We woke up early in the morning on the 12th, eager to start off our European cycling tour. The first task was to pack our panniers. The second task was for Spiros to unpack and repack my panniers while citing my “inferior packing skills”. 
(It’s a 20 year old ritual; we don’t like to mess with it). With that all said and done, we were off, happy to be back on our bikes.
With the exception of our 5 day hike in the Fish River Canyon, we really haven’t gotten any exercise whatsoever, so we decided to take it easy that first day. We said we would do about 60-70km. We could have headed straight for the border from the campground, but decided to go into town for breakfast and coffee instead. Then we did a completely intentional tour of the Vienna burbs (yes siree bob…a completely intentional tour of the Vienna burbs 
). Then throughout the day, we kept side tracking and taking alternate routes because we thought they may be nice. Anyway, by the end of the day we had done 130 km. Ouch! I think the TDA has left more of an impression than we thought.
That first day brought us to the town of Lednice, a Unesco World Heritage Site; very pretty and worth a stop if you are in the area. Over the next couple days, we mostly followed the Greenways route, slowly making our way to some very beautiful towns like Znojmo, Vranov nad Dyj, Telc, Jindrichuv Hradec and Trebon. The jewel of the trip was definitely Cesky Krumlov. It’s packed with tourists but what a beautiful place; a definite must-see. The cycling itself was quite pretty; farmlands, fields of sunflowers, rolling hills and very pretty villages. Other highlights included having to BabelFish for breakfast (that’s just good fun) and a huge thunderstorm, the worst we have ever experienced in a tent. Not only were there huge puddles in the tent but we had to support the tent poles with both hands and feet to prevent them from snapping from the strong winds. We were quite a sight; wish we had taken a photo but at that point we were more concerned with being fried by a lightening bolt.
In all we spent about 7 days in the Czech Republic. We had a really nice time and were very glad we decided to go this route. At the end of our trip, we hope to post a summary for each country we cycled in. For now here are some of our thoughts about cycling in the Czech Republic:
- Scenery: The scenery is very pretty. We cycled through rural farmlands, small villages, lush forests and fields of sunflowers.
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Terrain: The terrain is quite hilly. The climbs aren’t long but they are generally continuous throughout the day so the accumulated daily vertical climb can be substantial. If you are not carrying panniers, it’s not too much of an issue. If you are, well then, just repeat after me: “The granny gear is my friend.”
- Road Conditions: The condition of the roads was, for the most part, excellent. However, there can be a lot of traffic at times, especially near a larger town.
- Costs: The campgrounds were decent value for what we were paying (between $10 -15 per night). We found the hotels and pensions to be cheaper then most of Western Europe but that could likely change when they convert to the Euro. Grocery costs were almost the same as in Austria (i.e. expensive)
- Weather: We got a mixed bag. A few days were hot and sunny, others were cold and wet.
- Direction: We travelled from east to west, but it would be preferable to travel west to east so as to get a tailwind.
- People: People were very friendly and helpful.
- Getting by if you don’t speak Czech: If you don’t speak Czech, you better speak German. German translations were available almost everywhere and many locals spoke German but there was very little in the way of English or French. It’s not a big problem though; the worst thing that happened to us is that we kept buying sparkling water instead of still.
- Final note: We were surprised and really happy to see how many people cycle in the Czech Republic whether for sport, for travel or for transportation. There are bicycles everywhere.
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