22 June 2016 (cloudy and warm then sunny and hot!) 77km

Why is it whenever we get a freecamp, no matter how out of the way we think it is, someone always ends up coming along?  For this little camp perched high on a hill with a lonely goat herd (actually it was just a couple of deer) just out of the town of Petrovice, it was 6am, just as we were finishing our morning cuppa.  He drove down the track, bypassing us without a glance, although there’s no way he could have missed seeing us.  

View from the tent this morning

So we just continued on and packed up the tent, hitting the road at 6.45am.  It was undulating to hilly for the first 10 km which took us into Kozlany where we bought our breakfast supplies.  Typically, for a small Czech village, there was the prerequisite drunk standing outside, beer in one hand, ciggy in the other at 7.30am.  Even though there was a shady seat outside the supermarket, we pedalled on, looking for somewhere a bit more out of the way.  We found it in the form of a shaded outdoor bench seat with table at a rest area just before Kralovice.

Marianske Tynice Museum

Rested and rejuvenated we set off to see the Marianska Tynice Museum, which is a church of the Annunciation….sounds impressive coming from us….does it not, but we have no idea what that means or stands for and as we told our then priest, but now, good friend, Ray Taylor, when we wanted to be married at St Marys in New Plymouth, it’s a lovely looking building and to this day, that remains our sentiment when it comes to churches….sorry Ray…there’s no saving some people. Beautiful structure which is now a museum. Built in 1754.

It had been overcast up until now, however there were rain clouds approaching from the south west, heading straight for us, so it was with relief that we cruised down a long hill into Manetin and found some shelter as it struck. The good news was, it didn’t last long and after shopping for lunch we checked out the local chateau and very nice it was too. 

The renovations have just started on this old church

They have done some serious renos on this building, which first began in 1961 and it has certainly paid off. They are currently upgrading the area around the chateau and we wonder who pays for all this because it would cost a small fortune.  They are also upgrading walls, footpaths and several other buildings in this town which will become a nice little excursion for tourists.

Manetin.....a lovely little village

The old chateau has been completely renovated

At the edge of town we met …Rudi, an ageing gentleman who tried his best to communicate the best way for us to go. Unfortunately, we thinks Rudi had never ridden a bike before as his assurances that the route he gave us was flat, were totally incorrect, in fact the total opposite was the case. I can imagine Rudi sitting with beer in hand with his mates (one of which was probably the bloke from near Beloky that we met yesterday) at the local bar over lunch, laughing about the directions he gave these two bikepackers.  Not only was it extremely hilly, but by now it was stinking hot.  Add to that the annoying discomfort of pothole repairs over pothole repairs, which adds up to one very bumpy ride!  With all this to cope with on top of yesterday’s efforts, we were not coping so well, but hills don’t just go away and on we plodded…and a plod it was.

Typical vista from this afternoon

Decided after about 12kms of following Rudi’s advice to take our own route which immediately saw an improvement in the terrain and took us through Hradek, Smilov and Radyne to Touzim, where more supplies were bought and consumed before heading out for Utvina and Chylice. Took a marked bike path here which took us on a gravel path following a river for about 4kms and for most of it I was surprised that it wasn’t too bad, but it did deteriorate at the final stretch, but by then at least this time we had come through okay.  Prilezy was next in store, we were still going up and down continuously, with 77kms under our belts, when Julia spies an aero club, which looks like it has cabins. Goes in, finds some guys who are there for the week training for aerobatics, who tell us that they didn’t think the aero club members would mind if we pitched there for the night if we slipped them a few bob.  We asked if they had showers there and yes they do!  So decision made.  We set the tent up in the shade and then went off for showers which were fantastic.  We had a bit of a chat to the two guys, Klaus and Herbert and found out that Herbert flies for Austria and came in the top ten at this year’s world champs, whereas Klaus, who is in his 70’s, used to be world champion.  Then Herbert took his plane out for a spin……well more like a hundred spins, stalls, walking it on it’s tail – things we’ve never seen before and we had a grandstand seat for free!

Herbert Weirather with his plane

A few other people came and went at the bar and we said hello to the guy from the aero club, but he couldn’t speak English.  However, we offered to pay him 200 kroner (about $14NZ) for the night, which he accepted.  I asked him if we could have a couple of beers and he sold us two 500 ml cans for 60 kroner (30 kr each) which is pretty darn good.  Especially after the two days we’ve had and the fact that they were ice cold!  So we enjoyed those while we watched the airshow and wrote up the blog. Also said we could charge the computer, which is an added bonus.

Could this camp get any better?  Yes it could!  Austria was playing in Euro 2016 against Iceland and so Herbert invited us to join him in the lounge to watch the first football we’ve seen all trip.  Pete was rapt as had been scrounging scores from whatever source he could.  The game finished at 8pm which gave us just enough time to cook up our dinner, wash the dished and make a coffee before 9pm kick-off between Belgium and Sweden.  Retired for bed about 11pm having enjoyed a lovely relaxed late afternoon and evening.

21 June 2016 (cloudy am, sunny pm, warm) 94km

So, back on the bikes again after three days off.  We had both really enjoyed our stay in Prague and not doing any pedalling, with no setting up or packing up the tent.  We were kind of looking forward to getting back on the road again but also in no hurry to leave this lovely little camp. 

Enjoyed one last shower and some breakfast before hitting the road about 9.30am, with all our clothes clean and the tent dry.  All our electronics were charged and we had googled directions out of town.  These worked perfectly and within 8km we were out in the countryside and loving life.  Beautiful weather and fields full of wheat and orange poppies led us around Prague airport through one little village after another.

Stopped at Stredokluky for a late morning tea which we enjoyed on a bench in the shade, looking out onto the old church.  It had been an excellent start to the second half of our three month journey, however, that was about to change.  The next town we wanted was Beloky and the road bent round to the North, downhill.  Now before you head downhill (or uphill for that matter), you want to be absolutely sure you are going in the right direction.  We were a bit unsure if this was the right way as I had googled the directions and we should be going West.  But there was a guy opening up a swimming pool for the summer who spoke English and he advised us we were going the right way to Beloky.  Either he has a very poor sense of direction or a really sick sense of humour, as the direction he pointed us in was taking us away from Beloky.  We had to take a long loop to get us back on track, adding about 3km to our journey – bastard!

Hills at least meant nice outlooks

Then it was smooth riding to Hostoun aiming for Pavlov. They seem to do an awful lot of road works  on small country roads over here, but the strange thing is, you never see the work, only the detour signs. We asked a couple of people where we should go and one lady pointed us down a road that said it was a no exit. What the hell we thought and hoped that she was right. A little later we came across a man and his son out bike riding, heading toward us. That seemed to be a good sign, they must have come from somewhere, hopefully it was Pavlov. Asked if it was possible to get through. “Of course” he replied in quite good English, so on we went and into town we rode.

After a head wind we were now looking at more undulating countryside. Up a hill to reach our perfect lunch stop, the local village football pitch. And as per usual, what a great set up. Some of their houses may be falling down, but their footy pitches are brilliant. 

Ju prepares lunch while Pete relives his glory days

Now the terrain began to get tough. Luckily we were refreshed and ready to take it on, however we did feel the need for an ice cream at Krivlokat, before walking down to see their castle. Unfortunately they had scaffolding all over the turret, but it will look great once it’s finished.

We took advantage of the free entry into Krivlokat Castle for a spell off the bikes

We had a campground picked out not too far from here as we’d already done 65km.  There were four of them in the direction we wanted, however, we didn’t have a map of this area and we weren’t about to shell out $5 for one only to have to throw it away tomorrow.  No worries, there were bound to be signs.  I asked at Tourist Info and they said the camp was just 3kms up the road.  Up is right – why are campgrounds always up bloody great hills.  We were halfway up this particular hill when the road branched off – one uphill, one downhill.  The downhill was the way to the campsite.  All good you may say, but from what we could remember of the map we’d looked at in Tourist Info, we would have to come back up that hill in the morning and we were sure there was another camp about 5km further down the river.  Except that the right hand uphill road we chose was a torturous 3km uphill climb and actually took us in the wrong direction!  So at the top of the hill when we realised our mistake, we couldn’t bear the thought of retracing our steps, so with the help of a handy mapboard, we figured out a new course being careful to evade any obviously hilly areas as by now we’d had enough of them!  Only thing is, we didn’t know where the next campground would be.  So we filled up our water bottles and kept our eyes open for a freecamp.

Thought about asking the owner of this lovely cottage if we could camp in her beautiful garden

After 84km at about 7pm, we found the perfect little freecamp.  Down a short drive from the road on a farmers track behind some bushes.  The sun was still hot so we didn’t set the tent up immediately, choosing to blog and eat cashews while sitting on the groundsheet.  We’re just about to start cooking dinner when along comes a man on a motorbike with a rifle slung over his shoulder.  He drove straight past us with a bit of a grunt and didn’t seem to mind us being there, so we cooked up our dinner.  However, we felt a bit nervous about a man with a gun knowing we were camped there, so decided to move.

It was now 8pm and we continued westward in search of a new freecamp, but as is often the case, none eventuated.  It was after 9pm and the sun was setting and we were running out of light when at the top of yet another hill we decided to chance our luck down a dirt track.  There were just a lot of crops being grown with no newly mown hay field to be seen.  So as it was nearly dark now and we were well back from the road, we set the tent up by a wheat field and stayed low to avoid detection.  We had a stunning view over the valley and then as Ju was cooking up a coffee outside, we had a red moon rise up in front of us – incredible!

A stunning end to a long, hilly day.

unfortunately this photo just doesn't show the true colour of the moon which was almost the same colour as the poppies in the foreground

20 June 2016 (light drizzle in am, sunny arvo, warm) 0 km

Woke in our little wooden haven, at our very pleasant campsite just before 7am and gave it a few minutes before it was over to the showers. Today was to be pack up and off, but once back at the cabin, we decided to stay another day and just pick up some stuff we needed, without it having to be hectic. Our time here has been enjoyable, but with a lot of area to cover to get the photos we want, it has also been tiring, so more of a relaxed day to come.

Whilst Ju got stuck into uploading the blog, I walked the short journey to pick up our breakfast from the shop. It’s been nice to have a few days rest from the saddle and to get some walking done, albeit around Prague. Our first meal of the day is always a good one, both size wise and quality, as we need the energy to push us up those hills. Sat around writing e-mails, looking at possible routes to take and Julia went for her shower. All in all, a very lazy morning, but the sun that had been forecast hadn’t arrived and in fact we were getting raindrops with very overcast conditions, so we weren’t in a hurry to go anywhere. Part way through the morning Julia rode to the shop to pick up lunch before we took the tram into the city.

We’d taken a sweatshirt and left our sunglasses at camp….so you know what that means….yep…that’s correct …the sun comes out in full force for the rest of the day. Bypassed our usual stop for another about four stops on, taking us further along the river to a part of town we hadn’t visited yet.  

Looks like Ju after a bad day on the bike

We passed a marionette shop that had some really detailed and expensive marionettes on display – some of them were pretty creepy too.  Walked the huge walls of Vysehrad Castle which were built in 1085 and took some photos before wandering around the cemetery of a church.  Yes sir….it’s never a dull moment with us. Through into a nice park where they had billboards on display showing the restoration work they have done on various old buildings over the past twenty years. Very worthwhile. These are buildings that were

virtually falling down, but they’ve been given a new lease of life and all done in the original design structure.

Around this district they are building a massive fly-over. It goes straight through a housing area about 80 feet above the rooftops…don’t think I’d be happy at all with a ruddy great main road going over the top of my house, it will be constant traffic day and night. Hate to think what it’s done to house prices there.

Our aim now was to find first, a camping store that sold camping gas and a bike shop that sold lube oil. Came upon the bike shop first and secured that. Had a look at their Trek bikes as ours are the same brand. Sad to think that they’re not making 26 inch wheels for them now, only 27 ½ and up. Found Rock Point, the outdoors store and after a bit of a wait we were served by a girl who spoke very good English and sold us a new gas canister. A visit to a supermarket to pick up something for dinner and breakfast and we were back on

and tonight Matthew, I'm going to be.....

the tram heading to the cabin. Enjoyed a lovely meal of omelette and stir-fried veges after first sampling a beer each with cashews. Some work on the blog and photos before retiring, ready for a good session tomorrow. That’s if we can find our way out of the place…!

I knew I shouldn't have had that last pint

Pete tries to figure out how we can tow this little house behind us - it has been a wonderful respite to the uncertainty
of tent life - no leaks, neverending power, unlimited wifi, a bed!

19 June 2016 (sunny and warm with late showers) 0 km

A day to hang around camp, which we did this morning and then into Prague for another look trying different angles on photographs. I woke about 7am and took my gear and some washing over to the amenities before anyone else was up. Nice relaxed time, shaving and enjoying being clean without having to slog it out up hills straight after.  When I arrived back at the cabin, Julia was doing photos for the blog, so I took a walk down the road to a small shop which sells essentials and bought our breakfast. The weather was fine and looking to be a good day.  Julia had moved on to trying to create more space on the computer for photos, so she was deleting any that just wouldn’t make it.

Had breakfast and whilst Julia grabbed her shower, I jumped on facebook and caught up with a few people including Georgina briefly, who put me onto Brody. We actually spoke to Brody when Ju got back from the shower and that was great as we haven’t had much contact with him.  Enjoyed a good session with him before returning to the photos and had a coffee and washed breakfast stuff.

Caught the tram into Prague. The only way to go. Why you would use a car in this city is beyond me, when they have such an awesome public transport system. The drivers here obviously don’t have to abide by any laws concerning texting or talking on a phone whilst driving, because they all do it. They also don’t want to wait at pedestrian crossings while people cross. The amount of times we’ve seen them shoot through, nearly taking out the pedestrian …..They love to think they are Lewis Hamilton and speed limits are for everyone else, they screw it through towns and cities at a rapid rate.

the famous astronomical clock

Today was to be very leisurely and we were happy just to wander the streets and alleys following the crowds when we felt like it, or choosing our own path. Once again the streets were chocka full of people. Came across a music festival setting up in one of the squares and thought we’d have a listen, but they were fluffing around so we continued our photographic quest. Grabbed some lunch about  2.30pm and off again. They have amazing shopping centres here and one of the streets is for the elite names only…Rolex..Cartier…Bulgari….Prada…Lacoste…etc. I told Julia that she should wait and I’d take her to the really big stores….Farmers….Glassons….Factorie…Jeans West and top it off with Michael Hill Jewellers. She didn’t look impressed…!  I had a feeling when she married me that it was only for my money. 

One thing that did stand out today when we made it back to the music, was the amount of homeless guys going through the bins, pulling food out and eating it. I must admit I thought about it myself….they were getting some nice stuff…also the beggars, who just kneel, head down arms outstretched, with cap for money in hands. I said to Ju, I wonder what they’d do if I bent over and flogged their takings…

Watched a band play a couple of songs but it was for tv and so disjointed that we carried on. 

the Charles bridge

the crowds of people on the Charles bridge - don't come to Prague if you want some quiet time!

Just before 6pm it was into a pub for pizza and beer before catching the tram back to the camp where we loaded blogs and photos before hitting the sack.

18 June 2016 (sunny and warm) 0 km

7.30am wake up and it was nice not to have to pack up all the gear, then a soaking tent on top of that, although today we could have gotten away with it as the sun had been up for a couple of hours and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. Had until 11am before checkout, or as our information booklet stated Heck out. By 8am we were eating our ‘free’ breakfast. Some rolls, ham, cheese (staple diet in Europe) plus apple juice, jams etc, not yer good ol fashioned Big British Brekky. Continentals have to be so refined….. Then as Julia got stuck into paying the guys wages, I took a wander down the lane, (and a very nice lane it is) we reckon the rich and famous of Prague must live here. I was looking for another accommodation as we had to be out (after going on a drunken rampage last night )…not really, they were just fully booked for the weekend.  About 200 metres down the way I found a lovely home, renting rooms or cabins. Got a lovely cabin for two nights and it’s only half the rate of the room we had last night.

Back at the room I grabbed our clothes, which we’d washed last night and folded them, then had a look on-line while Ju packed her stuff. At 10.55am we were cycling down the lane and began settling into our new digs. 

Caught the tram from around the corner into Prague and exited just before the Charles bridge. Over another bridge where we began snapping our way around one half of the city. Briana had told us to take the Royal Tour and we did take a tour, but I like to call it the Peasants Tour… No lording it up, call a church a Basilica, a Palace….a big flash house and a 13^th century bridge….something to cross the river on. So, I’m sorry my gorgeous girl…they can take the lad out of Liverpool, but they’ll never take Liverpool out of

the lad…

We walked for about three hours before hunger pangs began to start so we popped into a little garden bar for a bite to eat. On the table they had some pretzels, so I took a couple, thinking they were freebies, before our meal…nice touch I thought.  Ju wasn’t tempted – said they lookd like they’d been there awhile and she wasn’t sure they weren’t just a plastic decoration.  And how would the waiter tell us “Excuse me sir, but you’re eating the table centrepiece.”  Bugger me, when I

got the bill, they’d charged me for two pralickis – at one euro each! Still, I had the last laugh….cause the tip they were going to get just got cut in half.   We decided that if we wanted some night shots tonight, we’d have to go back to camp and recharge…both the camera and us. One point I should mention here is the unbelievable amount of bloody tourists in this city. More than we’ve seen anywhere, by a long shot.

Back on the tram at 4.35pm on the trip back to Troja, the place it was so hard to find yesterday. Whilst I lay siege to the blog, Julia had a nana nap, ready for our return to the city tonight.  Around 7pm we wandered down the road for a Pizza and a beer, sorry Dad, no omelette and chips here and very nice it was too. Another valuable piece of info for beer connoisseurs, you can buy beer in Czech (and nice it is too ) for less than coke and they think nothing of drinking it from 9am in the morning.  

classic Czech pissing competition!

At 9pm we were back on the tram, returning to the city to take some night shots, but I don’t think we got too many that were as good as Budapest. The full on crowds are a pain in the backside as you can’t get a decent view of any of the buildings you want to shoot and because we don’t have a tripod, we usually use walls or bridge railings, which here, are overflowing with people. Have noticed that Prague has a lot of hen and stag parties on and in fact it seems to be a party town in general. 

The drivers are terrible and you take your life in your hands when crossing the road. Very fast paced and although some beautiful things to see, it’s too fast for us….now there’s a 56 year old talking..! Have noticed an awful lot of Japanese couples getting married here. Feels quite bizarre. Don’t know whether they are from Prague or if they fly over, but we saw about ten couples just today, at different venues, not necessarily churches.  There seem to be a lot of loud football supporters here too, so must check if Sparta Prague were playing. Cruise boats on the river are chaotic and whereas other places we’ve been seem to control the flow, here it is impossible to get a night shot from, or of a bridge, because they are all milling around underneath them. Spent until 10.30pm wandering the streets and on our way to the tram, caught the last fifteen minutes of the Austria v Portugal match.  Tram ride home full at 11pm and once there we crashed to the sound of some festival over the hill. Don’t know if it’s religious or musical or both, but there was some weird monotone chanting going on at about 2am…?  Had a good sleep, ready for tomorrow’s journey into the city.