, obr. 8 skladeb a silniční kurzy. Vleče a motocykly se nepočítají. Úřední trackchaser hodnocení jsou udržovány v www.trackchaser.net.

Do dnešního dne jsem viděl 1.380 různých racetracks. Jsem viděl tyto stopy ve všech 50 ze Spojených států, stejně jako District of Columbia. Můj koníček není omezena na racetracks vidět jen v USA jsem také viděl stopy z Austrálie, Barbados, Belgie, Kanada, Dánsko, Německo, Jamajka, Francie, Mexiko, Nizozemsko, Nový Zéland, Jižní Afrika, Švédsko, Thajsko a Spojené království.

V roce 2007 jsem cestoval více než 187000 mil jen na návštěvu racetracks. Šel jsem trackchasing ve 34 amerických státech, 4 kanadských provincií, stejně jako zobrazování nových skladeb v Barbados, Mexika a Nového Zélandu.


Budu se na Autodrome BRNO na sobotní aktivity. To bude 17. zemi, kde jsem viděl závodit.
 
Pokud byste chtěli, abych udělal jakékoli živé rozhovory s vaším hlasatel o mých hobby závody bych být šťastný taky. Jsem také k dispozici pro rozhovory v novinách, pokud budete chtít získat nějaké další propagaci vaší stopě.

Byl jsem se objeví v denním tisku z Austrálie do New Yorku, stejně jako kanadské rozhlasové a televizní USA. Jsem také v rozhovoru o více závod sledovat announcers než jakékoli jiné trackchaser.


S pozdravem,

Lewis Randy
San Clemente, Kalifornie

ranlay@yahoo.com

P.S. Můžete získat více informací z mé webové stránky na www.ranlayracing.com. Klikněte na "mediální pokrytí" kartu vidět minulost noviny funkce příběhy o mých hobby na trackchasing.

 

 

 

Today I saw racing in my 17^th different country.  That keeps me in third place in this category.  Only Roland Vanden Eynde of Belgium (38) and Will White of Quakertown, Pennsylvania (20) have seen racing in more countries. 

 

 

If it weren’t for my airline resources, my GPS capabilities and the new language translation software programs, I would still have less than 10 trackchasing countries.  By the way, I feel strongly that no one should ever be considered for the “Trackchasing Hall of Fame” unless they have trackchased in at least ten countries.  As it stands now, it’s simply a function of how much “pain and suffering” do I want to put my body through in an attempt to visit even more countries!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day 1 – Wednesday, September 10, 2008

 

 

I guess it would be fair to call me an entertainment junkie.  I figured I worked hard for 30 years, so I might as well enjoy life in retirement.  Today that took the form of Carol and me going to an afternoon baseball game between our Los Angeles Angels and the New York Yankees.  We go to about 10 games each season.  We split our tickets with a few other people.  I ask for the Tuesday and Wednesday games, which leaves the Friday-Monday long weekends open for other things including trackchasing. 

 

 

However, it takes a day to get to Europe.  That being the case my departure to Frankfurt, Germany conflicted with today’s Angel’s game.  In order to make my 5:30 p.m. departure I had to leave the game in the sixth inning.  Of course, this left Carol stranded at the game and she had to hitchhike home.  Just kidding!  We built this into our baseball plan and ended up driving two cars to the ballpark.

 

 

My first option was to get on a non-stop flight from Los Angeles to Frankfurt, Germany.  This was my best non-stop option into an area that would work for my new track visit to Brno, Czech Republic.  Summer vacation airline traffic is over now that kids are back in school.  European vacationing, and therefore demand for airlines seats to that location slacks off about now as well.

 

 

That being said, I left the baseball game with full knowledge that there were only two open seats on the 244-passenger airplane.  In the world of standby flying, those two open seats and many more can be taken by other sponsored passengers who have a better seniority date than I do.  If that happened, I would not be flying non-stop to Germany.

 

 

Of course, I built that eventuality into my plan.  I always have too.  I had other planned scenarios connecting me through San Francisco, Atlanta, Cincinnati, Chicago, Denver, Salt Lake, Washington and New York.  Those dreaded East coast trackchasers think I have it easy.  Little do they know!

 

 

I had some 50+ flight options scoped out in case I didn’t make the non-stop flight I wanted to Germany.  As luck would have it, almost 40 people were “no shows”.  That’s a large amount of folks backing out at the last minute.  Maybe they didn’t want to be in the air on September 11.  That didn’t bother me.  The world is a big place and terrorists can only bother a small number of people.

 

 

There were lots of positives about getting on this flight to Germany.  First, the flying time would take less than any of my other connecting options.  The flight time was 10 hours and 50 minutes.  When I landed in Frankfurt at 1:30 p.m., the local time zone would be nine hours ahead of Los Angeles.  That meant I would be landing at 4:30 a.m. California time to begin my journey.  No trackchasing is not easy whether it’s in the United States or in some foreign country.

 

 

My plane had 12 first class seats, about 50 business class seats and the rest in steerage (coach).  I was most pleased to get a business class seat.  Those go for about $5,000 round-trip for the paying public.  Business class seats offers more legroom, better food, individual video monitors for movies and a much more pleasant flying experience.  The seats recline to within about 10 degrees for flat.  I wish an engineer could get those last 10 degrees to work.  I was able to get a little bit of sleep on the plane and arrived in much better shape than if I had flown coach.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day 2 – Thursday, September 11, 2008

 

 

We landed on time at 1:30 p.m. local time.  Clearing German passport control was a breeze.  It took me less than 60 seconds.  This is one part of international travel that has improved dramatically over the years.

 

 

Carol is my “money launderer”.  She makes runs to our local bank to supply us, and this week me, with enough local currency to make the trip work.  She had already made a trip to get me Euros.  However, on the night before my flight I discovered that although the Czech Republic is part of the European Union, they do not use Euros.  They use Czech Korunas!

 

 

I would only be in the Czech Republic for about 24 hours.  I would use my Visa credit card whenever I could.  However, I would need some local currency.  I used the local currency office in the Frankfurt airport to get some Korunas.  I was hoping to buy them with my credit card.  The currency agent explained that it would be best if I used Euros to buy Korunas.  That’s what I did.  I picked up about $100 U.S. dollars worth of Korunas.  It cost me about 4.6 Euros as a commission to buy $100 U.S. dollars worth of Czech Korunas!

 

 

With both U.S. dollars, European Euros, Czech Korunas and a few Canadian dollars (from last Sunday’s Beamsville trip), I felt I could take on the world.  From there it was on to get my rental car.

 

 

I had reserved the steal of the century with my rental car reservation.  I used www.sidestep.com to get a European rental of a full-sized van with automatic transmission for the miserly sum of just 12 Euros (about $18 U.S.) per day.  That is absolutely unheard of!!

 

 

When I went to reserve my rental car, I was told that the smallest of compacts would be $65 U.S. per day.  When you’re in Europe small means microscopic.  I wasn’t sure that my baggage and I would even fit in such a rental.

 

 

However, I noticed that one special type of vehicle was available for a very special price.  I could rent a full-sized van with automatic transmission for just $18 per day.  Wow!  What a savings.

 

 

I was minorly concerned that with gas costs ranging from $8-9 dollars per gallon, the fuel economy (or lack thereof) might erase my rental savings.  I gave the thought of staying overnight in my van some thought.  With sky-high European hotel prices, I might save $100-150 in just one night.  I can hear some of my trackchasing friends saying, “stay in the van, you’ll be like one of us”.  I can hear my country club friends saying, “You’re crazy.  Why would you even consider such a thing”.  Carol broke the tie.  She said that staying in a van overnight was a stupid idea.

 

 

I had an ace up my sleeve.  I figured that once I got to the rental car office, I could beg my way out of the van, get a good fuel mileage car and still keep my super low rate.  That’s pretty much how it worked.

 

 

When I got to the Thrifty Rental Car office, the somewhat of a know it all clerk asked, “You’re just one person, why do you want a van?  You don’t need a van, we’ll put you in a car”.  Of course, that was fine with me.  That was my original idea.  I only asked that I still get the rate I reserved even if she gave me a car.

 

 

She came back in a loud voice and said, “We’ll give you a rate for a car that’s even lower than the rate you have for the van unless you want to pay a higher rate”, she snickered.  With that, the folks in line laughed at the lonely American who might want to spend even more money than his original reservation call for.  However, in this case the last laugh was on me.  When my super-hero rental car agent looked at my 12 Euro per day rental rate, she meekly, and quietly, said, “We won’t be giving you a lower rate for the car.  I’ve never seen a rate this low that you have reserved”.  Thanks, Mrs. Hitler for your kind and considerate service.

 

 

With that, I was given a Kalos Chevrolet.  I wasn’t real wild about getting an American branded car in Europe.  I would much rather have had a big Mercedes or BMW.  This little car had four doors and a five-speed manual transmission.  I think it has four cylinders (maybe less).  When I rent in Europe, I prefer a manual transmission.  I didn’t use too.  Manuals cost almost half as much as rental cars with automatic transmissions.  I’ve had personal cars in the past with manual transmissions so I’m very comfortable with that type of car.  I do know this.  Even though this car has an engine of the size that it would fit in my computer bag it will do 140 kilometers per hour (about 87 M.P.H.) on the German autobahn!

 

 

I’ve been to Europe more than 15 times.  My secret upon landing is not to go to sleep until past 9 p.m. local time on the day I arrive.  That’s difficult to do since it’s normally about midnight in my local time zone when I land in Europe.  I stuck to this plan with the exception of two 20-minute power naps at interstate rest areas along the route.

 

 

I ended up driving about 150 miles.  My GPS worked flawlessly.  It even recommended a hotel, the Schloss Schwarzenfeld (www.schloss-schwarenfeld.de).  This was a four-star very upscale place.  I was concerned it might be too expensive.  I guessed somewhere in the $300-500 U.S. dollar range when I approached the lobby.  I was most pleasantly surprised to learn the cost would be only 85 Euros (about $125 U.S.).  The rate even included a full breakfast.

 

 

The receptionist told me about a special Italian restaurant within walking distance of the hotel.  As night was about to fall, I walked across this quaint little bridge to a small area of homes and the Italian restaurant.  From there I dined outside in candle light with temperatures in the mid-70s.  My first day in Germany was going very well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day 3 – Friday, September 12, 2008

 

 

I had built in an extra day for this trip.  If I had not made my non-stop flight to Frankfurt, I would not have arrived until today.  Since I did make that flight all I had to do today was drive about 250 miles over to Brno in the Czech Republic, sight of tomorrow’s race.

 

 

Most of the roads I drove on were similar to four-lane interstates in the U.S.  They had a slow lane and a passing lane just as we do.  However, they use their passing lane for P.A.S.S.I.N.G.!!!!!  Unlike the U.S. you had best not be in the passing lane unless you are passing somebody.

 

 

The slow lane is reserved mainly for truck traffic.  The trucks do about 60 miles an hour.  By the way, I saw more trucks on the road that I’ve seen in a very long time.  In Los Angeles, trucks are not even allowed on the freeways except from about midnight to 6 a.m.

 

 

The folks in the fast lane do a bit more than 60 M.P.H.  Many do more than 100 M.P.H. and some have to be going 120!  I was running the wheels off my little car at 85 M.P.H.  Considering the car has only 13” wheels (or maybe smaller) that really IS running the wheels off of it.

 

 

I had a bit of a problem.  I couldn’t drive 100+ M.P.H. with the BMWs, Mercedes and Audis of the  world.  I also didn’t want to get stuck behind the trucks doing “only” 60 M.P.H.  This meant if I wanted to travel 80-85 M.P.H. I had to stay in the fast lane as long as I could.  When a Beemer doing 120 came up behind me it felt like Dale Earnhardt Sr. getting ready to use the chrome bumper on his fellow competitors.

 

 

When that happened, I would slip over to the slow lane.  I would try to get back in the passing lane as soon as the big boys flew by.  That worked most of the time, but occasionally I was stuck in the truck parade.  I will say this.  Drivers in this part of the world are good.  I didn’t hear any horns and I only got bright lighted once when I fell asleep in the passing lane.  Folks in the U.S. could go to school on the German and Czech drivers.

 

 

Since I had a day to get where I was going, I made a stop at lunchtime into the city of Pilsen in the Czech Republic.  Yes, that’s home to the famous Czech beer of the same name.  I simply followed the signs to the city “Centrum”.  Once there I parked my car and toured the old city on foot.  It wasn’t very crowded.  The city featured a huge old church in the city’s center called the St. Bartholomew Cathedral.  I spent a couple of hours exploring and having lunch.  Don’t miss the pictures of this and everything else at www.ranlayracing.com.  Click on the “Foreign Country Tracks” tab and then on the “Czech Republic” tab.

 

 

Tonto was excellent at getting me out of the city center and back on the highway toward Brno.  I figured I would drive by the racetrack just to confirm where it was.  I did just that.

 

 

It was about 5 p.m.  There was still some activity at the track today.  I wandered into the track property and began to look around.  I will say, if Czech security was as lax when they were a Communist country as it was today their residents could all have defected. 

 

 

I learned in the military that if you walked around base with a clipboard in your hand that no one would ever question you.  You just needed to look busy.  You would have the run of the base.  I didn’t have a clipboard, but I did have my camera bag.  I tried to avoid eye contract with each security guard and walked as if I have to be somewhere soon.  It wasn’t long before I found myself in the paddock area.  This was after clearing about five major checkpoints.

 

 

The Autodrome Brno is a road course.  It is not a course where much of the track can be seen from one vantage point.  That is common with these types of road courses.  I am certain I saw 95% more today than I will see tomorrow if I get stuck in one of the track’s grandstands.

 

 

The paddock tour was fun.  There were several different classes of cars practicing today.  Again, for a look see, check out www.ranlayracing.com.  The major classes will run on Sunday.  I’ll be long gone by then.  My countable races will go on Saturday in front of a much smaller crowd compared to what they will have for Sunday.  This is the same way it works with NASCAR for their Nationwide series that runs on most Saturdays compared with the Sprint Cup that runs on Sunday.

 

 

I spent a good two hours touring the paddock and the rest of the track.  You can’t walk around the perimeter of this road course as you can as some places.  Here you have to drive from one grandstand area to the next.

 

 

It was getting dark and I had to find a place to stay for the night.  It was also beginning to get cool.  The weather forecast calls for a cooling trend with temps in the high 50s and wind on Saturday. 

 

 

I was concerned that hotel prices would be high with such a major race in town.  Tonto told me of a nearby motel.  I stopped but they had only one room, their penthouse available.  It went for 2,350 Korunas or about $130 U.S.  That wasn’t terrible but the clerk was kind.  Just like in the U.S. he called a nearby hotel for me to check availability.  They had a room at a much lower price.

 

 

I followed his directions and soon found myself at the Hotel Global.  This is a small hotel with only about 35 rooms.  I was pleased to learn the rate for a single room was just 700 Korunas or about $40 U.S.  While our trip to Denmark and Sweden was marked with exorbitant prices, the prices I’ve seen here don’t bother me as much.  Maybe I’m just getting used to it.

 

 

By the way, I did fill up with petrol this afternoon in the Czech Republic.  My little four-cylinder requires super unleaded gasoline!  I can’t believe that.  I paid 34.2 Korunas per liter of petrol.  What does that translate to in U.S.?  It’s $8.07 per gallon.  The folks in the U.S. are bellyaching about the high cost of gas and it’s only about half of what people are paying in CZ.  Buck up Americans.  Believe it or not, you’ve got the best lifestyle in the world and fuel that costs about half of what most Europeans pay.  Life ain’t so bad.

 

 

I spent the evening using the hotel’s computer to check email and have dinner.  The hotel restaurant’s version of pepper steak was good and I didn’t have to drive anywhere for the second consecutive night.  Overall, the trip has been outstanding.  I am anxiously looking forward to seeing a race in my 17^th country tomorrow.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day 4 – Saturday, September 13, 2008

 

I awoke feeling ill.  I can only imagine it was food poisoning from last night’s hotel restaurant pepper steak or the few handfuls of water I drank directly from the bathroom faucet in my hotel room.  I’m betting on the pepper steak, although I don’t know for sure.

 

 

It wasn’t as bad as my famous trek from Wisconsin Dells to Ohio a few years ago, but it was bad.  Not only did I have the full nausea thing going on but I also had a case of extreme cottonmouth.  I had some water in my car but that was a good distance from my room.  I would have to get up go down two floors on the elevator and then walk down two more floors to where my car was parked.

 

 

On any other day, I would have simply rolled over and stayed in bed.  However, today was no ordinary day.  Today I was going to be trackchasing in my 17^th different country.  I’m trying to pass Will White for second place in the international standings.  Will wouldn’t let a simple case of acute food poisoning affect his plans. 

 

 

Hotel checkout time was 10 a.m.  I didn’t have to be at the racetrack for the first race until 11:55 a.m.  The track was less than 10 miles from my hotel.  I kept trying to get up but I couldn’t.  I must have reset my alarm clock at least five times in order to get just 10-15 more minutes of rest.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

RACE REVIEW

AUTOMOTODROM BRNO, BRNO, CZECH REPUBLIC

 

 

I’m really glad I came to this track yesterday while they were having a day of practice.  Spending a couple of hours in the paddock and surrounding areas gave me a chance to give the track a good look.  Yesterday, the weather was moderate with temperatures in the 70s.  Today, the weather had changed.  It was now about  50-55 degrees with a strong 15 M.P.H. wind if not more.

 

These cold temps coupled with my nauseated condition did not make for a comfortable morning.  I arrived at the track about an hour before the first scheduled race of the day.  At first, I tried to sit in the grandstands, but the wind blew strongly into the spectator’s faces. 

 

What were my options?  My car was parked nearly 10 minutes away from the grandstands.  Although the grandstands gave me a view of the complete front straight, there really wasn’t any place else left to go.  This would be another one of those road courses where my view would be limited to about 10 seconds of a racing lap of more than a minute.  I will never understand how that type of viewing can be considered entertaining.

 

As I quickly turned into a nauseated popsicle sitting in the grandstand, it dawned on me that I was sitting on top of the solution.  The track had a small bar/restaurant area just below the grandstands.  I went down there for warmth.  However, I would have to order something in order to justify taking up one of their tables.  In my condition, I didn’t feel like eating or drinking anything.

 

There must have been 50 people in the place having an early lunch.  Most people were eating different forms of meat and potatoes.  I scanned the menu.  It was written exclusively in Czech.  There were a few pictures but they were not of much help.

 

Finally, I settled on a Sprite to drink.  That would be good for my stomach.  Then I picked item #22 on the menu.  Here was the description:

 

Vanilkova zmrzlina, horke maliny slehacka

vanillin eis mit heise himbeeren und sahne  79 Kc

 

Any ideas what that might be?  My server spoke almost no English so she couldn’t shed much light on what I was ordering.  The item was only 79 Czech Korunas (about $5 U.S.).  I figured if it were something I couldn’t eat I would not be out much.  The entire effort was worth getting me out of the cold and cutting wind.

 

My secret selection turned out to be a nice-sized bowl of vanilla ice cream co