Month: May 2023

Fabulous country and beautiful scenery. The first town I stopped at, when I was looking for a bank, had an edge to it – felt a bit rough – google maps had taken me up a wee back street and it looked as if an argument was about to kick off between 2 couples – that combined with being somewhere I didn’t know and not knowing the lingo I felt a bit uneasy – but as I keep saying to Karen there is good and bad everywhere, and mostly good.

I’ve passed through beautiful scenery. Seen lots of horses.

I’ve been on much more shared roads over the last few days but overall not a lot of traffic. Without a doubt though it is getting hillier and harder and I think this is going to continue as I travel east.

Since I last posted I’ve stayed at another 2 campsites – that’s 3 since I left Prague. They’ve all been good but especially the first 2 – these both had wee restaurants and bars – nothing particularly unusual in that but both had a really good vibe to them – most of the folks weren’t actually staying at them – just seemed to be a good meeting point for friends and families. The one 2 nights ago was fab for another reason as well – I was struggling to find a campsite that was in cycling distance of legs that were getting weary – I called over to a female cyclist going the opposite way and asked if she knew if there was a campsite nearby – she had a wee think and then Linka (probably not spelt correctly) got me to follow her – Linka now going in the opposite direction of where she was originally going takes me to a campsite where she tells me, she also goes swimming – I would never have found it – suspect it doesn’t need advertised – it’s not very big and very basic – Porto Loos for toilets – think it’s one of these places that folks keep going back and word of mouth is enough – I wasn’t even sure if it was an official campsite to begin with but I was told it gets very busy with tents in the summer time – after I arrived 3 fellows on motorbikes arrived and pitched their tents – if I happen to passing this way I would definitely stay again.

Two days ago the weather was beautiful – mid morning I sat at this lake and had a 2nd breakfast. Lots of bird life and lots of big fishes – now I know very little about fish or fishing but these fish must be pretty well down the list when brains were handed out – wee motorboat appeared on the lake – one fellow doing the motoring / steering bit – the other – not sure fishing is the right word – he was just using a net to scoop the fish out of the water – only took a few from different areas of the lake.

Forecast for yesterday was wet – wet, wet and more wet but I got lucky. I woke up to some big splats of rain about about 5.30 – should have just got up and packed up the tent then because when I did pack it up about 7am it was very wet but didn’t last too long. Overall weather much better than forecast, though, where I was – I got one heavy shower mid afternoon, that only lasted a few minutes – there had obviously been a heavy shower not long before I reached the campsite as the roads were very wet. First time meeting another cyclist at a campsite this trip and he hadn’t been so lucky with the weather today .

Not long before getting to yesterday’s campsite I stocked up on food at lidl – a selection of bread rolls, cheese, salami, crisps, grapefruit juice and an essential bag of gummy worms. Outside I got chatting to 2 guys on big dirt / motocross motorbikes – well one talked – the other didn’t say much – not sure if that was because he didn’t speak English or didn’t get a chance to get a word in – the one who did all the talking spoke very good English – transpired that they had done some pretty serious stuff including areas of North Africa on their motorbikes – they say their goodbyes and wish me well but as I’m trying to figure out where to pack up too much food the chatty one gives me a present of a “healthy date and peanut” bar and tells me that I need to eat better – cheeky bugger – apart from the gummy worms didn’t think my shopping was that bad – but thank him anyway – give him his due nuts and dates probably better for me but a gummy worm tastes so much better.

John had suggested a couple of places to stay or visit but the only one I made it to was Brno and this where I am just now in a hostel. Took a wrong turn this morning pretty much as soon as I left the campsite – ended up on wrong side of river but distance wise didn’t make much difference and did mean that I saw this castle – loving coming round a bend in the road and suddenly there’s an unexpected castle or church or cathedral.

Had intended to have a quick visit to Brno and then head further south but as soon as I got here decided that it made more sense to stay a night and continue on tomorrow. Brno is Czechia’s 2nd biggest city – a university city and much quiter than Prague – got a completely different feel to it and I liked it.

We had a whirlwind tour of some of the sites – could have done more but tired so headed to the hostel.

I loved these drain covers!

All my planning has been rough-ish – I’ll roughly go there and I’ll roughly go here – I’ll roughly arrive on this day and then again I may not. Planning a trip is good fun – finding out about exciting and interesting places to visit but too much planning and I find I’m just overwhelmed with information.

I’d roughly planned a route from home to Harwich. I’d planned a route through The Netherlands – the 1st (and probably 2nd) day I just ignored because the weather wasn’t with me. It’s also difficult to predict on a bike how long it will take you to get somewhere. The not knowing and not being tied to dates is part of the fun – 2 dates though I must stick to is meeting my wee sister in Romania (and I can’t wait for that) and making sure I leave France before the allotted 90 days is up (and that’s just a pain the bum).

I’m not sure I did much planning in Germany – friends and friends of friends did most of that for me.

Getting to Prague was a case of carrying on following the same river that I’d  been following for a good few days in Germany so that was pretty straightforward – I just needed to make sure that I had the right money.

Next I’d planned to go to Kracow in Poland but feel that time is running out so I’ve aborted that plan – I’ll just need to go another time!!

So last  night I started looking at a route to get from Prague to Romania. The first stage it made sense to continue east following The Elbe / Labe until it starts to go north at a place called Pardubice. Looking up information and especially on the Eurovelo group I’ve been following on Facebook it was all doom and gloom   – routes were “awful” – “so rough that you had to push bike for large portions / so rough that you would need  a mountain bike with no luggage / so rough that you’d be better to get a train / and if you left the cycle route the roads were so busy that you’d be better to get on a train!!!”. This combined with  not knowing the language at all – after 3 days I’ve still failed to pronounce thank you correctly – I was starting to wonder if I’d bitten off more than I could chew – rather than worrying about it I gave up doing any more research and went to bed but not before messaging John, who had cycled there, to see what he thought – John messaged me to say he didn’t have any problems and also some tips on where to stay and places to visit if they are on my route – thank you John.

So this morning I checked out of the hotel and set off and it was …………………………………………………….. a terrible day – only kidding – had a great day. Cycle lanes led me out of Prague. I did push the bike up about 8 steps – was that part of the route or navigation error on my part, which is possible. There was a busy and strange section – lane for people to walk on, then lane for cars to be parked, next was cycle lane and then 2 lanes of cars – it wasn’t actually too bad until cars were merging in from a slip road from the right – in theory I had right of way but I wasn’t taking any chances. But after that it was all good. A mix of quite back roads through towns and cycle paths that followed the river – the river section varied hugely – some sections rough and potholed, some bits just a runnel in the grass but nothing that was not doable and then there was sections of beautifully smooth tarmac. Great route and the sun was out – fab day and hopefully it continues like that.

This sign was at a very low bridge under a railway line. Quick translation is duck. Google translate is –

"attention reduced edge under the ridge" or if you forget to put a space in between pod and jezdu you get a completely different meaning -

"pay attention to reduced food in the entrance hall"!!!

So all in all a good day and the sun is to come out again tomorrow.

–

So I’ve got plenty of time to spend in Romania when I get there – what I’ve not got is a lot of time to get to the Romania border in the first place.

The new rules means that you can only have 90 days in every 180 days in Schengen countries – luckily Romania and Bulgaria don’t fall into this category.

So for the sums –

I’d already used a week when I went skiing in Italy earlier this year and this leaves me with 83 days.

I’ve divided this in 2 – so 41.5 days to get from Hook of Holland to the border of Romania – spend as much time as I want in Romania and Bulgaria – and then the remaining 41.5 days to get from the Romanian border to Dover or Calais for ferry back to UK.

To be on the safe side I’m not going to cut as fine as that but at the moment think I’ve only got 12 days to get to the Romania border so I need to get my pedals turning!!

I crossed into the Czech Republic 2 mornings ago – first time since crossing the Scotland / England border that I’ve had a marker to indicate that I’ve crossed into a new country.

I’m still following the same river but The Elbe is known as The Labe in the Czech Republic. Takes me a wee while to get used to the yellow marker signs instead of the green ones I’ve been following but if anything the route is even easier and better marked than in Germany.

I’ve loved following the route through Germany but again it’s got nicer over the border – the river is a bit more twisty, the route is a bit more undulating (but still very easy) – closer to the hills and trees, making it prettier – a wee bit industrial at times but if anything this just adds to the interest – passing lots of houses, lots of wee holiday homes and little caravans, nothing big or fancy often old railway carriages – it’s got kind of a riviera feel to it without the grandeur or expense – and there are lots of wee places to buy drinks and snacks!! Cycling along the Elbe in Germany unless you came to a town or made a detour there wasn’t a lot of places to stop and get a juice or a snack – they were everywhere now and it was a holiday Monday so they were all open – one wee problem though – I’ve forgotten to get any Czech Koruna – a wee detour to get some money and not long later I stop in the sunshine – corn on the cob and a tin of cider – yes cider – sitting in the sunshine – can’t beat it!

Also spotted a beaver – initially not sure what it was – thought it was a wee brown dog, then thought it was just a log floating with the current until it swam back the way and then it came out onto the bank – didn’t seem too phased by the people about but soon got back into the water when a dog got a bit curious – I thought beavers tended to be seen at dawn and dusk but this one seemed to be enjoying the afternoon sun. No photo I’m afraid.

I kept seeing signs for a campsite that seemed to be geared up for cyclists and it is right on the cycle route – seen lots of cyclists but very few other cycle tourers – the ones I’ve seen have mostly gone in the opposite direction so nothing more than a quick friendly hello on the way past – the only ones I’ve actually spoken to were a nice retired Dutch couple who I met in my early days in Germany. It would have been nice to have met up with some other tourers but no – I arrive at the campsite – it’s part of a sport’s complex and has a hostel too – again I’ve got the campsite to myself and the keys to the hostel kitchen, dining room and showers and storage for Bertie bike – fab place – just no other cyclists or anyone else come to that!

Despite the local clocks chiming through the night I had a pretty good sleep and was cosy in my tent!

Wee hiccup when I got Bertie out of his overnight storage though – no idea how but one end of one of the bungee cords (that i use to secure the tent – and at times – towel, jacket, jumper, spare knickers, food supplies, anything that needs drying, or I’ve run out of space for) is still attached to the pannier rack and the other end is caught round the rear cassette thingy – and in process of moving bike I’ve made it worse – it’s so tight I can’t budge it either end and end up cuttung the bungee cord so that I’m able to free it – so I’m now down to just one bungee cord but everything still seems to be secure.

Yesterday I made my way to Prague – no holiday today and the cycle path was really quite and the wee snack stalls all closed – did have a wee biscuit though.

And one ferry over The Labe – and I’m nearly in Prague – later on came across a shop that sells just rubber ducks in Prague.

Abandoned Bertie close to the castle and have a good wander round. Never realised how big Prague is and it’s busy – hate to think what it would be like at peak season but it’s beautiful though.

Had to have the local icecream and cone – cone is hidden in its wrapper so you can’t see it – but the cone is made fresh and is exactly the same ingredients / texture as a doughnut – my cone was filled with fresh strawberries before they added the ice cream – delicious!

I’m booked into a hostel  – chain called A & O – never heard of them before – 2 nights in a 4 bed dorm for £21 – it’s about 4.5 miles from the old town – it’s big – seems to be geared up for hostlers through to hotel double rooms – friendly and clean and only downside is there are not enough lifts relative to the number of folks staying and I’m on the 9th floor.

Today Bertie was abandoned at the hostel while I went sightseeing – and took too many pictures again. Tomorrow it’s back on the bike and heading East and / or South East.