Update

2003 IN REVIEW

Last year was one of significant change for the Pautz family and, as "a change is as good as a holiday", we did not do all the travelling we would have liked. Nevertheless we did start the year on a high, spending an excellent week in Tunisia. It's taken me a year complete the
trip report, but I hope you enjoy it!

In mid-January we visited our friends Etienne & Elise in Amsterdam, just before they had their beautiful baby. One of the highlights of the year for me
was the trip I made to Tallinn in Estonia in February. It was cold, but I had a wonderful time in
the quaint "old town".

With the possibility of relocating from the Czech Republic to the United Kingdon in the air, I
joined Debs in Hatfield (to the north of London) where we
spent the weekend viewing properties in mid-March. At the end of the month I visited New York on a business trip, and spent another weekend in the Big Apple. In April we did the same route - viewing properties in St. ALbans and Harpenden (Hertfordshire, UK) with our friend, Holger Grunwald, and then another business trip to New York later in the month.

In late 2002 I acquired a new
toy - a Ferrari 328 GTS - and we really enjoyed it throughout the summer of 2003. In April we did a great weekend drive through Poland and Germany. It was
also a good year for motor- cycling. Last year's summer
was the longest and hottest on record in many European countries, and we enjoyed the opportunity on two wheels! Between April and October we did many weekend rides
through the Czech Republic
and beyond.

The big trip of the year was the drive we did through Spain at
the end of April. Debra, Gerhard Fouche and I rented a car and had a great time in perfect weather. I know, I know...a trip report is needed! In early May, business took me to Lagos in Nigeria for an eye-opening
week! Later in the month I was back in Sofia, Bulgaria for a work function...and to spend
time in the city's great book market. Debs and I ended May with a motorcyclre ride to Ebensee in Austria to see a
rock concert!

My mother, Joan Pautz, turned
75 in June and Debs and I flew back to South Africa to celebrate in the appropriate style! At the end of June, Piers Relly visited us in Prague and we drove the Ferrari to the German metropolis of Laubach-Röthges for a major service. In early July I was
back in Limassol, Cyprus for more business and in mid-July caught a train to Germany and drove the Ferrari through
Saxony back to Prague. During July and August I did a number
of rides and drives to the small village of Dubi in the north of the Czech Republic where I was negotiating to buy a vintage motorcycle, trailer and spares.

In early August we were visited by my in-laws, Janette and Keith Veitch, and had a great time touring with them. We also got back to the concentration camp of Terezín (Theresienstadt) for
the first time since the floods of 2001. In mid-August we were back in Hatfield and St. Albans viewing property with a view to purchasing. At the end of the month we drove the Ferrari from Prague to Southampton in the south of the UK to meet with old friends Charles Reeler, Holger Grunwald, Robert Brink and Etienne Posthumus. We all rented BMW motorcycles and blasted across the Salisbury Plain like absolute hooligans! :-) Debs and I then drove the
Ferrari up to Lincolnshire where we stored the car with Terry and Chris Clark.

Débra transferred from Prague
to Hatfield in the UK at the beginning of September and we would be apart for most of the time between then and mid-December. In the middle of the month we were property hunting in St. Albans again and later in the month Debs visited me in Prague and we did our final motorcycle ride out to Karlstejn Castle. In July I had been offered a job in the UK, accepted and managed the hand-over to my successor during September. In early October I packed my BMW's panniers and set off on a 15 day genealogical ride through the Czech Republic, the Baltic coast of Poland, Szczecin,
Berlin and the Ostsee coast of Germany.

At the end of October the nightmare started - THE BIG MOVE from Prague to St. Albans where Debs had found us rental accommodation. I arrived in Prague in 1995 with three suitcases and two camera bags and left in 2003 with a car, a motorcycle, 375 boxes and
6,000 kilograms of "stuff". If I never have another move like that, it will be too soon! Under the pressure of the move, we reluctantly cancelled our motorcycle tour to Laos/ Cambodia/Thailand.

With the flat in St. Albans stacked with boxes, I fled to South Africa in mid-November where I spent a month with my mother, and behind the controls of a "Lambada" aircraft, spending about 22 hours in the air and completing about 350 "touch-&-go's"! Debs joined me down there for a week before
we flew back to Prague for a FINAL weekend and then on to St. Albans for Christmas. Between Christmas and New Year we took the plunge and bought a flat! It is still being built and we are scheduled to move in at the beginning of May 2004!

So begins a new and exciting phase in our lives. New
country, new jobs, new house, new lifestyle! Phew..."as good as a holiday"?! After all this change, we need a break!!

We hope you all have a prosperous year!