České Budějovice to Český Krumlov: Riding into a Bohemian wonderland

August 16, 2015

U Namesti, Room 4 loft

A bit of rain but not much.

Someone reading this please find a recipe for Czech kulajda and let me know which recipe is tastiest. Awesome soup! ( http://jakubrestaurant.cz/en 5*)

I woke up feeling much better in the morning. Not 100%, but much better. Breakfast is included, so down we went at 7 am into a glorious old room that opened onto the town square. What a place. And what a beautiful spread. Eggs, cheese, fruit, ham, bacon, yoghourt, bread. And some of the cheeses were brie and blue. Heaven. I ate a lot since I was starving! Finally full, we loaded up and were away on a cloudy morning, shortly after 8 am. No sooner had we started that rain began. We took cover under a huge oak tree at the heaviest point to put on our coats and cover our saddles. As we continued, the rain diminished until it finally stopped.

Sometimes my gps gives false directions. This was one of them. I saw a sign for highway 3/39 Praha, but not Český Krumlov. I stopped and asked a woman who pointed the way we'd already come. Backtracking about 250 m we were soon on the right track.

I could feel that I was not 100%, but was much improved. However, we still took it easily, but we never had to get off the bikes to push them. Today's issue was that the roads are really narrow with no shoulder, and the traffic is really crazy. To make things sad, on the one really long descent, the bottom leg of my stand fell off and MA noticed when it was too late. Let's hope I see a shop soon for a replacement.

We were excited to get to town without feeling exhausted, so when we passed through an old stone gate out came the cameras.

The last bit was a long downhill into town and it seemed I made a slight navigational error but when the gps recalculated its route we found ourselves by a gate through the walls by Hostel 99. It was there we ran into two Scottish cyclists making their way through Europe - but camping at night.

We mostly walked our bikes along the large cobbles and found ourselves climbing toward the castle tower then having to carry our bikes down a pile of stone stairs - which we later found to have an easier alternative. We got to the square but then the gps got confused so we switched to tablet maps and were to our door within a couple of minutes. The owner's daughter was away but a colleague got us to our Room 4 in the attic, while our folded bikes were locked under a stairway at the entrance. Once into the room, the owner's daughter came along to collect payment and chat with us.

Once we had dropped off our gear in our room, we sent a few pictures home then went to Restaurant Jakub, which was suggested by our hostess. MA had traditional Czech mushroom-dill soup kulajda, and basil pasta; I had pork and chips. Everything was delicious. Being a nice day, we then wandered along the river and through the old winding streets. This is a fabulous town. The Vltava rings the old centre and countless tourists raft or canoe the river including down the flumes beside the weirs. The park across from the church was beautiful as were all views to the castle. We clicked away on our cameras all day!

A few times we stopped for free wifi where I updated tablet photos to FB. Eventually we returned to the room to shower and launder our cycling gear before heading out through the town some more. For supper we ate on a back terrace with views up a bare hill - we had pork or chicken, served with chips and cabbage.

We had not spent time in the square so we went to a cafe for cappuccinos until it was dark out, when we walked to a lookout point past the church with amazing views of the castle. It was all lit up with a bit of sunset glow fading in the sky.

When we returned to the room around 10 pm I was too tired to catch up on the journal so uploaded a few photos to FB and edited photos on my camera.

Today's ride: 28 km (17 miles)
Total: 158 km (98 miles)

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