Cykloturisticky! Bike Camping in the Czech Republic

With a little luck, a few phone calls, and an interminable train/bus ride, we eventually assembled in our apartment four somewhat suitable bicycles for a three-day jaunt through the countryside around Prague.

On the night of July 5th we tried to get everything ready. Early on the 6th we made our way through the large doors of our apartment building and started our adventure...

And immediately we had a few chain problems. We'll count this as our first set-back of the day, and still within sight of St. Nicholas' Church.

Luckily, a friendly Czech woman tried to help. Unfortunately her hand gestures, a circling of her arm, much like she was stirring the air in front of her, didn't fix the chain.


You should recognize the surroundings in the picture below if you are a faithful reader of our blog and have an incredible memory. Don't recognize it? Check the link below the picture to flash back to the end of October.

Click here to see the same trail in the fall.

Set-back number two occurred when we tried to put regular pedals on one of the bikes that we borrowed. We couldn't because it seemed that one of them was cross-threaded. We stopped at a sporting goods store to see if their bike mechanic could help us. Then set-backs number 3 and 4 occurred when the mechanic was 2 hours late for work, and then couldn't really help us after all! We had left our apartment several hours ago and had hardly gone 10 kilometers!

Finally we got back on the road, and things really improved. The roads were great, and the weather was gorgeous. But this proved to be a set-back of sorts, as we were VERY hot and dehydrated by the blazing sun. Can't you tell we look like a group suffering repeated set-backs! Yeah right... We were having a blast, despite the small problems that appeared.

Our first castle of the trip: Karlstejn. We stopped for a nap and a brief walk around the place.

Back on the bikes, we pedaled along the Bourunka river for a while before finding this campsite. It looks gorgeous, but sadly the facilities were, um... lacking. And the river is a less-than-pretty brown color. But it was really nice to camp and hear the locals talking about fishing (we think) as we fell asleep...

We struck camp and set off from Dobrochovice, heading east along the river.

We hadn't gone far when, yup, you guessed it... another set-back. C. somehow locked her self in a bathroom that didn't have any keys to begin with! 10 minutes later, she was free. We still can't explain it.

We made our only major cartographical error early on the second day, and had to either back-track or risk our lives crossing a train-only bridge. We turned around.

A. picked the route, and either kindly or cruelly didn't specify exactly how many hills we'd be climbing on our second day. It started out flat, along the river, but then we went up, up, up and then down, and then up and then down... all the way to a great lunch in Jilove u Prahy.

After lunch, (which was wonderful and set-back free) we ran into what could have been a real problem--potentially more than just a set-back. The road we were on, and had been coasting downhill along for quite some distance, suddenly stopped. Luckily, the construction workers waved us through after we asked them in Czech if we could proceed. Actually, they didn't wave us through so much as laughed at us as we tried to navigate the small wooden planks that they were using as bridges.

Dejkuji Moc!

The roads of the second day just got better and better after that, and we had only one other set-back worth mentioning: A. needed new brake pads and after a lengthy and circular search for a small bike shop, he managed to drop a much needed bolt somewhere into a gravel parking lot in the beautiful town of Tynec nad Sazavou. P. saved the day, and within a few minutes we were back in the saddle.

We relaxed in the gardens of Konopiste after a long day of riding. Franz Ferdinand D'este lived here, and the place is pretty to say the least! No real set-backs at this time...

Our second campsite was the exact opposite of the first. No riverfront tent sites, no spectacular view, but fantastic amenities, a swimming pool, and perhaps the biggest difference was the huge group of Danes and Swedes that were vacationing here. More Danish and Swedish than Czech was spoken here. Did I mention the swimming pool? Luxury!

A. and P. went for a quick trip to find some ancient ruins called Kozli that were described on our map. In search of the ruins we hid our bikes in the woods and hiked straight up a hill. Pretty trees and a nice view, but no Kozli. A set-back? Perhaps.

All we could find was this wooden shrine depicting knights and what looked like Konopiste.

We packed up our stuff, and by now we knew exaclty how camping gear for four people fits on the bikes. Before leaving of course we went for our second swim in the pool, and then we were off!

The third-day. Time for portraits with poppies:

We were having a blast, and even managed to be so far ahead of schedule that we couldn't watch the Tour at T.'s favorite cafe because coverage hadn't started yet. We did have awesome crepes, though! T. looks a bit apprehensive as she says farewell to the Creperia in Pruhonice.

We left the Creperia and started heading for Prague when suddenly thunder, lightning, and a pouring rain forced us to hide under a bus stop!

We didn't call this a set-back, though. The rain felt good after being so hot for the previous two days. And it only lasted for about 10 minutes. And then we continued into Prague without too much difficulty, unless falling down an up escalator while trying to carry a bicycle... Safe and mostly sound we returned from a grueling three days to being on vacation.