From Prague to Dresden On a Bike
На русском. 🇷🇺
A relaxed 3-day group bike trip from Czech Republic to Saxony.
Day 1
A colleague at work planned and organized the trip, in the end there were seven of us. The total length of the trip was about 220km. We agreed to meet on the outskirts of Prague at 11:30 on May 10.
Part of the group arrived in Prague on May 9 (a day off), I decided to arrive in the morning of May 10.
It took only about 4 hours by train from Berlin to Prague, and at 10:30 I was already leaving the station. I didn't have much free time, but I still wanted to do some sightseeing. The day before I had made a small track (about 15 km) around the city. It turned out to be quite fast, but on the Charles Bridge and its vicinity I got stuck in a tourist traffic jam.
In order not to delay the others, we decided to split up.
To my surprise google maps refused to build a bicycle route around Prague, I had to get out of the area by car route. Everything was fine, cobblestones mixed with asphalt, until the road turned into a long, descending tunnel. Rolling speed reached 50 km/h, then I braked. The exit from the tunnel was just at the meeting point. I was about half an hour behind the group and went to catch up.
Around 2pm we met up and rode on together. Another team member was delayed by a train and caught up with us around 4pm.
We stopped for the night in Litoměřice. Very tasty beer and food.
Day 2
The next morning we split up again, with half the group taking the flatter road and the other half going over the hills.
The climbs were long and quite tiring, sometimes we had to walk up with the bikes.
There was a beautiful view from the top. Then there were long descents with occasional potholes in the asphalt.
One of us finished the descent with smoking brakes and a loose spoke, but it didn't stop us from continuing.
We met up with the others at 📍Hrad Střekov, had a delicious hodgepodge for only a couple of euros. The weather was great and a cool beer came in nicely. Visitors were greeted by a gallows in the courtyard. 🙈
Already near the border we stopped for dinner at 📍"U Kosti", as usual, great food and nice bitter beer. A cozy place, a haven for climbers. (It wasn't without drama, though. One of the team members had some bonus protein in his food in the form of baked wood fly.)
In Saxony, we stopped at 📍Schmilka and, even though it was getting early evening, we decided to take a walk in the neighboring mountains. We came across massive boulders in the yellow rays of the setting sun.
The village itself at 9pm seemed to have died out, everything was closed and there was no one on the street. Although an hour before, the tourist life had been bustling.
Day 3
The next morning we had breakfast and talked with the Dutch about traveling, mountains and the imminent flooding of Holland in the foreseeable future.
Additionally, the hospitable host of our lodge praised the culture and cohesiveness of the people of Schmilka.
The last segment to Dresden was only about 50 km of excellent asphalt.
So taking our time by about 13 hours we were already at the train station in Dresden. And by 16 hours in Berlin.
It turned out to be a great and very pleasant trip. Thanks to all participants and good weather!