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Category: Europe Cycling 2019

Holiday cycling in Europe – Milan to Amsterdam

The Isar in flood – Tuesday 22 May

The Isar in flood – Tuesday 22 May

The rain had eased today, so we did a full 82 km ride from Marzling to Greilburg.

We started out along the Isar river trail, which had been flooded by the rain of the previous two days. In some cases the riverside cycle paths were not accessible. We always found another route relatively easily.

Water bridge
Isar bike path underwater – luckily we didn’t want to go this way
Isar in flood

A feature of the day was older men riding around on bicycles stopping to help us. One helped us find an alternative route to the closed bike path (see photo below) – riding ahead of us a little way to direct us.

Bike path closed

We also had our second flat tyre of the trip, this time on Jenny’s back tyre. We replaced it with the new tube we had bought in Italy. Kris really struggled to pump it up, until he figured out how the new valve design worked. We have never had a tube with this design valve before – you have to remove the whole top before pumping, otherwise it just lets more air in while you are pumping.

The main town we passed through was Landshut. When I stopped to take the photo of the flooded river below, another elderly man on a bicycle began tell us that we should go and look at the flooding on the weir around the corner.

Landshut, Isar in flood

We followed the old man on his bicycle to this weir, the flooded water coming down it was indeed impressive. There were also a bunch of tree trunks and branches that had come down the river.

We did some shopping and bought a heap of goodies for our supper at a supermarket, before heading away from the Isar. This took us off the Isar cycle trail onto the Isar-Laber cycle trail (which essentially connects the two river routes). Our ride was through rolling hill country with lots of corn and rape seed fields.
To get to our hotel, we had to move off the official cycle route, winging from small village to small village. The last bit was quite hilly and tiring.

The hotel we stayed at was one of the best of the trip (not the cheapest). Our room was big and had a unique, bright decor – artistically done. It has been in same family for ten generations (and we saw the ancient grandmother and grandfather taking their meals in the restaurant). There seems to be a farm attached to the hotel as there was a massive barn at the back where we stored our bicycles (so big you could put a house inside it).

Gasthof Pritscher
Easy sunny ride – 23 May

Easy sunny ride – 23 May

Today was a relatively easy 60 km ride to Hunderdorf. We are now positioning ourselves to get onto a bicycle route through Czech Republic to Prague.

Kris navigated us on country roads again to Laberweinting, where we connected up to the Labertal bike path. The sun shining and the roads were easy. The countryside looks so much brighter and more beautiful in the sun. The whole area is agricultural, with regular small towns. Most of the towns had a church and a maypole. We stopped at Greissing to take a photo of the church as the tower was so different. Most of the church towers here have a rounded turnip like top.

Unusual gable on church, maypole to right – Greissing

There was lots going on on the farms. We saw newly ploughed fields, seedlings shooting up through the soil, groups of women picking something in a field in the distance, tractors riding around, farmers spreading manure over fields (with accompanying smell that lingers long after you are past).

We reached Straubing, on the Danube and rode down their pristine pedestrian only street to the sound of a street musician playing Pachelbel’s Canon on an accordion.

Straubing, on the Danube

We did a short stint along the Danube, on the Donau Radweg to Bogan. The Danube was also in flood and at one point our intended cycle path was under water, but Kris found a way around it.

At Bogan we moved onto the Donau-Regan Radweg which heads north. Our hotel was just past Hunderdorf. We arrived early and had a relaxing afternoon at the hotel.

Pork roast with potato, dumpling and sauerkraut
Dragons! – Friday 24 May

Dragons! – Friday 24 May

We were steeling ourselves for a difficult ride today, as Kris’s research showed that the landscape was very hilly. However it turned out to be an easy 63 km to Furth im Wald due to the good cycle paths.
The first one, the Donau Regen Radweg, was along an old rail track, with a long gentle uphill and then some equally long downhill runs. This was about half of our route. We were very impressed with a new bridge they had built just for cyclists, sitting on top of the old railway bridge piles.

Cycle path bridge built on top of old rail bridge piles (Donau Regen Radweg)
Donau Regen Radweg – Cycle track on old railway
Countryside scene from cycle way

Then we did about 13km on the Regental Radweg – along the river, before moving onto the Chambtal radweg. I heard the cuckoo calling for the first time this trip.

Regental Radweg – alongside Regen river
Chamerau
Pastoral scene from cycle way

Our destination was the town of Furth im Wald near the Czech border. The town is also known as Drachenstadt (Dragon City) and there are many references to Dragons in murals and statues all over the old town. The reference is to the annual Drachenstich (Dragon slaying) play that has been performed in the town over the past 500 years, the oldest folk play in Germany. It re-enacts the legend of Saint Georg slaying the dragon. The dragon here is a symbol of all the wickedness of the human heart.

The tourist info office here was incredibly helpful, photocopying detailed maps for Kris of the route to Pilsen. They also told us about an exhibition of dragons used in the play in the evening, both old and new.

Our hotel here was great, we had a very friendly greeting and beautiful large room. We went and sat at the Stammtich (informal table where locals sit for a chat) in their restaurant downstairs and had a good chat before heading out to the dragon show.

At the dragon show we all sat in an outdoor amphitheatre. Three dragons were on display. The first one was a mock up of the original 500 year old dragon – which just had two people inside it. The dragon from the war years was destroyed by the Americans when they came through at the end of the war (??), so we only saw photos of it. The next dragon was a bit more high tech, on wheels and could move its wings a little and shoot fire out of its mouth. It still had a person inside managing the controls.

Dragon used 500 years ago
Old (foreground) and robot dragon built around 2012 (at back)

The star of the show was the latest dragon, which is the largest four legged robot in the world. It is 4.5 m high and 15.5 m long. It walks, roars, rolls its eyes, bleeds, shoots fire and flaps its (huge) wings.

Dragon walking
Dragon breathing fire
Jenny and Dragon
Kris next to dragon foot – dragon blood on the ground
Czech Republic – Saturday 25 May

Czech Republic – Saturday 25 May

Today we had a short ride of only 39 km, into the Czech republic. I was a little apprehensive about leaving the safety and comfort of touring in Germany. For one thing, the accommodation in Czech republic is not really advertised on internet booking sites (Booking.com etc), so booking ahead the day before was problematic. We found a place on line and sent them an email which they replied to the previous evening.

The border crossing was only around 3km from Furth im Wald, on the cycle path. It was pretty much an uphill climb to the crossing.

Border crossing to Czech Republic

The cycle path after the crossing was very good, a tarred path going through a forest with tall pines and every now and then a babbling brook. There were even some picnic tables at stopping places every now and then. The signage on the path was not as good as in Austria/Germany – so we had to be extra careful not to miss any turnoffs. The route we are following is marked as number 3.

Excellent cycle path just after border

Coming out of the forest, we passed through several small towns (including Babylon!), but the first big town was Domazlice. We stopped to draw some Czech money (Koruna) from the cash machine. We had a look at the main street, which has lovely historical buildings an was quite busy. Unfortunately they haven’t closed the street off to cars, as they do with similar streets in the German towns we have been through lately. Kris went into the tourist info while I watched the bikes. We are not as trusting leaving our fully packed bikes out in public places here as we are in Germany. He got some more maps and advice on finding accommodation – it seems the best way will be to ask at the tourist info office when we get to a town.

Domazlice

It was tricky finding the bike path again out of Domazlice. The rest of the route (less than 20 km) was on very quiet country roads. There were a lot of hills, so quite tiring and good views. The roads are also not as well maintained, with patches and pot holes in places – slowing progress on some of the long downhill runs. The countryside was pretty, especially with the splashes of yellow of the rape seed fields.

When we got to Horšovský Týn we easily found our Pension near the centre. It didn’t look like much and seemed all closed up. We had only just stopped when a passer-by asked if he could help. He phoned the owner for us and we had a confused conversation – as no one’s German is very good. It transpired the room is available but we couldn’t understand when. In the meantime the passer by asked if we wanted anything to eat or drink – it was just past 1 pm. We ended up at a local pub – not far away in a courtyard – we would never have found it on our own. We had their recommendation off the tap – Pilsner Urquell – evidently the best beer in the world. Our new best friend (Alexander) speaks very little German, virtually no English (only Czech, Russian and Romanian). Communication grew easier as we went along. We were given some traditional Moldovian dumplings to try (this is where his is originally from). It started to rain as we sat there, a heavy shower that we just had to wait out. We phoned the pension again and established that the door and our room were open – so after picking up the tab (not expensive by NZ standards), we made our way back to the pension.

Kris and Alexander drinking Pilsner Urquell
Dumplings bought for us to try

The pension room is really nice – basic but much better on the inside than outside. All the rooms are around a central courtyard. The room is also quite big and has a kettle. This is also the only place so far where there has been no formal paperwork filled out – and paid cash – so we may be off the books.

Later on we went out for a walk around town and to buy some food – the town is very small – with an ornate (painted) castle, church and some old gabled houses at the centre.

Horšovský Týn castle
Horšovský Týn centre
Pilsen – Sunday 26 May

Pilsen – Sunday 26 May

Today was a relatively tiring 66 km ride – cycling on Czech cycle routes is definitely harder work than the Austrian or German equivalent.
We started with a long steep uphill climb out of Horšovský Týn to a viewpoint above the city.

Viewpoint back to Horšovský Týn

From here on we had every type of bicycle path imaginable. A few (just between villages) were excellent, tarred off road paths that we sailed along – we speculated that these may have been funded by the EU. They were in the minority. Most of the route was on minor roads with little traffic – it was fine, but a number of the minor roads are in really poor condition with many patches and pot holes. At the worst end of the spectrum, we had a number of stretches along poor dirt roads with pot holes and stones.

The country-side was pretty – rolling hills so we had lots of ups and downs. We passed through a number of small towns – the biggest being Dobřany where we stopped to eat some peaches we had been carrying. It was very quiet with almost on one else in the town square.

Dobřany

The entry into Pilsen on bicycles was not easy – in fact we lost the bike path and meandered a bit through suburbs. Kris had to ask for directions a couple of times. There were also a couple of long uphill climbs just coming into the city.
Our first stop was the tourist info bureau to for help with accommodation and the route from here on. Unfortunately they did not have a good map of the bike path to Prague, so navigation will be more challenging tomorrow. The accommodation Jenny chose was not great either – poor value – probably because it is in the centre of the city. The toilet is private but down the passage.

Drinking a Pils in Pilsen

We had a bit of a pub crawl in the evening – walking around the city centre and sampling beer at different pubs – many of them outdoor. The beer is good but there is not much variety – ie all Pilsners and no craft beer. We enjoyed the unfiltered beers the most.

Typical Czech Ride – Monday 27 May

Typical Czech Ride – Monday 27 May

Today we travelled 64 km to the town of Horovice, about midway between Pilsen and Prague.

We rode out of Pilsen past the two big breweries – Urquell and Gambrinus – following cycle route 3. Soon after, we lost the cycle route 3 signs and Kris had to navigate with his off-line GPS mapping app (Here We Go). The app doesn’t show cycle routes but Kris knew which direction we should be headed and found a route on small roads. In fact the route that Kris found was easier than a lot of the roads the official route has taken us on. Our unofficial route took us past a small airport, skirting a highway along secondary country roads and wooded paths. It was slow going however, as we had to stop quite regularly to check our progress and position.

At some point we joined cycle route 2127 – not the correct number 3 but a cycle route none the less – and this took us to Rokycany which was on our intended route. We intersected with number 3 again at an intersection just outside Rokycany. We stopped here and Kris went into the tourist info to see if they had any maps – which they did – quite helpful. From here on we followed the number 3 signs quite easily along a river and past a number of little towns all the way to Horovice. Maybe the signage is improving the close we get to Prague? It was curious that it was so poor coming out of Pilsen. We stopped for an ice cream at a small local shop around 9 km out of Horovice.

Rokycany Tourist Info office (photo taken waiting outside for Kris)

The roads were similar to the previous day, with a wide variety – some really good and some really challenging terrain (on the official bike route 3!) – punishing for the bikes due to lots of large loose stones. The route was not entirely off road – only on selected forest or river rides (often the worst roads to ride on). When we were on the road with traffic, it was not too busy and the cars thankfully gave us enough space passing.

Steep rocky forest road

At Horovice we rode up and down looking for the tourist info – the road signs were totally contradictory. Eventually I had to go into the town hall to ask where it was and a woman who could speak neither English or German gave me a map with the location. The lady at Tourist info was very dour, but eventually we got info about an affordable hotel in town. The town is small, so there was not much choice. However we are very happy with the room as it is spacious and on the quiet side of the hotel.

Horovice Castle – the main tourist attraction in the town as far as we can tell

We had some beer at the hotel bar – more Pilner – and a burger at a nearby burger cafe which was delicious.

Soaked – Tuesday 28 May

Soaked – Tuesday 28 May

I woke up with trepidation, given that the weather forecast was for rain the whole day today, and it had been raining the whole night.
We had an early start, packing before the 7 am hotel breakfast and on the road before 8 am.
Happily the rain cleared up just as we left and it was a beautiful fresh morning ride, through gently undulating green Czech countryside.

Green Czech countryside – good quiet road (on official cycle route 3)


The cycle route 3 was mainly along secondary roads, with much better condition (ie fewer potholes) than previous days. The little yellow route signs were also easier to follow. I had downloaded a new app the night before (called PhoneMaps) that I saw advertised in the Czech tourist board literature. This app actually has bike routes marked on the maps, so that also helped in one or two spots where the signage was ambiguous.

Excellent cycle path alongside river
Weir along river

The two main towns we passed through were Řevnice and Černošice. Our entry into Prague was alongside the Vitava River, and would have been lovely if it hadn’t begun to rain quite heavily for the last 8km or so (sorry, no photos of this part, too wet).

There was no shelter along the river so we just rode on in the rain until we reached the centre and found a dry spot to regroup and look at the GPS. Then Kris led us through chaotic, wet streets, full of traffic, tourists and big puddles. The place is full of tourists even in the rain, for example groups of Japanese being ushered around all holding umbrellas.

We arrived at tourist info looking like drowned rats. They gave us a good cycling map of Prague, but not such good help on accommodation. Unlike the other Czech tourist info offices that keep lists of local hotels, this guy just referred us back to Booking.com (too many hotels in Prague?). He did a bit of a search for us and then I jumped onto their wifi with my phone and made the booking. First time I have used the app to book a hotel. We booked for three nights, to allow for some sightseeing and rest time.

The hotel we chose is around 7km from the centre, to the north. We wanted something a bit out of town and in the direction we would be leaving for the rest of our journey. Getting there proved a challenge and took the rest of the afternoon. We first drank some coffee and drew some more money in the centre (drip drying in the warm cafe). Kris took the most direct route, along cycle roads with little or no traffic. However the landscape and roads were not what we expected. We had to cross the river twice to get over an s bend in the river. On the S bend, we went through a little park – it was surprising how steep it was (we expected a flat landscape in a s bend). We waited for the rain to abate for a while in a little cafe in the middle of the park – drinking more coffee and having some snacks – waffle and fried Camembert (not very good). On the second crossing (off the S bend) the bicycle route took us over an island in the river. On the one side was a bridge and on the other a ferry. It turned out that the ferry was free – we were the only passengers for the crossing. On the other end we had to finally conquer some more steep hill climbs, at one point we had to push our bicycles up about 300 m up a small road. I think in the future we will use the roads on the other side. We were definitely out of the city now, riding past houses and apartment blocks. Finally we found our hotel. Thankfully we got a friendly welcome and the room is basic but comfortable. The best thing about it is it has a bath! So we were able to warm up properly with a long hot soak.

In the evening we walked down the hill (in the other direction) to a nearby pizza place and enjoyed some pizza and Tiramisu.

Prague Rest Days 29-30 May

Prague Rest Days 29-30 May

We spent two days in Prague, sightseeing and resting (and catching up with the blog). Kris also replaced all the brake pads on the bicycles, with state of the art brake pads from the bike shop near our hotel.

View from river bank bike path
Climbing up to Prague Castle
Heavily guarded entrance to Prague Castle (also the Czech parliament)
Saint Vitus Cathedral
Saint Vitus Cathedral
Saint Vitus Cathedral
City view from garden path
View from Charles Bridge
Charles Bridge
Friendly band on Charles Bridge
Spontaneous dancing on Charles Bridge
Chimney cake with ice cream in old city
Stopping for a beer
Creepy statue – in memory of Mozart’s Don Giovanni premiered in this theatre 29.10.1787
Removing illegally parked car in Prague centre
Buying a biscuit from local outdoor market (on way back to hotel)
Flying House Hotel – home away from home in Prague
Out of Prague – Friday 31 May

Out of Prague – Friday 31 May

Today was a shorter ride of only 40 km, from Prague to Kladno, a city to the west. Kladno is not on any tourist cycle route so Kris mapped out a route on bike paths marked on the PhoneMap app. We are setting ourselves up to re-join Eurovelo 4 heading west back into Germany. The route felt longer than it was and our progress was slow, due to the number of hill climbs and the fact that Kris had to regularly stop to check our progress on his phone.

We first had to work back down to the river Vltava, as we had to get across it. Kris chose small roads that kept us away from the traffic. One was made of cobble like rocks and was an incredibly steep downhill – it must have been about 16 degrees. We decided not to subject the bicycles to this punishment, so we walked them down.

We crossed the bridge on a bicycle lane painted on the tar. Then we followed the river for a few km. Sometimes there was a bicycle path, sometimes the bike path was shared with a foot path and sometimes we were on the road.

When we reached a canal lock in the river, we exited the river valley through a narrow side valley (following Sarecky Potok stream). It was a long uphill slog to the top. It was great getting to the top and seeing the wide countryside open up around us.

From here on we moved from small town to small town – sometimes on dirt roads and sometimes on small roads with few cars. There were green wheat fields between the towns. Horomerice was the first big town after our climb. We had another to climb again Tuchomerice and I took this photo at the top. You can see the Prague airport on the horizon, which our route was circling.

Photo at top of climb – airport on the horizon

We had to make our way to a point where we could cross a highway, and then through the town of Stredokluky. We stopped for an ice cream at Hrebec. The little store was so obscure, sort of hidden around a post office, I wasn’t even sure it existed. We have found this with many Czech grocery stores, even supermarkets – they look as though they are all closed up from the front and not very accessible.

There is not much for the tourist to see in Kladno. It has a lot of large soviet style apartment blocks – which we also saw in Prague and other Czech towns. We rode past many of these on our way in and a big complex of large stores. Kris bought a new shirt at an Intersport store (Decathlon store is due to open in a week’s time here!)

Typical apartment blocks coming into Kladno

There is a pleasant pedestrian street at the centre with a few cafes and an ice cream shop. We visited the tourist office for some maps.

Our accommodation is about 3 km from the centre. It is not what I expected, as doesn’t have any signage from the street. Even though there are six rooms, you feel like you are in part of someone’s house. Also the owner who greeted us seems to have a cold so I hope we don’t sick. The room is ok though.

We found a supermarket and really nice cafe nearby where we had a traditional meal (involving meat and dumplings) and some beer.

A hard day – Saturday 1 June

A hard day – Saturday 1 June

Today was physically the hardest day of the trip so far. On some days cycling is easy. Other days you just feel less energetic. Unfortunately I started out the day with an ache in my shoulder and not feeling up to much. This was bad timing, as it turned out.

No breakfast was provided at our apartment, so we had some yogurt and bread and cheese before setting out really early (7.30am).
Little did we know that we would be on the road for over 10 hours, covering only 88 km in that time.

Why so slow? – well, partly the state of the roads an cycle paths and the number of uphill climbs, which involved some bicycle pushing. Also partly some maintenance stops. I had another puncture on my back wheel about half way into the ride. We both had gears that needed readjusting (probably noticed now as we are doing more gear changes with the hilly terrain). Also a mounting bolt came loose and was lost of Kris’s rear carrier – he had a spare screw with him that fit the thread – which seemed like a small miracle. After my puncture was fixed, my back wheel ran unbalanced – we stopped to check for broken spokes.

Puncture on Jenny’s back wheel

Route description – Our route took us from Kladno, through a forested area to the small towns of Kyšice, Družec and Žilina. I was hoping to get a coffee along the way but none of these places had any! We looked at cafe in Žilina but it was closed. Soon after we decided to take the scenic route heading south to follow the river Berounka to our intended destination of Kralovice (where we planned to join Eurovelo 4). We continued on through the towns of Bycorie and Sýkořice then a big hill climb up to Zbečno.

View of Zbečno – big climb to get here and downhill run into the town

There was a grocery store here and a outdoor restaurant with a women beginning to prepare some barbecue spit roast, but they also didn’t want to sell us a coffee. We followed the river as it twisted around, and coming down a slightly uncomfortable long cobbled hill, saw the Karlštejn castle.

Karlštejn castle

There was a cafe with a lovely coffee just at the bottom of this hill! We also got our water bottles refilled at the cafe – it was so hot that we were really using up our water. After our coffee we continued along the river, viewing the castle from the other side.

The best parts of this ride were some lovely sections alongside the river.

Beautiful section of the river ride
Another lovely section alongside the river

We continued following the river (past Roztoky) but the with the another three long hill climbs taking us away from and back to the river. There were definitely more hill climbs alongside this river than we expected. It was very hot and we had not had a huge breakfast, so I began longing for an ice cream. We rode through a camping site at Skryje and Kris popped into the little shop to buy some ice cream – but the queue was long and the service seemed slow, so we continued on. Soon after this the path we were to follow was shown only as a dotted line on our map. A man walking by seemed concerned about us finding our way through and gave Kris some detailed instructions in Czech. It never ceases to amaze me how Kris seems to understand instructions given in a foreign language through pure intuition. We soon saw why the man was concerned, the track was basically a walking track through tall grass next to the river. Luckily someone had mowed the one side of the track so we could push our bicycles through.

We had another steep hill climb on the other side with several switchbacks before passing through the Čilá.

Then onto Hradiště, which seemed a bit bigger, so we looked around for a shop. We found a bar/ shop with a nice cool outdoor patio where some men and boys were sitting drinking beer and cokes. Kris went in to ask them to refill our water bottles and to buy an ice cream. He came out again with no ice cream. He asked a local young man sitting with two little boys if he understood English/German and if there was any ice cream in the shop. He said he didn’t think so, but kindly went to ask about ice cream. The inside of the shop was dingy and the old guy at the counter was very grumpy, but two cornettos were produced to my delight. I had Kris’s purse (he has carried the Czech Koruna and I the Euros), but I had real difficulty trying to pay. Unfortunately the first time I was handling the Czech coins and I couldn’t read the numbers on them in the dark shop. The old man just kept on shaking his head. Luckily Kris anticipated that there may be a problem and came in to rescue me.

After our ice cream we had another downhill, crossed the river and an uphill climb on the other side. Here we left the river to ride through rolling rural hill country, with small towns at regular intervals – the names are all unpronouncable to us – Chříč, Holovousy, Všehrdy, Dřevec to Kralovice. I was relieved to get there, we were both very sweaty, hot and exhausted. It was almost 5 pm and we had ridden through the heat of the day. We had not booked a hotel, I had considered doing so the previous night but it seemed there was plenty of space in the hotel and Booking.com wanted to take the money off our credit card. We had just drawn cash, so decided to chance it. This was just as well, as I discovered when I got to the town I had the wrong town (the Czech names are so difficult to remember). So if I had booked a place, we would have been out of pocket as well as without accommodation. The tourist accommodation was closed even though we were there before 5 pm (close early on Saturdays!) The first hotel we asked at was full. The second was a pension next to a Chinese restaurant. The Chinese people in the restaurant were very obliging and contacted the owners and filled our water bottles and let us use their wifi connection – but the answer in the end was that there was no place. There was one last hotel – not very flash but looked fine – I was sure it would have place – it did not. Someone sitting drinking outside the hotel suggested cabins at the camp nearby – we went there – all deserted and not what I would call a camp place. So we decided to ride onto the next town, around 15km away, where everyone was suggesting we would find something.

Kralovice Monastery – on leaving the town

I think I got my second wind for those 15 km – the best part was a long fast downhill to Plasy – on a the main road into town – coming into the town past a big monastery and feeling we would find something. We stopped at the first Pension we saw at the first traffic circle in town – Pension Rudolf II. There was a nice looking restaurant in the front. When we went to the Pension at the back, we saw there was a wedding in full swing in a back banqueting hall. They first said they were full, but then went to check with the owner. There was one room left! What a relief. I was beginning to imagine pitching the tent somewhere discrete (it was just after 6 pm). We had a lovely big meal at the Rudolf II restaurant, sitting outside on the terrace and an early night (the loud music from the wedding was well muted in our room).