GPS Failure ... Where's Olomouc? - Czech Republic

---

For the drive to Olomouc, we decided to take the highways for the first part of the journey then turn off the highway and program the Garmin to take us over secondary roads. This meant we could see more of Poland and the Czech countryside. All was going to plan as we travelled through the small towns in Poland getting nearer to the border.

We took a detour to look at a local site and we turned the Garmin off while we had a look at a local mansion house. When we returned to the car and tried to turn the Garmin on, nothing happened. Ohhh... heck! The back-of-beyond in Poland with no map! We decided to carry on until we found a town with wifi. We soon crossed the border into the Czech Republic where we stopped at a local tavern in the first town we came to. The waitress said the tavern had wifi (pronounced whiffee as opposed to my wῑ fῑ) so we tried to revive the Garmin. We struggled to get the internet and then it became apparent that the wifi had been cut off because they had not paid their bill!

We headed to another small town and we found the information centre. Despite the working wifi, we could not revive the Garmin. The information officer printed a Google map to get us to the autobahn, some distance away, and he gave us the addresses of the Garmin dealers in Brno and Prague.

We navigated to Brno and after driving around for a while it became apparent it is a large city and we needed assistance. We drove into a carpark (Leigh means, up over the kerb at the back of a controlled carpark! -E) and we talked to the astonished attendant sitting in his booth at the barrier arm. Getting to the Garmin dealer was going to be a mission without a map, so we followed the signs to the autobahn which took us to Olomouc. At our Hotel, we talked to the Garmin people through Skype. The Aussie helpdesk said we needed a replacement unit, so we decided Prague would be the place to sort this.

We enjoyed dinner in one of the cafes on the main square in Olomouc. My pork was wrapped in bacon and served with mashed potato, onions and bacon – yum.

Olomouc is a little gem of a town and well worth a visit. The two things that stood out for me was St Wenceslas Cathedral and the very pretty main square which has many statues, fountains and a lovely Town Hall with an Astronomical clock.

---