Cycling the
Czech Republic
A Meandering Ride from Gmund to Prague
Day
1 – Vienna to Gmund -
10km
After several delightful and enjoyable
days in Vienna, we packed our bags and rode through the
city to Franz Joseph Bahnhof. Here we caught a train to Gmund which is just
inside the Austrian border. We had originally planned on going by train all the
way to Ceske Budejovice but decided that there wouldn’t be enough time to make
the connection onto the Czech train when we reached Gmund. The Austrian
conductor made us take all the bags off the bikes, which was a real nuisance. We
had to carry the bags through several carriages to our compartment. In total we
had 28 bags between the four of us.
It was a pleasant trip through the
undulating countryside but the weather became increasingly humid and we could
see large clouds building up on the horizon. When we arrived at Gmund, we
unloaded the bikes and then handed all 28 bags through the window of the
compartment. By the time we had re-loaded the bikes, the train to Ceske
Budejovice was long gone so we had made the right decision to stay in Gmund.
Tomorrow was going to be a public
holiday in Austria and we were not sure if it was going to be one in the Czech
Republic as well. Just in case, we stopped at the supermarket to stock up on
food for tomorrow before riding to the campground.
The campground was really quite nice and
one of the nicest ones we have stayed in Austria. There were only a couple of
other people staying there. Not long after we had finished eating dinner, the
storm which had been building up for some time hit. There was lots of thunder
and lightning and heavy driving rain. We sheltered under the veranda of the
amenities block before the wind driven rain drove us into the ladies toilet for
shelter. We still had washing drying and used the hair drier in the toilet to
dry it.
Most of the buildings in the town seem
to have elaborate lightning conductor systems, so this is obviously an area
prone to electrical storms.
Day
2 – Gmund to Cesky Krumlov -
75km
More storms rolled in over night and we
had quite a lot of rain but it was bright and sunny when we got up. We had not
long finished breakfast and were in the process of packing up when we noticed
another storm rapidly heading our way. The tent was almost dry, so we quickly
pulled it down and just managed to finish packing as the first rain drops
started to fall.
We sheltered at the entrance to the
campground until the storm had passed by. It didn’t take us long before we arrived at the special pedestrian and
cyclists’ border crossing. The Austrian border guards took no notice of us but
the Czech border guard was quite surprised to see us ride up. We think that he
doesn’t get very many cyclists crossing the border here. Most of the people
using this crossing park their cars on one side of the border and walk across to
the town on the other side. Austrians cross to Ceske Velenice to buy cheap
clothes and beer, while the Czechs cross into Austria to stock up on supermarket
items and electrical and hardware goods. Noelene was the only one of the four of
us not travelling on a European Union passport and she had paid quite a lot of
money for a visa before leaving Australia. According to the border guard, she no
longer required a visa to enter the country since it had become a member of the
European Union a few weeks earlier.
We stopped in the unattractive town of
Ceske Velenice for a short time to get some money from the money machine at one
of the banks and then headed out of town on an unsealed bike path. After all the
rain, this was quite soft and wet and made for heavy going. The route took us
one very quiet tracks and roads through large pine forests. When the tracks were
sealed, they were often quite rough with lots of large pot holes. We had to keep
a constant look out to avoid the worst of them. When we were on large roads, the
surface was generally good and well maintained.
Just before we came out of the forest
near Nova Ves, we saw a group of Austrian cyclists. We caught up with them at a
railway crossing just out of the town. The boom gates were down and we all stood
and chatted while we waited. They had all crossed over from Austria for a day’s
cycling through the forests. After about ten minutes of waiting at the closed
boom gates, a single carriage passenger train slowly trundled past. We waited
for several more minutes before the gates were manually opened by a man turning a large
handle.
The day’s ride was very up and down with
lots of hills. We seemed to be climbing or freewheeling through the forest all
day. Storms continued to threaten us and we could see a very large storm away to
the south. It seemed as though we rode in light rain for much of the morning.
We stopped for lunch at Trocnov. The
Hussite military leader, Jan Zizka, was born here and there is a memorial and
museum dedicated to him. There were large numbers of school children there on a
visit to the museum. Amongst other things, Zizka is remembered as being one of
the leaders of the Prague “defenestration” when Catholic councillors were thrown
from the windows of the town hall in 1419. We sat on some seats under the
shelter of large oak trees to eat our lunch of bread, cheese and salami. Rain
was threatening so we went to the small café near the museum for a hot drink.
It started raining in earnest as we reached the café door. The lady running the café
was very apologetic because the power kept going off every few minutes as a
result of the storms raging nearby.
It started raining heavily again as we
rode into Stritzov and we sheltered in a convenient bus shelter for a while.
When the rain eased, we set off. As we rode through Rimov, there was a
loud bang. Mary had a blow out which destroyed her rear tyre and tube. This was
in one of the new tyres which Alan bought just before leaving Australia, so we
were very surprised. Luckily, we were carrying spares and we were soon on
our way again.
We turned off the road onto a very steep
up and down track which took us through the forest and past a large dam. At
first the path had a concrete surface and the water was running down it in a
continuous stream. After we had passed the dam, the track deteriorated into soft
sand and was unrideable for much of the way. Eventually, we struggled into
Velesin. There was plenty of evidence that they had been hit by a heavy storm
and many people were busy pumping water from their flooded basements. That night
we saw on television that the area just south of here had suffered flash
flooding, trees blown down and major power cuts as a result of the storm.
Luckily, we seem to have been skirting the edge of the storm for most of the day
and missed most of the rain and winds.
There were lots of long uphills as we
approached Cesky Krumlov. We could see the town in the valley below but every
time we thought the road was starting to descend, there was another long climb
around the corner. Eventually, we reached the top of the last hill and had a
quick run down into this World Heritage listed town. There is no campground in
Cesky Krumlov, so we had to find a guesthouse or pension for the night. There
seemed to a lot around but the first couple we tried were full. The third one we
tried had only one spare room but they did have a two roomed apartment right in
the centre of the old town. We could have that provided we were prepared to
travel the one kilometre back to the guesthouse for our breakfast in the
morning.
It was 5.30 by the time we reached the
apartment. It had been a long and tiring day.
After unloading the bikes and carrying
our bags up the three flights of stairs, we went to a restaurant nearby for a
beer. Feeling more relaxed, we showered and changed before setting out to find a
restaurant for dinner. There were a lot of tourists wandering around the town
and there were lots of pensions and restaurants to cater for them. Most of the
restaurants seemed to be offering a fairly international menu and not many had
what appeared to be “traditional” Czech dishes available. Eventually, we decided
to go back to the restaurant where we had our beers earlier and enjoyed a very
pleasant meal form the small “Czech” section of the menu. It cost us about $40
for the four of us for dinner. Virtually all the restaurants had their menus
translated into English and German which made ordering a lot easier as the Czech
names for things are completely different from anything that we are used to.
Restaurants on the banks of the Vltava
River at Cesky Krumlov
Day 3 - Cesky Krumlov to Hluboka nad Vltavou
-
46km
It rained again overnight and there were
a few showers as we packed up. We made our way to the guest house where we had
an excellent breakfast. Then we spent a few hours wandering around the quaint,
narrow streets of this picturesque town before climbing up to the huge castle,
the second largest in the country.
Back at the apartment, we trudged up and
down the three flights of stairs carrying all our bags down to load our bikes
for the day’s ride. Every time David came down the stairs, he had to bend very
low to avoid bumping my head on the low stone ceiling.
We rode out of town on the main road. It
was horrendously busy; much busier than when we had used this same road when we
rode into town yesterday. We turned off it as soon as we could. The route took
us through a mixture of quiet roads and forest paths. It had been raining quite
heavily and water was lying everywhere. As we crossed some railway lines,
Noelene’s bike slipped on the slippery lines and she fell heavily. Thankfully,
she hadn’t hurt herself badly but she did have some big bruises for some time to
come. About 10km from town we turned onto a path by the river which took us
passed a campground. It was a sea of mud with a few dejected tents in the middle
of it - not an attractive sight.
Just passed the campground, we entered
the forest again. We turned the corner and were confronted with a very steep
climb. It went on for a long way and was far too steep to ride. In places, parts
of the path had collapsed and the safety rails had fallen into the steep sided
gully. After pushing our bikes up the steep slope for about three quarters of a
kilometre, we rounded a corner to find several large trees had fallen
across the path. We managed to scramble under them before starting our hard push
again.
Eventually, we made it to the top and
then had a reasonably level ride through farm land to Ceske Budejovice.
There are no little cafés or ice cream
parlours in the small towns here. When we were following the Danube in Germany
and Austria, virtually every village had some place where you could stop for a cup of
coffee or something to eat. It has come as a bit of a shock but not too
surprising to find that we could ride all morning without finding anywhere to
stop. It is a bit like a lot of country Australia. The shops in the villages are
very small and unpretentious and are often no more than someone’s front door.
The pubs are not very appealing, having a fortress like appearance. They seem to
open only in the evenings and on weekends.
When we reached Ceske Budejovice, we
stopped at a “Buffet” for coffee and cake and then went looking for the
campgrounds. The first one was a large rambling place with the camping area way
out the back covered with long grass. There were lots of pools of water lying
around. There were a couple of very wet and bedraggled tents there, but that was
all. There were a number of very basic, run down units which they called a
“motel”, but the price for two of us in one of them was much more than we had
paid for our very attractive two bed roomed apartment in Cesky Krumlov and that
included a very large breakfast.
We went down the road to the second
campground. It was even more run down but the facilities were clean. The camping
area was again in an area of long grass behind some of the many little huts and
wasn’t very appealing. We tried to rent one of the huts, but after being told we
could have one for two nights, the owner discovered it was booked for the second
night. Most of the huts seemed to be occupied by itinerant workers and there was a lot of
rubbish, old car parts, etc, lying around. The men who were there were very
unfriendly and seemed quite surly. Even though the owner was friendly and
helpful, the whole place didn’t have a nice atmosphere about it. We didn’t feel
happy leaving our expensive camping gear and bikes around in the open. We had
been warned several times by Czech people to be very careful of our belongings
when we were in the cities as petty crime is rife.
We decided to ride on to Hluboka nad
Vltavou where there were campgrounds to the north and south of the town.
Friends had stayed at the one north of the town and liked it
but we ended up at the southern one. The camping area
here was also covered in long grass and was a long way from the amenities block.
Instead of camping, we booked into a couple of nice huts with shower and toilet overlooking
the large lake. It is a very attractive setting and much more pleasant than the
campgrounds in Ceske Budejovice.
Another thunderstorm hit just after we
had settled into the cabins and it rained heavily for about an hour. At sunset,
there was a fantastic red light which lit up the clouds and was reflected on the
waters of the lake.
Day
4 – Hluboka nad Vltavou -
10km
We had a relaxing breakfast on our tiny
balcony looking at the view over the lake. Afterwards, we rode the five
kilometres into town. There were still lots of heavy black clouds around, but
there were some occasional sunny periods. It was an attractive ride following
the banks of the lakes for most of the way.
After a bit of searching, we found the
supermarket and went through the experience of trying to decipher the labels and
get what we needed and wanted. The range of goods was quite limited and the
vegetables looked very tired. We often treat ourselves to a bar of chocolate and
bought a bar of Czech made chocolate. It was very cheap and the flavour was very
strange indeed. After Germany and Austria, the bread available in the
supermarket was quite poor. Nevertheless, we bought what we wanted and managed
to get things like tea, coffee, packet soups, etc.
By the time we had finished our
shopping, the town was becoming quite busy with a number of tourist coaches and
German registered cars arriving. We wandered up to the spectacular castle for a
look. Although the castle dates back to the late 13th century, it was
extensively remodelled in the 19th century by its owners the
Schwarzenberg family. Supposedly, the renovations have made the castle look like
Windsor Castle. There is a superb conservatory near the entrance which houses a
large collection of exotic plants.
We had lunch in one of the many
restaurants in town. This one had a number of traditional Czech dishes on the
menu. We had Bramborack, a potato pancake, with pickled pork and sauerkraut all
washed down with good Czech beer.
Just after we reached our cabins at the
campground, a large thunder storm hit and it poured with rain for quite some
time. It cleared to a fine evening.
Day 5
– Hluboka nad Vltavou to Trebon -
39km
We left the campground at about half
past eight under dark threatening skies. The temperature was decidedly cooler
this morning and we rode with long tights and jackets on.
After a series of long, moderately steep
hills, the terrain became more gently undulating and the cycling easier. In a
tiny village, we stopped at the phone box outside the closed village shop to
make phone calls to relatives in Australia. The line was a bit crackly but we
got through without too much trouble.
At Slovonice, a pretty village, we
stopped on the banks of the carp lake for morning tea. Most of the towns and
villages we have passed through have a man made lake where they grow carp. A
different variety from the carp which is such a pest in the waters of the Murray
Darling River system in Australia, these fish are grown for the lucrative Christmas market.
Apparently, carp is to the central European Christmas what ham and turkey are to
the Australian Christmas
celebrations.
We reached Trebon in time for lunch.
Trebon is the carp capital of the Czech Republic and the town is surrounded by
very large lakes. These lakes, all man made, were constructed several hundred
years ago. Because they drain the water from the lakes to assist in harvesting
the carp, they used precision cut oak logs to provide the drains through the dam
walls. Some of these have been replaced with more modern steel constructions but
a number of the old oak ones remain in operation today. There is a large fish
processing plant in the town from where fish are exported throughout central
Europe.
There was a band festival being held in
the main square and we stopped to watch and listen. We bought delicious sausages
with bread and mustard from one of the stalls for our lunch. At the campground
we booked into a couple of box like cabins. They are very basic but are clean
and reasonably comfortable. Unfortunately, the showers were cold. Hot water is
only guaranteed in the mornings. After doing our washing, we wandered back into
town where we spent some time visiting the castle and relaxing at one of the
cafés on the main square. We had a delightful dinner of carp at a restaurant on
one of the side streets. The cost for the four of us for two courses each and
drinks was about $45.
Day 6
– Trebon to Slavonice -
69km
We went to the supermarket on the main
square to do our shopping for morning tea and lunch and then went to the bike
shop where Alan bought another spare tyre.
We rode out of town following what we
thought was one of the major signposted cycling routes. Our original plan was to
follow some small tracks through the forest but we had been told that there was
a lot of swampy country in that area. The maps showed a major route circling the
huge Rozmberk Lake to the north of the city so we decided to follow this. It all
started out OK but half way around the edge of the lake, the bitumen sealed
track ended and the signs disappeared. Our map was sufficiently detailed to
enable us to navigate our way. We had to ride on an increasingly rough track
full of large, sharp edged stones. After a couple of kilometres, we reached a
rough concrete causeway which lead us into a swamp. The track was covered with
water 15 to 20 centimetres deep for quite a way before we reached a muddy section
where the water covered the track to a depth of approximately 15cm. Eventually we rode into a forest and even though
the ground was still very wet, the cycling became a lot easier. There wasn’t
much of an incentive to stop for a rest as every time we did stop, mosquitoes
descended upon us in thick black clouds. When we rode out of the forest, we
were confronted by a field of rape. There was no track around the
edge of the field, so we followed the tyre tracks left by other cyclists through
the middle of the field. After another kilometre or so, we rode into a tiny
village and the signs appeared again.
The bike route near Trebon
From there we had a hilly ride with lots
of ups and downs through the pine forests. At about midday and after a couple of
hours of riding through the forests, we stumbled across a luxury hotel in the
middle of the forest. We felt that we had earned a break and stopped here for a
beer and a bowl of soup. At this point, we were only a couple of hundred metres
from the border with Austria and in an area which was closed to the public
during the “cold war” days. We could only imagine that the hotel had been a
luxury hunting lodge for top party officials in its earlier life. A few hundred
metres further down the road, we stopped in a clearing in the forest and sat on
some logs and ate our lunch. Not long afterwards, we joined the Prague to Vienna
Cycle Route for the first time and followed this route to Slavonice.
The route continued to be fairly hilly
but when we detoured from the main road and headed for the ruined castle at
Landstejn, we had a couple of hard climbs. It was a long steep climb to reach
the dramatically sited castle but it seemed a lot of effort for very little
reward.
Ever since we stopped for lunch, David had
noticed that his rear wheel was rubbing when he applied the brakes as though the
wheel was slightly out of true. As we started the descent from Landstejn, it
was becoming more noticeable and he made a mental note to get Alan to have a look at it
when we reached Slavonice. Suddenly, the rubbing got a lot worse. Stopping
to check it out, we found that the rear rim had split and a
piece of the rim had actually broken away. We disconnected the rear brakes and
David
freewheeled down the hill using only front brakes.
At the village at the bottom of the
hill, we made enquiries about catching a bus to Slavonice. There was one going
in about ten minute’s time but there were questions about whether the bus would
take the bike and luggage. We decided to swap David's rear panniers for Noelene’s
which were considerably lighter. We then moved the rear rack bag to the front of
the bike in an attempt to lighten the load on the rear of the bike as much as
possible. Finally, we reduced the pressure in the rear tyre to ease the pressure
on the split rim. Mary and Noelene rode off ahead to organise some accommodation
for the night and see if it were possible to get a taxi to collect David. Alan and
David set off riding at a maximum of ten kilometres per
hour, walking up the steeper sections of the hills and freewheeling down them.
The route was quite hilly at first and it was a little ironic to find that we
had to slow down as we were catching up to Mary and Noelene. They did get away
from us when the road became flatter. We made our way slowly for the twelve
kilometres to town and reached there just as Mary and Noelene had finished
booking us into an apartment in a private house. It had two bedrooms, two
bathrooms, kitchen and a lounge and cost us about the same as we had been paying
in Germany and Austria for camping.
Slavonice is a World Heritage Listed
town and the centre has a number of attractive 16th century
renaissance buildings with sgraffito covered facades.
Day 7 – Slavonice - 31km
After breakfast, Allan and David went
looking for the local bike shop to see if we could buy a new wheel. After a lot
of searching, we found the bike shop which was actually a few shelves in the garage
of a house. It was normally only open in the late afternoon when the husband
came home from work but the young wife kindly opened up for us. Unfortunately,
they didn’t have anything to help us.
The nearest other bike shop was in
Dacice, so we rode there. David rode Noelene’s bike with the set raised. It was an
interesting experience as Noelene’s bike is a lot smaller than his and he felt
as though he was about to hit his knees on the handlebars. We had a fast
ride and found the bike shop on our way into town. The bike shop was actually in
the rear of a home wares and furniture shop but they did have a front wheel
which would be suitable.
Back in Slavonice, Alan took Noelene’s
front wheel, dismantled it and built a new rear wheel for David's bike. Noelene would
use the new front wheel that we had bought in Dacice as she and her load were
much lighter. It would have meant the end of the cycling part of the
trip if Alan hadn’t been there with his wheel building skills.
Day 8 – Slavonice to Telc -
39km
It was a lovely ride today through
rolling farming country. Probably it was the most picturesque day we had so
far in the Czech Republic. There were wide, expansive views over the hills to
tiny villages and forests. At one stage we saw a deer bounding through a field
of wheat. When it saw us it stopped, but after a few minutes, realizing that we
were not a threat, it sped off into the nearby forest.
We stopped for coffee in Dacice and then
ambled our way to Telc. Telc is a beautiful town and another World Heritage
Listed town. The large main square is lined with dozens of attractive 16th
century renaissance buildings. So extensive and well preserved is it that it all
looks a bit unreal and rather like a set for an historical movie. Again we stayed
in private accommodation. It was quite luxurious and cost about $15 each.
The spectacular 16th century main square
in Telc
Day 9 – Telc to Jindruchuv Hradec -
44km
A couple of kilometres south west of
Telc, we turned off onto a rough dirt track which we followed for a kilometre to
a bitumen road into the village of Krahulci. This was one of Alan’s short cuts
which saved several kilometres and a number of hills. After a couple of
kilometres on the main road, we turned off to the hamlet of Dobra Voda, prettily
sited on the edge of a small lake.
Just after leaving the village, we
started following what was shown on the map as the “planned” cycle route 1163.
The first part followed a quiet road before turning onto a little track at
Sumrakov. It was rough bitumen to start and we fully expected it to deteriorate
into rough dirt. Much to our surprise and delight, we found that it had recently
been sealed with smooth, easy riding bitumen. The route wasn’t signed but the
road works had been done.
At Horni Nemcice, we joined a main road
for a few hundred metres and stopped in a little park for morning tea. We had to
turn left here but the small road we wanted was not signposted and there were no
obvious turnoffs. While we were looking at the large map in the park and
checking out the side streets, a farmer working nearby came over to show us the
right road.
Riding through the forest before
Jindruchuv Hradec, Noelene had a flat tyre which we think was caused by using a
tube which was too small for the large tyre she now had on her front wheel. We
quickly fixed this and rode into town.
We arranged another Privat home
stay which was a little way out of the main town, but still within walking
distance. After showering, we walked into town and spent a couple of hours
wandering around looking at the old buildings. We got to the castle with just
enough time to have a quick look at a couple of the courtyards before it closed.
We bought a new, larger tube for
Noelene’s bike and asked the guy at the bike shop if they had any souvenir type
cycling jerseys. We had seen one in Telc which had a great picture of a large
glass of Budweiser beer on it but it had been too small. The second guy in the
bike shop grabbed a bike and lead David to their other shop which sold mainly
clothing but they didn’t have anything of the type that he was looking for. Later
on, we stumbled across the “Bicycle Pension” ran by a young guy who was keen on
penny farthings. He had his own design cycling jersey which suited David's purposes
very well.
Day 10
– Jindruchuv Hradec to Tabor - 52km
After stopping at the bakery to buy
fresh bread rolls and pastries, we rode out of town towards Phuhov. We were
following the Prague Vienna Greenways again. Our maps had a gap of about 10
kilometres between two maps, so we just followed the signs.
Much to our surprise, we rounded a
corner and saw the Cervena Lhota, a red painted castle surrounded by a large water
filled moat. The 14th century Gothic fortress was rebuilt into a
Renaissance castle which was later renovated in the Baroque style. It gets its
name “Red Lhota” from the bright red roof tiles. It was the home of the German
composer Karl Ditters von Dittersdorf in the second half of the 18th
century. Across the road was a restaurant and we stopped there for coffee. It
had started to drizzle so it was an ideal time for a break. One of the
waitresses had spent a couple of years working as a nanny in England and was
glad to have an opportunity to practise her English.
Near Zamecek, we detoured off the
Greenway route to take a shorter route into Tabor. The clouds were looking
increasingly threatening and it started to rain just as we reached a bus shelter
in Dhoula Lhota. As we had done on a number of occasions, we stopped for lunch
in the bus shelter. By the time we had finished our lunch, the rain had stopped.
The road was very wet and there was a lot of water lying about as we road
towards Tabor. We would certainly have been caught in heavy rain if we had
continued.
It was quite a shock to arrive in Tabor.
Its population is only 37,000 but it is by far the biggest place we have been in
for some time. The traffic seemed horrendous. Eventually, after asking
directions several times, we found our way to the information office. On our way
we had wasted a lot of time by following “I” signs which only lead us to a map
board with leaflets on nearby businesses. Because it was a weekend, we had some
difficulty in getting accommodation but we ended up with a pleasant pension in
the old town not far from the main square.
Day 11 June – Tabor
We had a rest day and spent a quite day
wandering around the old town.
The Lonely Planet book on Prague
suggested that it was necessary to make train reservations from Prague a few
weeks in advance. We went to the station and tried to make our reservations. We
had a computer printout showing all the details of the trains we needed to take
to get to Frankfurt. Unfortunately, the woman behind the counter could not speak
any English and we couldn’t get the message through that we wanted to make
reservations as well as buy our tickets. We ended up with just the tickets and
hope that we will be able to get reservations when we get to Prague in a couple
of days. (It turned out that we need not have worried. There was no difficulty
in getting reservations in Prague and the train we caught was less than
half full.)
We had dinner at a very pleasant
restaurant in the old town. It was one of the best meals of the trip.
Day
12
– Tabor to Tynec nad Salzou -
72km
We left town under heavy skies and with
a forecast of rain. Again, it was a hilly ride with lots of long climbs and
equally long fast downhills. At one point we were up to about 630 metres which
was probably the highest point of the trip.
When we reached the town of Kovova Hora,
we thought it would be nice to have a coffee or something. The hostinec
(pub) had a sign outside saying it was also a restaurace and
surprisingly, it was open. Most of the ones we had seen before only opened in
the evenings. We looked in but it wasn’t particularly inviting. It was rather
dark and dirty with the view from the front door of a huge pile of dirty dishes
in the kitchen. The doors to the toilets were on either side of it.
Almost next door was the unpretentious
Emu Bar and Grill which was open. Photos of emus and an emu road warning sign
decorated the walls. The owner had been on a trip to Australia and had collected
the emu memorabilia. We had a very nice garlic soup with tea, coffee and a beer. The cost was about 45CKS a couple, about $2.50. It would have been nice
to have had lunch there as the food looked good, but we had already bought
things for lunch before leaving Tabor. It was unusual to find anyplace to buy
lunch during the day so we always made sure that we had food with us before
leaving in the morning. We ate our lunch of bread, cold meat and cheese in the
pleasant small park opposite.
Alan, Mary and Noelene were already
wearing their rain jackets and as the sky became increasingly dark and
foreboding, David put his jacket on before leaving town. It started raining just
after we left Kovova Hora and we rode in the steady rain to Tynec nad Salzou. We
dropped down from the hills and then had a fast ride along the river into town.
We passed a large mansion surrounded by high walls which were topped by barbed
wire and with observation towers at each corner. Some of the barbed wire was now
missing and the towers looked as though they hadn’t been used for some time.
Perhaps it was the country residence of some high party official during the
communist days. Unfortunately, we don’t know and couldn’t find out.
Tynec is a funny town. It has no real
centre. There was a small old town but most of the buildings are Soviet style
concrete apartment blocks. There were no large shops that we could find and all
the side streets were unpaved and very muddy after the rain. The Jawa motorcycle
factory used to be here but that closed as one of the casualties of the move to
a “free market” economy.
The Sport Hotel on the banks of the
river seemed to be the only hotel in town. It is a reasonably new place and
caters for a lot of canoeing parties. We had two bedrooms which shared a
bathroom. Shortly after we had our showers, the bathroom lights stopped working.
While we were in the restaurant downstairs having our pizza dinner, we watched
three vehicles unload about 80 to 100 canoes together with paddles and life
jackets into the store rooms below.
Day 13
– Tynec nad Salzou to Prague -
41km
It was bright and sunny in the morning
when we set off for what was to be the last day’s cycling for Noelene and David. We
followed the river for a few kilometres but the road turned away from the river
and started climbing. For several kilometres we gradually climbed through the
forest. Once the climb was finished, we had a few kilometres of undulating
country interspersed with a couple of slightly longer climbs. From the top of
the last climb, we could see Prague in the distance. Then it was a long fast
descent to the plains.
When we reached Pruhovice, we left the
Prague Vienna Greenways route for the last time. Our route then followed a
signed bike route which skirted Prague’s southern suburbs. It was a very zigzag
route as we wound our way through the streets and back and forth over the
freeways. Except for some poor signposting at a metro station, there were no
problems. We missed the small crossing of the highway that we were looking for
but soon found another. We reached the street that the pension was in and
groaned. It was a very steep, very rough, cobbled and narrow street. It was
unrideable on our loaded bikes. We struggled up pushing our bikes. Just
as we reached the Pension Vila Lucie, it started to rain.
We were warmly welcomed and after taking
our luggage to our rooms, we sat down to a cold beer and the light lunch that we
had with us. The pension is really very nice and comfortable. The rooms are not
large but they have been tastefully furnished. There is a lovely garden with
lots of roses which were in full bloom. The centre of the garden is taken up by
a large cherry tree which was laden with fruit. There was a ladder under it and we
were told to help ourselves to the cherries.
In the afternoon, Noelene and David
caught the metro into the city. The pension is in the suburb of Krc which is
about 10 kilometres from the centre of Prague. It was about half a kilometre
walk to the metro station but the fast clean trains run every few minutes. At
the main train station, we made our reservations for the trip to Frankfurt
on Thursday morning at the international booking office. There were only a couple of other people there but it still
seemed to take a long time to get served. It was all quite old fashioned in that
the person who makes the bookings does not handle the receipt of the money. The
cashier was busy chatting with one of the other workers and everyone had to wait
until she was finished to finalise their bookings. There must be long queues and
long delays in making bookings during the main tourist season.
The owner of the pension recommended
that we went to a local restaurant for dinner. It was not very far away and it
made a pleasant walk. We had an excellent dinner. Alan, Mary and David had pork
knuckles and gorged themselves. The pork knuckles were quite large and were
served with gherkins, horseradish and mustard. With salad and potatoes, it was a
very large meal. It didn’t stop us having apple strudel for desert though!
Noelene exercised a little more restraint.
Day
14 – Prague
We all went into the city this morning
to do some sightseeing. Prague is a lovely city with lots of beautiful old
buildings and narrow cobbled streets. The problem is that it is very crowded
with tourists everywhere. The old city is quite small, only a couple of
kilometres square, so there is not much space for all the tourists to spread
themselves around. Unlike cities like Paris and Vienna which get even more
tourists, Prague feels very crowded. It is also a lot more expensive than the
rest of the country and prices were comparable to Vienna. We knew that this would
be
the case, but it did come as a bit of a shock to have to pay about twice the
prices we were used to paying for a beer or a cup of coffee.
The old town hall in Prague
We spent much of the morning wandering
around and then stopped for lunch at an Italian style restaurant in a small
square. The sun was shining and it was very pleasant sitting outside looking at
the towers of the Tyn church nearby.
After lunch we spent more time wandering
around the old city unsuccessfully trying to avoid the tourists. We returned to
pension fairly early, stopping at the supermarket near the metro station to buy
a few things for a light evening meal – bread, cheese, cold meat and cherries
fresh from the tree in the garden.
Day
15 – Prague
David was up early and finished washing
and cleaning the bikes in preparation for our return to Australia. We packed
them in the soft bags for the long train trip to Frankfurt tomorrow.
After another excellent breakfast, we
went into the city and made our way to the castle. The narrow pathway to the
castle was crowded with people making their way down after their visit. It seems
that most people take buses or trams to the top of the climb and then walk down.
We were definitely going against the flow. Every few yards there was a stall
with people selling pictures of Prague. Some of these were quite poor but others
were rather good. After spending some time looking at various stalls, we bought
a series of hand coloured prints of the old city.
When we finally reached the castle, it
was huge. Courtyard after courtyard of office buildings, churches, etc. It
rambled on for what seemed kilometres. There were crowds of tourists outside the
cathedral and it was almost impossible to walk through the courtyard where the
information office was. We had planned to meet Alan and Mary there at eleven
o’clock but we wondered how we would find them amongst the crowds. We wandered
through more courtyards and out to the main gates and met up with Alan and Mary
by chance in the square just outside the gates.
We wandered down the hill through the
Mala Strana and found a restaurant where we had our farewell lunch together.
Alan, Mary and David had the daily special of excellent goulash and potato
dumplings. Noelene decided to have the pork knuckle. We had all raved about it when
we had it for dinner a couple of nights earlier and felt that she should try it.
She did ask for a small one and ordered some mashed potatoes to go with it as
she doesn’t like horseradish, mustard and gherkins. Well, her serving was huge;
much bigger than the ones the rest of us had had. The serving of mashed
potatoes was also huge. Needless to say, she didn’t eat it all.
After lunch, Alan and Mary went off to
do some more sightseeing while Noelene and David went to meet up with Martin and
Jana, people David had worked with in an apple orchard near Adelaide some years before.
