---

From Jaroměř to the curling hall Na Roztylech.

Prime Minister Stanislav Gross, a former train driver, has fulfilled his dream and once again drove a train. For his thirty-fifth birthday, his colleagues from the CC Lokomotiva Praha curling team gave him a three-hour ride on a historic steam train from Jaroměř to the Prague - Chodov train station. "Apart from the government and my curling team, I finally got to drive a train," the prime minister smiled brightly.

But Gross arrived at Friday's curling practice in Roztyl with red eyes. "It's my fatigue, I sleep no more than six hours a day now, we work a bit in the government. But maybe it's also the train. You have to drive the steam engine by looking out the window a lot," he apologised.

Besides a bottle of Chateau Rotschild, which the prime minister received yesterday from his teammate Škromach, and a stuffed lion from a small curler from Trutnov, Gross did not receive many gifts. "I tell my friends and sports rivals that if they want to make me happy, they should not give the bottles to me, but rather donate them to charity or charitable causes." concluded the Prime Minister.

"Yes, the ride was approved, the track was free and the cost of coal was paid by the Prime Minister in cash at the station," Transport Minister Milan Šimonovský (KDU-ČSL) readily provided his comment. "His driver's license is forfeited, but we all know he can drive," he added when asked directly by a CTK editor.

author AL 2004