We unloaded our bicycles from the European Sleeper: we had arrived at the beginning of our cycling adventure in the middle of Prague and immediately decided to find some coffee.
Praha hlavní nádraží, (Prague main railway station) was overwhelming. I wanted to enjoy the architecture, dwell on the iron and glass structure and soak in the size of the place, but I was simultaneously hyper-alert to pickpockets. I know that I need to be careful in crowds of tourists, because it is easy to become a victim by looking like a gormless target. So my cycle luggage was tied onto the frame, and the bar bag was locked. We left the building by the first exit we found, which led directly onto a car-park ramp, and after looping around in a lost way, ended up on a dusty corner between the car park entrance and the traffic filled dual carriageway. We pushed our bicycles under a railing and across a park to reach a path: to roads leading away from the station’s bustle. We were not, however, going to escape bustle. It is Prague. We found coffee and took stock: what should we do.
Goals for Prague: Get a general feel for the architecture, see some buildings, see some bridges, and wander in the general direction towards the outskirts in hope of finding a campsite before the evening. There was more to see than we could take in: we rumbled over the cobbles on fully loaded bicycles, and weaved through crowds, occasionally walking the bikes where the people pressed in tightly. We found a square with a clockwork chime and waited with other spectators until it struck one. We found a bridge, well, we found several bridges, and Dean began a photo-documentary which would last the whole way home.
In the planning stages, we had both drawn up GPS routes. It didn’t matter that the routes were different, we planned to simply negotiate our way, knowing that between us we’d always be going roughly in the right direction. Neither were we precious about our route: if we decided to change direction and ended up catching a train later on, that was fine by us to. Our goal was to have a holiday, see some stuff, ride our bikes, sleep in our tents, and have total break from normality. Added to this, I hoped to spend two weeks in t-shirts and cycling shorts, riding in warm weather. I didn’t want a hard holiday, merely a relaxed and enjoyable cycling holiday in the sunshine. Spoiler alert: that’s exactly what I got.
On the southern edge of the city we found a flat and easy cycle path sandwiched between the Vltava River and a dual carriageway. It was a hot afternoon and we rested in the shade for a cold drink, there was a campsite here too, and families were swimming in the river.
The well-defined cycle route was absolutely flat for the first 20km, until we reached Vrané nad Vltavou and left the banks of the river to cut across a corner and our first experience of holiday-climbing began. Our holiday’s meta-narrative of ‘poor navigation on my behalf’ began in earnest, and would try Dean’s patience until the very end of our time together. In the heat, and on loaded tourers, the ascent felt tough, on a mixture of back roads and dirt tracks. In my ignorance I wondered if all of Czechia’s country lanes would be unpaved.
On the descent, and with Dean path-finding, we had a gnarly off-road bridleway to follow, picking our way cautiously between rocks and sand until we reached a tiny hamlet and a bar. We celebrated being alive by drinking a beer and searching online for a campsite. There was one on the far side of the river, but thankfully a narrow footbridge would carry us over.
There was a very basic campsite, and a group of men were drinking beer while trying to build a structure of some sort by planting telegraph poles into the ground.
Dean has a lot of experience cycle camping, and one of his tricks is to call in at a Supermarket within the last 20km, picking up food for the evening. I had received a tutorial from my wife about cooking with the Trangia, and knew what I was looking for in the shops – pasta, sauces, rice, cooked meats, cheese; anything that I only needed to reheat and nothing that needed preparation.
Stage one. Prague city centre to Pikovice:
