Planning

We started planning the summer trip in May and the intermediate idea was a train move to eastern Slovakia and bicycle journey back to the outskirts of Czechia while wondering at Polish views of Tatra mountains. The opinions in the crew shifted variously (COVID-19 is certainly to blame), it was certain that that year wouldn’t be altitude, length or sightseeing record. We adopted only very rough plan with no segmentation.

Traditions

  • Being caught by downpour ✓
  • Night ride ✓
  • Eating at supermarket parking lot ✓

Diary

Day 01 (2020-08-02)

  • daily stats: 42 km, +550 m, -460 m, ~200 km by train
  • sleeping: the westernmost hut in the Czech Republic (very comfortable)
  • the group unintentionally split in Prague and merged in Aš (missing train by ~1 minute)
  • Cheb center, Skalka water dam, Seeberg castle
  • the “oldest” vegetable cellar in western Bohemia
    • +1.5 hour waiting in a metal shed until heavy rain stops

Day 02 (2020-08-03)

  • daily stats: 81 km, +1400 m, -1400 m
  • sleeping: field in Chodsko region
  • crossing another Europe Bridge
  • getting lost in the agricultural country side of Bavaria
  • almost all ghost towns without proper public
    • Hohenberg an der Eger – eating like locals in bistro
    • Bad Neuabenreuth – opened bootleg pub

Day 03 (2020-08-04)

  • daily stats: 86 km, +1400 m, -870 m
  • sleeping: Čerchov (1042 m), grounds of former military base
  • rainy morning, spent morning in a café in Tachov
  • also rainy afternoon, taking a rest in pub in Pleš
  • no man’s land
    • abandoned buildings (former military objects), villages
    • re-settled as night clubs
  • night climb to Čerchov peak (main gate was closed, so we had to cross the former mine-field); foggy, steep and windy

Day 04 (2020-08-05)

  • daily stats: 73 km, +1400 m, -1600 m
  • sleeping: camping place in Železná Ruda
  • lazy morning on Čerchov (waiting till the outlook tower opens, feeding)
  • downhill to Bavaria again
  • bathing in Drachensee near Furth im Wald
  • afternoon/evening climb back to Šumava, passing by the Großer Arber (1455 m)
  • Železná Ruda isn’t very picturesque place (perhaps more focused on winter recreation)

Day 05 (2020-08-06)

  • daily stats: 83 km, +1300 m, -1300 m
  • sleeping: emergency campling place in Nové Údolí
  • gradual climb to upper part of Šumava
  • the peak of tourist traffic
    • bogs and streams more packed than “Náplavka”
    • pubs in Modrava with tens to hundreds visitors during day
    • also highest point of our trip ~1190 m
  • afternoon dessert in Bučina, joining the path of previous hiking trip

Day 06 (2020-08-07)

  • daily stats: 80 km, +610 m, -720 m
  • sleeping: the southernmost point in the Czech Republic
  • effortless downhill to the Lipno water dam and path along the Vltava river
  • crowded beach in Přední Výtoň, bathing in Lipno
  • cycling path between Lipno I and Lipno II water dams, nice flow and remnants of wild river valley
  • stop by in Vyšší Brod monastery
  • contrast between well-groomed Austrian fields and less maintained woods on the Czech side of the border

Day 07 (2020-08-08)

  • daily stats: 71 km, +790 m, -1100 m, ~170 km by train
  • sleeping: Prague
  • morning ride along Vltava river
    • enormous camping places along the river overflowing with paddlers
    • paddlers flowing north with the river
    • reverse flow of cars loaded with the boats back upstream
  • examination of UNES-CO site
  • ride by Zlatá Koruna monatery (Sancta Corona) so that this blog post can have fashionable title

(There may be mismatch between bicycle measured length of the track and memory-reconstruced one.)

People

  • various people of Aš town (father to son: “calm down or I’ll kick your head off”)
  • Ladislav Zibura – found his traces on the westernmost tip of the Czech Republic
  • Czech waitress in Bad Neuabenreuth
  • Kočovný Kuchtík
    • met in Pleš pub, circum-riding the whole Czech Republic
    • keen user of social apps: Instagram, Warmshowers
    • even less kilometers per day than us, talks to strangers
  • Czech families shopping in Furth im Wald
  • Kissák – a guy operating bistro south of Lipno

Misc

  • total stats: 516 km (74 km/day), +7400 m, -7400 m
  • fixing broken chain link, no other defects
  • different impressions of the Czechia when coming from abroad
    • Germany: night clubs
    • Austria: dentist ambulances

COVID-19

This appears not to be an obscure unknown phenomenon, hence I’m not including a link to Wikipedia, you probably already know what it means.

  • filling up a tracing form (name, phone number) when visiting a pub in Bavaria
  • extra crowded places popular with Czech tourists (Šumava)
  • less crowded places popular with foreign tourists (Český Krumlov)