BIKING PRAGUE TO CESKY KRUMLOV

I biked in the Czech Republic a couple years ago and thought it had some of the best signed & nearly carfree bicycle touring.  I tried to go this summer (2018), but there was too much stuff going on.  After volunteering at the Botanical Garden, I checked the weather in Prague, sunny for at least a week.  I was on the train the next day heading north to Prague with my bike.
After an 11 hour, 3 change train ride I arrive at my Prague hostel destination.   Ljubljana has it’s share of tourist, but nothing like Prague., it’s wall to wall tourist.  Last time I was here, I wasn’t drinking beer or anything for that matter.  The rumors a true, Water cost the same as Beer, you choose.

I don’t know a lot about Prague, but joining a tour is easy enough.   Last time  I was here with Natasa, we got up very early one morning and biked around to various tourist spots, that was the best tour ever.  Every building seems ornate and many have a few statues, including my budget hostel.

I walked around town, took a gondola ride, did some shopping and beer tasting mmm?(drinking).!
I found this great little local bar, I told them “don’t laugh”, I was buying the “Blazers” Russian dolls.  They started laughing cause they were just talking about “who buys those things?” ME.  the Portland Trail Blazers are my NBA team, all the dolls were current players, I had to buy it.  The guy liked me or something- I got 30% off.

I’m ready to hit the road.  Getting out of town can be encumbering, but I decided to leave Sunday morning, so it was nice & quiet.  Riding along I heard this train horn, all the sudden all these cars were pulling over and running to the tracks.  I got out my camera, it was some kind of train celebration.

I got stuck on a busy road, but The Czech Republic has some of the best “bike options” I’ve ever experienced.  I passed several train stations but, was glad I rode the whole trip.

Seemed like I climbed 20 hills and went down only 10, but then again,  I’m old.  Finally made it to Cesky Krumlov.  Someone told me that Cesky Krumlov is in the Asia travel books claiming it’s a “must go” place.  I was in the town square, must have been 150-75? Asians, I think I was the only Caucasian.

I didn’t have my return train thing together, at all.  Ended up spending the night in Linz Austria.  That was a ho-hum town, I bought a beer at a pub, 4.5 euro, remember in Czech  it was only 1 euro, so I had only one.

I’m a Facebook member of a group called Bicycle Touring & Bikepacking   People are always writing in asking “where should I go?”.  the responses: Australia, Southeast Asia, Africa, South America.  The flying carbon footprint from going to these  far-flung places will never be made up by you bicycling around.  If you want to try bike touring, you don’t have to go far.   Using the train helped me explore the super bicycling country of Czech Republic, yet my getting there had little impact on the environment, compared to flying.  Cycling the backroads of Czech is awesome, you don’t need to fly 1/2 way around the world to have a great tour.  Biking out of a big city can be challenging, taking the train just out of town, can be the start of a great tour.  Gain some confidence and have some fun.
Thanks for reading,
Jeff
It’s nice to hear from people who read the blog, don’t remain anonymous forever.

Here’s a video that’s maybe 5 or 6 snippets of biking around Czech.  It’s not that polished a video, but you’ll get to see how beautiful it really is.  I do get reprimanded by the police for filming and not keeping both hands on the handlebars. Whatever.

 

                               SNIPPETS OF BIKE TOURING AROUND CZECH.

THIS IS THE BEST MAP I COULD DO.  IF YOU BIKE CZECH I RECOMMEND “MAPY.CZ” APP.