Czechoslovakia 1981

Trip to the High Atlas mountains in Czechoslovakia in July 1981 with Ramblers Holidays.
Ruth Lees - Tour Leader (probably)
Jan Strachan - Hitchin Herts
About ten others

My parents drop me off at Nottingham train station and I get the train to Kings Cross. Then the tube to Heathrow. My first time on an aircraft, it is Russian or Czech made. At the end of the runway they hold it on the brakes and put the engines to full power.

We fly to Prague and then take an internal flight to Bratislava and then bus from there.

We have a local guide, Michael, with us who worked in media. He was taking a risk by talking with us.

We stay in the Hotel Park in Novy Smokovec. There is a Communist party conference going on nearby to decide the next five year plan. We put Hotel California on the Jukebox every night.

The official currency exchange rate is 11 Koruna to the pound. We get the special Tourist rate which is 23 to the pound. A waiter at the hotel gives 50 to the pound.

We watch the local coverage of the wedding of Charles and Diana on 29th July. They mostly show pictures of people sleeping rough in London with just one long range shot of the couple.

I have my 19th birthday there, the local tourist agency donated a cake.

Some of us climb Gerlachovsky Stit (2655 m) the highest mountain in Czechoslovakia with a local guide.

Have a couple of days back in Prague. It is 4p to go anywhere in the city on a tram and 4p for a pint of beer. Go for a drink with Jan Strachan in the "Old Square". I think that we are taken to the U Fleku for some very good dark beer.