A summery summary

I feel a little self conscious about waxing poetic on the virtues of my trip, of a meandering life on the road, a simple life on the bike, of experiencing foreign countries, etc etc... so I'll keep it to myself. It's been great, and I can't wait to get back on the road. For now, it's back to Colorado for September loveliness and a visit to my family in the midwest come October.

All in all:
90 days
4050mi
75 nights camping
15 nights indoors
6 countries

Cheers to the best summer so far! And here's to more adventures to come.

4000 miles later... [Prague > Berlin; 8/29-9/01 - 273mi]

I'd planned to depart Prague a day earlier, but the WiFi at the hostel was being disagreeable so I walked down the street to a cafe to finish catching up on some emails... ordered a beer, then another beer... "It's getting pretty late, why not just stay another night in Prague?"

Beer = laziness.

On my way out of Prague I stopped off to check out the gigantic 75ft tall metronome that overlooks the city. I'm not sure of its exact purpose, but read that it was built upon a spot once occupied by a Stalin monument. A nice quirky public art piece, it lumbers away ticking back and forth endlessly.

Prague Metronome

There is a designated cycling route from Prague to Dresden that I followed for the first couple of days. Lacking a detailed map, I was sort of stuck winding around on the route which is frustratingly rarely a direct or efficient path; low vehicle traffic and very flat, however. I've been looking forward to getting back to mountain biking when I get back to Colorado next week. Little did I know this official route would give me a little taste:

Vlatava River north of Prague

And there aren't many bridges in these parts, but there are numerous small john boats that will take passengers and bikes across the rivers & canals. Unfortunately it was late in the evening when I got to a crossing point and the Privoy was shut down for the night. My alternative route took me over a pipeline bridge. Lugging a touring bike up and down 3 flights of stairs was not the least bit fun.

Eventually I reached the small city of Usti, where I procured better map from the Tourist Info Office and that was the end of following this ridiculous cycling route. Now being on a more direct path of my own chosing, albeit one with a few steep climbs, was significantly less frustrating.

Nearing the Czech / Germany border and still holding 103 Czech korunas (~$5) in my pocket... figured it'd be more fun to spend it than covert it back to Euros. I passed through the border town of Petrovice looking for a suitable place to blow 5bux... and immediately knew I'd found my spot!

This was a restaurant in a decommissioned airliner, super cool. The waitress spoke Czech and German (no English) but I was able to explain my cash situation to her: I had enough for a beer, a traditional Czech noodle soup and a coffee. Perfect for a cool, drizzly evening. Then she said she'd give me the coffee for free so I could order a dessert and suggested the Czech honey cake... oh was it tasty!

After my airline dinner, I continued on and slipped into east Germany under the cover of darkness and fog. Finding a great secluded campsite off in some woods, it proceeded to rain all night long... and most of the next day into Dresden. I have to say that I've been incredibly fortunate regarding weather on this trip- but a soggy cold day is never much fun regardless.

Dresden was a pretty interesting city, and I was surprised to find some historic buildings still standing after the massive Allied bombing campaigns of WWII. However I'd picked up a couple small nails in my rear tire (my mantra from my messenger days: "it's never really a rainy day until you get a flat tire") so I didn't take a whole lot of time to poke around and instead focused on repairing the punctures and finding myself a map to get the rest of the way to Berlin.

Dresden

The weather improved by the late afternoon, and I was treated to a couple of perfect autumn days en route to Berlin: brisk, sunny and breezy. This is not terribly exciting terrain to ride through, but the seasonal shift made it pretty comforting.

I've been nearing 4000 cumulative miles and was excited to clear that hurdle, arbitrary as it may be. Literally 2 blocks after I crossed into the Berlin city limits, my odometer finally clicked over the 4K mark... nice!

The Vegas of Europe [Prague; 8/26-8/28]

thus Way back in the spring when I was 'planning' this trip- and by "planning" I mean just thinking of places I wanted to go and occasionally looking at Googlemaps- a visit to Prague was on the "must do" list. Later on I didn't imagine it would be feasible to get all the way over here, but as it turns out it's right on the way up to Berlin.

Prague is on par with Rome & Florence as one of the most interesting and fun cities I've been to this summer. There's still a bit of a bohemian gypsy vibe here with lots of street musicians. And there's a Vegas vibe as well: distinctly different crowds of daytime tourists and the nightlife clubber set, beer & cocktails for sale at sidewalk vendors, a bit of an 'anything goes' attitude.

After all these tourist laden cities I've visited this summer, I finally talked myself into splurging on a guided walking tour- The Prague Underground- to learn more about the history of this place. It was very informative and worth the $13... I learned that back in the 13th century, tired of frequent flooding from the river, they raised the street level by 3 to 8 meters, burying the first floor of all the houses in the process. This network of basements and tunnels proved handy to the resistance fighters during the Nazi occupation and now provides a perfect home to numerous dive bars and nightclubs. And hence a thriving nightlife scene was unintentionally fostered.

the Prague underground circa yr 1200

 Lunched on a traditional Czech ghoulash soup in a bread bowl w/ a liter of pilsner for $6.

Later in the evening I splurged again ($20) to hear a classical concert at Church St. Giles, a 13th century Romanesque church with a huge pipe organ constructed in 1737. It boasts 3500 reed pipes, 50 ranks and 3 manuals. I have no idea what that means specifically, but I know that being engulfed in the acoustics of that immense cathedral with a bellowing pipe organ was unreal. The program was a sort of 'greatest hits of the Baroque era' and it was great to hear many familiar pieces. The hands down highlight, however, was Bach's Toccata & Fugue in D Minor: the famously ominous organ piece that is familiar as the intro to some funky 70's disco hit.

Church St. Giles

During my wander back to the hostel after the concert, I passed a real-deal absinthe bar... an essentially illegal alcohol in the US because it contains wormwood (an allegedly psychedelic elixir.) I couldn't pass up the opportunity to try an absinthe cafe mocha... in a to-go cup no less. As I said, it's a little 'Vegas' here. It was a little trippy... a fun treat. And then I went to bed at 11:30pm, like the good church-goer that I am.

absinthe mocha frappe... tasted better than it looks here!

 

Autumn in Bohemia [Munich > Prague; 8/22/8/26 - 290mi]

I paid 19euro for my spot in a 6 bed dorm room in a Munich hostel... as luck would have it I ended up having the whole room to myself! What a deal, and another nice night of lounging around in privacy. Munich is certainly not the most interesting city I've been to, but there's some nice Gothic architecture in the center.

Munich

At Julie's insistence I got myself a giant soft pretzel- this one had cream cheese and scallions in the middle. Tasty Bavarian treat!

There's an 'official' marked bike route from Munich to Prague... it primarily follows bike paths and backroads, with the occasional stretch of gravel, dirt, and even bits of singletrack. The signage isn't always the best, though, so I sort of loosely followed the route with some shortcuts and diversions along the way.

mini mini mini mini

I passed through Regensburg, Germany, on my way northeast to Prague. It's listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site... very cool historic city center and (more) Gothic churches. I got a little obsessed about eating a piece of cake- is there really such a thing as 'Bavarian Chocolate Cake' or is this just an american invention?? I found a little sidewalk cafe to see for myself; the cake was quite tasty but not as dark and dense as what we'd call 'Bavarian chocolate.' So the jury's still out.

For each of the last two nights, the sky has been clear when I've gone to sleep and it didn't seem like I needed to bother with pitching my tent. And each night I was awoken around 3am by rain and t-storms; frantically setting the tent in a half-asleep stupor is no fun. From now on, just pitch the tent before sleeping, you lazy moron.

On my way out of the woods I camped in last night I came across a nice ripe blackberry thicket and harvested a whole bag full. Musli & wild fruits!

I crossed the border in the Czech Republic while cycling along a farm road / bike path. Again nothing more than a sign...

if I knew how to say "Welcome to Czech" in Czech, I would write it here

 The route wound through some nice forest preserves and small farming villages before passing through the first bigger town, Domalize. A very distinct change in architecture & culture now that I'm across the border, but plenty of western gluttony...

A highlight of the route was a stop in the city of Pilsen ("Plzen" in Czech,) birthplace of Pilsner-style beer and home of the Pilsner Urquell brewery. I stopped off at the beer garden on the brewery grounds to sample the wares... half a liter only costs about a buck and a quarter!

the 50/50 mix of Pilsner and Dunkl

I've ridden myself right into autumn here in the Bohemian countryside... brisk breezes, occasional drizzle and nighttime t-storms. It feels like a fitting wrap-up to my summer. When I started around Iceland in early June, the farmers there were just plowing over their fields for the spring planting season. In Rome & Florence it was the dead of summer and now I've come to the final harvests and seeding of winter crops. I'd say summer's been alright....

Bohemian autumn