The journey to work

Over the years my wife & I have gone to work by bus, train, and over more recent years by car, for the sake of practicality. No, we are not Eco-Warriors, though we do have a healthy appreciation of nature and the countryside, but in the end, the car is the easiest and more convenient thing for us.
After a while, you settle in to a sort of routine, or a regular journey, and you not only see familiar landmarks, but also familiar people (who are still strangers to us). Some of them come and go...but they are just as much a landmark to us. This is a sample of our journey :-)

We leave home and go down the hill to the junction...sometimes we have to wait because of the 'rush hour' (not such a bad thing in VB), and so we sometimes have time to count the number of cars with just 1 person in them...(the record for us is seeing 8 cars in a row). Seems like a car-saving scheme could be a good idea over here?

Then we head out of town (yes, VB is a town, even though it still has the feel of a village! Indeed, we even have the official title of 'town' emblazoned on the rubbish bins!)...sometimes, even in the 50kmph zone, we are overtaken by sometime who clearly is rushing to a fire or being chased by the Mafia, but they are not so common.
We pull out onto the main road going towards Olomouc. Last year, we saw a van on fire near the big roundabout - we could even feel the heat from it as we drew nearer, though it was on the other side of the road. Roundabouts are relatively new inventions here, for us. We used to live in Basingstoke, which was also known as Doughnut City, because of it's preponderance of roundabouts :-) When I first came to CR in 1996, I only recall 1 roundabout...and that was in Plzen!

Then we turn off towards the back end of Hodolany...and this is where our 'landmarks' begin...

• Jogging woman - no longer jogging, so it seems, though she was quite regular last year and could be seen running along that stretch
  
• Froggy Car - a car which my wife says looks like a frog...green with bug eyes :-)
  
• Newspaper Man - usually pulling his trailer full of newspapers/leaflets under U Podjezdu, up or down the hill
  
• Brigada Bok - just coming up the hill from U Podjezdu, there is sometimes a guy waiting for a lift to his job, probably some casual work ;-)
• Woman with 2 kids - sometimes seen just after this...
• Sulky Student - coming along the road from Pasteurova, looking very miserable, in danger of tripping over his bottom lip (the result of too many sulks ;-) )
  
• Mr Director - a smartly dressed, slightly chubby guy, usually wearing a loud tie and looking like he means business

By now, we are usually turning the corner around Pasteurova, and this is my first chance in the competition that my wife & I play while driving - 'Spot the Student/Teacher versus Spot the Patient' - Petra has usually seen a patient or two by now, getting off the bus, or walking down by Pavlovicky, and on a good day, I might see some students going to Pasteurova, or even some teachers, or (if I'm really desperate for points!) Mrs Lerchova or Marta from the buffet kiosk :-) Then we continue looking for some more 'landmarks' which assure us that we are on the right track to work...

• Stripey Car - silver car with black stripe down its bonnet
• Mr Open Coat Man - a rotund guy who always walks with his coat open (even this morning when it was pouring down with rain!)
• Brigada Corner - just where we turn in to go to Petra's job, there has (in the past) been a regular meeting place for some casual workers

And there you have it :-) It keeps our minds active, and gives another dimension to the already invigorating activity of driving on Czech roads...which will probably be my next topic ;-)