Day 78:. Revnice to Prague

June 29, 2022

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Swarming around Prague - first outing

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The river was still swollen from the storm the other night, and it also rained heavily last night. For the first part of the day, though, we were spared having to wear our rain gear.

The river we are talking about is the Berounka. This is the largest left bank tributary of the Vltava. The Vltava? Yes, that is the river that flows through Prague, the one over which the famous Charles Bridge passes. And after that, at Melnik, the Vltava joins the Elbe (Labe, in Czech). The Elbe? yes, that's our river, the one we started out following the North Sea!

We continued to sort of struggle with the bike route, which was now styling itself EV 4, in addition to Route 3, which then seemed to change to another Czech designation. Today our main issue was extensive on road sections. For example, in the photo below, the (fuzzy - sorry) orange sign designates the bike route. Tell that to the drivers here hogging the road!

Route 3 was still our friend, but when it signalled a left turn, off the pavement and to the narrow track, the relationship was a bit strained.

It turned out that Route 3 knew what it was talking about, because the trail led to this.

and the ramp put us on a catwalk beside a railway bridge.

Below us the scene included a quite dilapidated building. I thought I should capture some impression of the Czech villages here, and came up with the two additional shotss below.

At Cernosice we needed to take a right turn, as indicated by the yellow Czech bike route signs, but a group of students was waiting for a train to pass through, so we waited for them to carry on and clear the way. It gave us a chance to observe the kids, but we have given up generally trying to greet or talk to anyone. Do you see a kid in the photo that you would want to talk to, or that wants to talk to anyone?

To dispel the idea that the route was all on road or all gravel or all bridge catwalks, look at the following three shots, showing it to be just swell!

There are even interesting plants, like these particular thistles?

And here is the Berounka making its fateful union with the Vltava.

In principle we can read signs using Google Lens, but it's quite a bug to drag it out. So for example, we ignored this one. Had we asked Google, it would have said "For the journey to Prague 4 use Branicky Most (Green tourist mark) Not suitable for cyclists - stairs must be taken down." Say what? Anyway we ignored it, but we mentioned to each other "We ignored that, eh."

Next, we ignored this one: "Cycling route A1 in front of Barr. Bridge closed." Had we translated it, it would have told us "Bridge closed!"

And then this one: "The cyclist instructs the construction to get off the bike". I would take that to mean "Get off the bike!"

And finally "You are through the construction", which actually meant "You are going to end up in construction"

None of these signs had any effect on us, of course, and you know what, even in English we would likely have responded "Yeah, prove it". But then a non-surly dog walking Czech man stopped us and confirmed the futility of our mission. We had to go back, take an underpass below a big road, and carry on, not by the river.

The man was right, here we are above the big road looking toward the river.

And here is what they did to the path by the river, not to mention the bridge.

We didn't really have time to consider how we would actually carry on, and how to cross the river, when the road surface began to feel very unstable to me. Rear flat! The first flat of this trip. Fortunately Dodie had stopped up ahead in the shelter of the bridge under construction. That was good, as it was raining.

Because of the difficulty of removing our wheels, our protocol for rear flats is to pull the tube out as much as possible, and to use Dodie's advanced perceptive ability to spot the leak location. Then it is hopefully patch it in place and stuff the tube back in.

Spotting a puncture is not usually easy. It's so much better to have the tube in your hand and to submerge it in the sink! And if not, then put in a new tube out on the road, and deal with the damaged one calmly later. We do have replacement tubes, and they are specially designed to go on without removing the wheel. But you have to cut the old tube out with a scissors.

Best is to just miraculously find the puncture. One help is to listen for the hiss. But here we were in a construction site. And as we pondered, a man came along with a giant lift bucket machine. We thought he would add to our problems by forcing us to move all our stuff so his machine could pass. But instead he pulled it up on the side and began to fiddle with its own problem of some type. It objected to this, and made a lot of loud beeping. Next a train trundled by. It was hard to even think, let alone listen for a hiss.

I was ready to get out the scissors and hack the tube apart, but the level headed Dodie called for another of the basics (essentials) of flat repair - the finding out of what caused the flat. I ran my hand inside the tire and yes! it was a steel belt tire wire. Classical. The great thing about a wire puncture is that the wire shows where the problem is with "pinpoint accuracy"! So thanks to Dodie (she will be reading to check that this shout out is in here!) the day was saved and the tube lives on.

With the tire fixed, we were still on the wrong side of the river. "We need a boat". "Hey, that's a boat, let's go talk to the man!"

The boat turned out to be a ferry. For a few korunas we were teleported to the other side.

Now began a process that I remember from when we approached Prague in 2019. You go along the river, looking at the relatively plain jane buildings and bridges, and wonder when the "real Prague" will begin. You take some photos of semi nice buildings, thinking maybe this is it.

In our case, before we could appreciate too much of the wonderful city we had to confront the vexing lack of bicycle culture in Czechia, and the vexing ploy of painting bicycle images on busy boulevards and calling the bicycle routing and safety issue solved.

You can cycle between the tram rails, until a tram clears you out!

If you are still alive, you can appreciate the sanctimonious signage. It says "Drive Safe". You can take your sign and shove it, cycle.praha.eu!

I found the busy boulevards so frustrating that I was really ready to suggest pulling the plug on our Prague visit, and fleeing to the countryside. But then, just look at his place. So gorgeous!

Dodie steadfastly brought us through to our hotel, which she had chosen as the one absolutely closest to the central square and the iconic Tyn Church. In fact, the church is just meters from where I am sitting in our room in the hotel Cerny Slon writing this. Our building is from the 14th century and is a UNESCO heritage site.

Look at the city as we find our hotel:

The pointy Tyn Church, Jan Hus statue in the foreground.

The hotel is tight quarters. But we had demanded bike storage. So here are the bikes at the front desk. They will soon squeeze into a back office.

After a quick shower, we sallied forth for a quick tour of the historic centre. No other city we know of offers such wonderful architectural views at every turn. Youu can photograph any one of hundreds or thousands of buildings, they are all beautiful. You can turn your camera down any side street, it will be great. Of course, we are not the only ones in the world to have noticed this, and crowds here are thick. But we must say, the throngs are much thinner than in 2019, when we had to hold hands fiercely to avoid being separated. Today's weakened throngs remain throngs nonetheless!

Wondering when the astronomical clock might do its thing.

This is about as famous as the carillon in Munich.

The golden chicken at the top, flaps during the performance.

Our quick walk took us towards and onto the Charles Bridge, which is lined by statues of saints, including Nepomuk, who was wrapped in chains and thrown off it. Then we cycled back toward and into the Nicholas Church. On the way, first thing, actually, we secured a Trdlnyk, which is a funnel shaped sort of cake, baked over charcoal on a spit, and filled (in my case) with the best ice cream of any city. Here we go with the quick walk, with a few comments in the captions.

Trdlnyks cooking. These guys are cheating a bit - no charcoal.

I would pedal 1000 km for one of these. More costly than I remembered though - 150 kroner (6 euros).

This outlet was right at the main square. Tomorrow we'll look for slightly more "authentic" versions of this tourist concoction farther afield.

The bridge is usually packed with lots more people than this.

Brass on Nepomuk's statue has been polished by many hands

"Miscellaneous" building seen from the bridge

We have seen quite a bit of Ukraine support flags in Czechia

Inside the Nicholas church. The church is known as the Hussite Church. Jan Hus, whose statue dominates the main square, was a church reformer in the 15th century. He ended by being burned at the stake in Constance in 1415. He was a precursor of Martin Luther (1483-1546). The Nicholas Church which took on its present form in 1735 had a stint as a Benedictine monastery, but after WW I was adopted by supporters of Hus.

Touch screen inside the church can tell you the whole story.

Ok, that clock on the old city hall is about to do its thing!

Tomorrow I will find and post some of what all these people are recording.

So many restaurants here feature traditional Czech food. Our own hotel proved to be typical, and similarly priced, so we gave it a try. Here is a view of the type of dishes on offer:

We went for the soup of the day (really yummy bean based) and the roast duck. It was similar to what we had in Munich with Claire. Actually, Munich was meatier and easier to eat, but this was good too.

We also got the world's smallest Pepsi. Value of this much Pepsi at home is about twenty five cents. We paid about $Can 3.25. Soft drinks are crazy in Europe, and that includes water.

What added Meaning to Life today? Trdlnyk!

Today's ride: 33 km (20 miles)
Total: 4,373 km (2,716 miles)

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Bill ShaneyfeltI believe Prague may have been home to one of my favorite distance runners, Emil Zatopek. My high school English senior paper was on the development of the modern Olympic games, and that's where I learned most about him.
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