Day 7 – to Terezin

95 km following the rivers Moldau (Vltava) and Elbe (Labe)

In the night someone destroyed the fence of the camping and tied to steal two e-bikes, but was not successful. He managed to tear the bicycles through the opening in the fence, but 10 meter further they had been dropped. Probably due to the weight (both were chained together) or the thieve was disturbed. What to learn from this lesson: At the last mile before the camping, look if someone is following you an buy an e- bike that does not look expensive. And what about an alarm, if somebody caries the bike away.

So now I was starting today’s route. A comfortable cycle path along the Vltava. My bicycle did not shift well and I was not able to select the lowest gear, so I made a technical stop. Nothing seemed to be broken, but I oiled the shift cable and readjusted the length. I now could use the lowest but not the highest gear, but that’s fine. For some kilometers the cycle route left the bank of the river and there was a small climb. The gear worked a expected.

On the route there were some Zameks (castles or palaces) and also much more cyclists as on the part south of Prague. Not because it is Saturday – they were tourists.

Czechia is one of the famous beer countries an what do you need for beer? Hops! On my way I saw a lot of Hops fields, that are currently harvested. The streets are full of the green fruit that dropped of during transportation and also some cyclists decorated their vehicles with hops.

Sometimes the cycle route has to variants. Pay attention: two variants had staircases to access a bridge over the river. I was happy to have opted for the small ferry in the first case and not to cycle through Melnick in the second case.

The confluence between Vltava and Lane was not visible , due to roadworks on the cycle path.

Near Libechov there is a Carbon Power Plant in operation, but it did not look like well maintained. Near the cycle path was a camper so the first impression, but at a second look everything inside the vehicle was green for camouflage and behind the camper was a heavy ordnance apparently to stop airplanes.

Near Racine the route left the river and passed a huge stadium called Lane Arena with a canal of at least 1 km long. For swimming or other water sports. It seems to be created in the communist area.

At they end of the day I arrived in Terezin, the Nazi concentration camp Theresienstadt. The monument was closed, but the whole citadel town was in use as Ghetto. After I pitched my tent on the Autokemp, I made a walk through the town.

Station for the imprisoned of Theresienstadt

It is very quite an nearly no public live. The only restaurant is on an hotel, others marked on maps are closed down.

It seems all social life is on the Autokemp: There is beer, pizza and people come here to dance.

Day 6 – in Prague

No traveling today, because I am ahead of the planned route.

So let’s discover some parts of the center of this nice town , that I did not see earlier. I first wanted to see the palace of Troja. I was there at 10:00 am, but it was closed as I arrived. Every day of the week it opens at that time, there is only one exception: Friday: It will open on 1:00 pm.

Then I took the repaired ferry and cycle to the Prague castle. In the neighborhood the roads were blocked with iron tank obstacles and all visitors had to pass a security check. I made a big loop around it to the west exit. From there is a nice view over the city.

And over a park with a mini Eifel tower, the Petrinska rozhledna. I cycled to the entrance and had nice views to the castle and cathedral.

Petrinska rozhledna – Petřín Lookout Tower

View to the St. Vitus Cathedral

In the evening I had a cold beer near the river Moldau / Vltava.

Day 5 – to Prague

84 km via Green ways and urban landscape

I had to return to my route first and I took the calculated result from the gpsmap 66s. Yes the route was possible to take. But after rain there would be too much mud.

And the route through Prague was between living areas, but still nearly everywhere on cycle ways.

There were several obstacles on the route. The first one was a blocked road due to renewal of water and waist water pipes.

Later a park had been extended and the official bicycle green way ended before a gate and a heap of stones, but passage was possible and on the other side the route continued. At the second gate there was a guard, but he didn’t notice that I passed.

Five minutes later a bridge was under reconstruction. On a narrow concrete stripe I pushed my bicycle without falling into the creek.

The last obstacle was the ferry to Troja that was out of operation, so I made the alternative route via a modern suspension bridge, about 1,5 km upstream.

The Charles Bridge in Prague