Vepice to Konopiště

Lola is still asleep, camped just out of Vepice.
Tom had told us about Husova kazatelna, a big 'wobble stone' from which Jan Hus, the 14th century Czech priest-reformer, supposedly preached once. It was a bit out of our way and we had to get to Konopiště Castle that night. So we skipped it. But we soon stumbled on a roadside pub. It had a big trampoline out the front which was a drawcard, and some kind of mini golf, apparently popular amongst Czechs. It also had good goulash and massive serves of dumplings and we struggled to get moving afterwards. Lola rolled around on the trampoline as tradesmen in overalls sporting healthy guts and mullets came and went, driving battered little hatchbacks very quickly. I wondered why none of them seemed to be driving more functional work vehicles. Maybe they worked on tractors? Another group turned up on bicycles. They had clearly ridden from the village straight to the pub, and not for the exercise. CZ has a 0.00 alcohol limit for drivers.

As we rolled over the undulating country we passed Vysoký Chlumec castle, perched on a steep hill.
On the other side of Neveklov, we suddenly realised we were on a popular back road for commuting traffic from Benešov. That's not fun on narrow, curving roads with gung ho drivers. Eventually we got to the leafy forest park around the castle. I rang the bell at one of the enormous gates and a security guard gave us a key to the domeček (workers' cottage) down below where we could stay, thanks to Tom's friend Jana. That little steeple is cute but there is no way into it! I kept banging my head on the angled ceiling. Boo hoo.

Konopiště is an odd place. Jana told us it was much more popular with Russian tourists. This was Archduke Franz Ferdinand's last residence before he was assassinated in 1914: he was also 'Royal Prince of Bohemia'. The bear pit at the main gates gives it a very unreconstructed feel. We took Lola on a tour of the castle which showed off the Archduke's hunting trophies, exotic weapon and armour collections. He reportedly shot up to 300,000 wild animals, many of which were displayed here. Tasteful. We realised that Czech style castle tours don't suit Lola: supervised, slow movement from one room to another, each full of things you can't touch.

There was also a motorcycle museum here (presumably full of Jawa's) and some kind of dog show on, again showcasing Czech pet love.

Písek

We put our bikes (and trailer) onto a train from Prague's central station to Písek. You can buy train tickets (for bikes also) on the CZ rail website (translation function in bottom right hand corner).

When we got to Písek it was bucketing down. We had to sit out 5 days of non stop rain. Luckily we had good friends to stay with, Tom and Eva. That meant lots of conviviality. Home cooking, pastries, tea, Moravian wine, and Czech beer testing. Tom had a 4 year old Chariot trailer and pointed out that we'd already lost a nut from the suspension. He even had spare parts for us (he'd had undercarriage problems too).

Tom taking a pic of a canal he'd never seen this high.
By now we were thinking of heading down to Spain or Italy!

The Písek Stone Bridge, reportedly the oldest bridge in CZ, dating back to the 13th century.
The weather settled eventually and we hit the road, north to Zvíkov, one of many castles we would come across. This is a most excellent castle, very well located on a peninsula. There weren't many people other than one big group hanging around taking themselves very seriously, fiddling with ipads and measuring tapes. We later learnt they were from the BBC and planned to shoot a documentary there. Orlík Dam was full of mud and debris from the recent floods.

From here we skirted around the dam towards the north again, hitting some sodden tracks, which was OK as long as they were gravelly - but then came the mud.

This Eastern Front style mud didn't last too long, thankfully. The mosquitoes were feasting - we weren't going fast enough to blow them off. We had a good pub meal in Kovářov, at the only pub we saw, and discovered Kofola: a well marketed, retro Czech cola. Then we camped outside Vepice in a patch of forest on a hill.

Czech Republic - early summer tour

We decided to head off to Czech for some adventures this northern summer. The idea came after browsing through beautiful 'coffee table books' full of rocky escarpments and ruined castles at our Czech friends' place. These friends, Martina and Lubor, also let us try out their Chariot trailer before we got one for Lola (now almost 18 months old). Czechs are quite avid explorers and we wondered what their 'back country' would be like. What are Czech drivers like? Would we find good camping?

We had a month. My original plan was to get to Prague, catch a train to České Budějovice and then ride through the Šumava forest around the Czech - German border up towards Dresden, then east, then back south to Prague. I always found that sticking to border areas meant lots of national parks and not much car traffic.

The biggest issue was how much to take. Two bikes, a trailer plus camping gear adds up to a heap to lug with you from Australia. Some camping gear we'd have to get in Czech so that saved a bit on the way there. But we still had to check with the airlines.

First card to play was the 'pram' one. Most airlines don't hit you for a pram. So, it's not a trailer, it's a 'pram'. Then we could cram a bit of extra gear into that box, but not enough to get the question we did get once at checkin: 'What kind of pram weighs 25kg?' We ended up with about 80kg of boxed up gear (two bicycles, trailer, panniers, camping gear.) Three big boxes plus a sack with all our panniers in it. We landed in Prague. It was 11 degrees, and raining. Inauspicious. My bike box had been trashed en route. I couldn't even pick it up. Julie's front dropout (aluminium) had been bent a bit despite the plastic protector. Nothing more serious, amazingly.

We'd found a place in Letná (Prague 7) to stay, right between two big parks, Stromovka and Letenské sady (Letná gardens).  Letenské sady offered brilliant views over central Prague from the north. We mused over the weather - heavy rain forecast over the following week.

So, Lola scored new wet weather gear...

...and a new sleeping bag.

Czech Radio Two on in the background, with Czech language covers of 'evergreen' classics (think 'Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head' in Czech).

We wandered through Letná gardens to Pražský hrad (Prague Castle).

Later, when we headed into the city centre on our bikes, we crossed the Vltava River to Malá Strana. From here, we could ride almost the entire way home through parks: zigzagging up through the lush Petřínské gardens, under the Petřín funicular, then traversing across past Pražský hrad home to Letná.

Prague has lots of bike paths, an excellent 'Prague by bike' route finder, beautiful big parks, but also cobblestones, steep hills, bad drivers, and trams (beware! they don't slow down!)

On Václavské náměstí we went into Palác knih and found an amazing bookshop with a huge map section with a little cycling atlas of CZ which looked pretty decent.

The Green Map of Prague is a great alternative guide to Prague - with good parks, non smoking bars, vegetarian food, farmers' markets, artisan shops and development eyesores all listed. The Prague Use-It map is interesting and fun, too.