Day 4-Tynec to Tabor, Hot and Hilly!

We had an early dinner last night and then sat at the river by the campsite with a nightcap watching the ducks, fishermen and the sun set. It was a bit different from Prague!

Today's route had a lot of undulating hills which combined with the heat (35 degrees) and fully packed bikes made it pretty hard going. However the roads were really quiet and good scenery. 

Stopped off for lunch after 28 miles at Sedlec-Prcice, there wasn't much available but we found a small "canteen" in the butchers shop which looked like it hadn't changed in fifty years but the food was welcome at £3 for the two of us.

I was pretty knackered by this time but it was straight into another big hill after lunch, with about 12 miles to go I started to get cramp in my left thigh, at 6 miles to go I got it in both thighs and ended up walking up a few of the hills. Fortunately by this time it was mostly downhill to Tabor and Sandra was good enough to wait for me (I'm sure she won't mention it!)

Anyway, we eventually made it to tonight's accommodation The Alfa Pension, and Whisky Bar however, as I have never been so knackered on a bike run I don't think I will be having too many. Tabor has a really beautiful old town centre and in contrast to lunch time we had dinner in the best restaurant in town still only cost £30.http://www.goldie.cz/en/

Today's miles 47 and 4062ft climbing.https://www.strava.com/activities/381737803

Total miles 91

Day 3 - Prague to Tynec nad Sazavou (Scorchio!)

It was great cycling through the old town early this morning before it got jam packed with tourists.

Luckily I had downloaded a gps route to get us out of Prague as our map wasn't really detailed enough and the signs were a bit intermittent. It took quite a while to get out of Prague Following a wide range of roads cycle paths and dirt tracks, and we still managed to get slightly off track quite a few times.

Once out of the city we got on to a variety of minor roads which were pretty hilly and stopped for lunch at a Restaraunt at the top of the hill in Kamenice ( a hill we probably didn't need to be on!) We then had our first challenge of a totally Czech menu, fortunately I discovered that the google translate camera app is absolutely brilliant, point your phone at the menu and it instantly changes to English, great!

After lunch it was all downhill for about 9 miles to our campsite at Tynec, which was just as well as we were starting to feel the 33 degree heat.  After pitching the tent it was straight into the river for a swim, even before we headed for beers.

Today's miles 33

Total miles 44

https://www.strava.com/activities/380958698

Day 2 - A Wander Round Prague

No biking today, instead we decided to try to make the most of our limited time in Prague by taking a guided walking tour round the city which was well worthwhile and gave us a great overview of the main sights.

Prague is certainly a beautiful city with loads of fabulous looking buildings, but it seems to have been robbed of a big chunk of its personality by the hordes of tourists (like us) swarming through the streets.  I suspect that if we had more time to look deeper into the place we would get a better feel for what it is really like, or maybe more accurately what it used to be like, however we are both looking forward to getting on the bikes tomorrow and setting off into the countryside.

Day 1 Prague Airport to Prague Old Town

The first day of a bike tour is always a wee bit of a worry when we are flying as we're never quite sure if the bikes will turn up at the other end.  But no problems today, good old Easyjet lived up to their name and we had absolutely no problems checking in at Edinburgh and, by the time we got through passport control at Prague, our panniers we're going round the carousel and our bikes were sitting waiting at the outsize baggage counter.

We got the bikes unpacked and sorted out at the terminal and had a pretty straight forward 11 mile run into Prague, mainly downhill, on a mixture of cycle paths and wide pavements alongside the main road. 

We got checked into our hotel where we are staying until Sunday and spent the afternoon wandering round Prague (which was buzzing), drinking beer, and popping in to see the Bohemian Symphony Orchestra for a wee bit o culture.  

Tomorrow we are planning another day of seeing the sights of Prague before setting off on the bikes on Sunday. 

Miles today-11 https://www.strava.com/activities/379243910

The Plan

This year's bike tour is yet again taking us into new territory.  The plan is to fly to Prague, follow the Czech Greenways to Vienna then go west up the Danube before heading south to Salzburg.  We have two weeks to complete the trip which will hopefully give enough time to spend at least one full day in each of those cities.

We are expecting the first half of the tour through the Czech Republic to be quite "interesting" in that we haven't a clue how to speak the language, (although there is still almost 2 weeks before we set off) and, instead of our normal camping, it looks as though we will need to find B&Bs or Pensions as we go along since campsites seem to be thin on the ground.  As on previous trips, we haven't booked any accommodation in advance so that we have as much flexibility to adjust our route whenever we like, or more likely whenever we get lost!

Here are a couple of links to the proposed route, https://www.strava.com/routes/1501248
https://www.strava.com/routes/3088481

The trusty touring bikes have been dusted off, cleaned up, oiled and are ready to go, (or at least they will be once I get a new back tyre).

Can't wait to get on the road again!