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Day
4: Tuesday, May 25, 2004
We woke up early
and were at the breakfast room when it opened at 7:00 a.m. We ate quickly,
checked-out and loaded up the bike by 8:00 for our brief ride to Prague's
Hlvani nadrazi (main train station) to get our tickets for the train. We found the Czech
Railways site in English the day before on the Internet, and it
looked as if there was a train at 9:17 heading toward Tabor. Despite the
drizzling rain and the wet cobblestones, we got to the station around
8:15. (An aside: one of our chief memories of Prague is the amount of
cobblestone paving; nowhere else in Europe have we seen such pervasive
use of this paving method.) We found a ticket window and bought our tickets
(160ck for both of us, around $6 for a 1.5-hour train ride) for the 9:17
train to Tabor (which also continued on to Ceske Budejovice). I confirmed
at the info window on the ground floor that the train did take bikes,
and that we would just pay the conductor for the bike (20ck) when we loaded
it on the train (unlike in Pilsen, the ticket window person did not sell
us a bike ticket).
We had about 45 minutes to wait for the train, so we went up to the main level and tried to find the train on the big digital board showing all the departures and the tracks. The train was listed, but no track. So, we tried to get out of the way and look as inconspicuous as possible (hard to do with a bright yellow, fully loaded tandem in a train station at rush hour).
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| Waiting for our outbound train at the Prague main station. |
There were quite
a few Eurailer-type backpackers wandering about, looking dazed and confused
(probably just arrived on an overnight train). By now we were old hands
with the Czech railway system, so I helped some of the more obviously
confused American college students. God help them as they wander about
We noticed while
watching the board that some trains listed their tracks no more than 5-10
minutes before departure, and we were a bit worried that we'd be able
to get the bike and luggage to the correct track in enough time if that
happened. Finally our train's
track was displayed, leaving us more than 20 minutes to find the train
and get all our stuff stowed. Whenever possible we try to get trains that
start and end their route at our departure location and destination; it
makes loading and unloading much less stressful.
While waiting
at the baggage car (signified by a "K" designation on the train
or in a window) we struck
up a conversation with two retired Germans from Koeln who were heading
home after biking in the Czech Republic. They complained about the hills
in the country, and said they liked biking in
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| Our Czech
Railways train from Prague to Tabor (it continues to Budweis). Note the "K" designation in the window, signifying a baggage car. |
At the next station
a large school group inundated the train, and our previously private compartment
was filled up with four young teens out on a school trip. Thankfully they
were fairly quiet and respectful, but we felt a bit self conscious about
talking, since when they heard us speaking English they gave us quizzical
looks. Usually we'll try and talk to people in this situation, but our
brains were a bit overloaded after
Although we were
originally conflicted about taking the train rather than riding out of
We were carefully
observed by a small group of teenagers as we made our way to the main
platform to prepare for riding. A representative detached himself from
the group and made his way over to us and asked us something in
We get asked
this question occasionally in the USA, but never in Europe. Although at
first it seems to be intrusive, I think it's really just because tandems
are still fairly unusual and people have no conception what they cost.
We always feel a bit over-consumptive telling the truth. We bought our
Santana Fusion tandem used for $3,000, but the original owner spent over
$6,000 to purchase it. Despite the high cost it has been worth every penny,
as it has provided many miles of good experiences and time spent together.
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| Ready to ride at the Tabor train station. |
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| Click one of the three maps to see a larger, highlighted view of our route. | ||
Coming out the
front of the station we rode straight on a sort of access parkway until
we came to a main street, where we turned right. We didn't have a detailed
map of the city, but we found what we thought was the street to the main
part of town and turned right to head to the main square. Although it
was overcast, thankfully it wasn't raining. We stopped at a Billa supermarket
to buy a few things for lunch and a lemon for our water bottles, then crossed to a side street (the pedestrian
zone started right across from the store) to get to the main square. A
lot of people were in the pedestrian area, including school kids on their
lunch break enjoying ice cream cones. The main square in Tabor is fairly
large, surrounded by some restaurants and a church and featuring a fountain.
Not too many people out and about here, probably
because it was a work day.
Tabor was a Hussite stronghold for Protestants fighting
against the Catholics in the 1400s, and has a well-kept Hussite church
in the main square. We looked around the square some, and then Ginny found
the public toilets (usually marked as "WC" in Europe) down a
side street off the main square (rule number one in bike touring: never
pass up a flush toilet), and I watched the bike while she used the facilities.
A nice older couple from Holland stopped by to talk about the tandem;
they also have a tandem in Holland, but the man said the Czech Republic
was too hilly for them at their age.
After Ginny returned
I visited the WC, too. When I came back she was having a halting conversation
in German with an older Czech woman from the town. The woman said she
had never seen a tandem before, and was talking a bit about where we were
going. A very nice conversation and interaction with a local. She also
noted that the next day was her 80th birthday! As we left we marveled
at the things she has experienced during her lifetime in the Czech Republic:
independence during the 30s, the Nazis, Communism, and now independence
again.
We thought about
having lunch in Tabor, but nothing really looked too interesting, and
we were eager to start riding (we had made a few sandwiches at breakfast
in the pension). We knew we needed to find the Luznice River outside of town to hook up with the cycle route, but it wasn't obvious
how to get there from the main square. Remembering our cool new handlebar-mounted
compass/bell, I did my best to orient us to the map and headed us in the
direction of the river. The compass-bell proved its utility several times
during the trip, and will definitely accompany us on our future tours.
We descended and crossed on a small bridge, but were still not sure if
we were on the bike route or not since there were several bridges in Tabor.
It turned out not to be the bridge used by the bike route, but thankfully
shortly thereafter the road we were on joined with the bike route.
For most of the
trip we were following Czech bike route #12, one of the national marked
bike routes, which is marked regularly with small signs. The "Czech
Greenways" route also followed route #12 for some time, and
we also were on the lookout for these signs. The Greenways route turns
east before the town of Cesky Krumlov, though, so we would be following
route #12 south to Krumlov. We had originally thought of riding the Greenways
route all the way to Vienna, Austria, but were concerned about the amount
of hills on the route because of Ginny's lack of energy due to the pregnancy.
We ascended the
first of many hills into a small town just outside Tabor, and then the
bike route turned left onto a much smaller side road. We still had our
rain pants and fleece vests on from riding to the station in
The countryside
is very rural and pretty, but we started to get a bit bored after a while.
One of the things we like about touring in
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| This road was beautiful, running through a forest and past a lake (on the right). |
Unlike
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| Between Tabor
and Hluboka along bike Rt. 12. Note the intersection of two bike routes (12 and 1060). The route was fairly well signed most of the time. |
We started asking
for rooms at the hotels in the main part of town, only to find that all
were filled (or closed). Despairing, we saw a sign for a pension and I
stopped to ask for a room there. Again, they were full, but the man saw
my discouraged look and told his wife to call to see if a friend with
a pension had any room. While we waited for his friend to come and guide
us to the other pension, we talked with him (in German). He told us about
his daughter who was one of three students from the
His friend showed
up with his car (which worried us: how far was this place?), and after
introductions we said goodbye to our Good Samaritan and followed his friend
to his pension on the main street just on the periphery of town. Although
it seemed a bit far at first (after a long day and a long search for a
room), it turned out to be only about a five-minute ride from the main
part of town. We were given a large room on the top floor with a private
bathroom (740ck + 120ck for breakfast). The pension had a large rear lawn
and garden area that fronted on a large lake. I believe there were some
other private rooms in an outbuilding, too, since there were other guests
at breakfast the next morning who were not in our building. Although it
was billed as a pension, it's really more like a B&B in
Telephone: +420-387965541.
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| Pension BlaÏena in Hluboka nad Valtava. Our room was in the upper left of the building. |
We looked at
a few menus and settled on "Restaurace Zdmeckem Pivovaru," a
restaurant that had a nice terrace overlooking the valley. Although the
actual menu didn't match the one posted out front (it was higher priced),
it was still reasonable. The large terrace had wrought-iron patio canopies
over each table, giving it a festive atmosphere. We both ordered soup
and had one of the best Cordon Bleu dinners we've ever had (it's one of
my favorite meals). We topped it off by sharing an order of palatschinken
(crepe-like pancakes with fruit and ice cream, common in
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| Restaurant terrace in Hluboka nad Vltava. |
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| Stork and nest in Hluboka nad Vltava. |
Daily costs 5/25
(in CK): Train to Tabor: 180; lunch/misc.: 34; dinner: 470; pension: 860.
Total: 1544 ($58 US).