As Robert Burns said, the best laid plans of cycle tourers gang aft agley. We finished the Czech End to End today, though things ganged a bit agley.
We didn’t have time to explore all that Frýdek-Místek has to offer – we must come back one day when we have a spare ten minutes – and headed south and east out the town along a decent riverside bike path.
For the first time since the Mussel Incident, I could enjoy a full breakfast without my stomach feeling like an out-take from the film Alien.
There were a few hours of pleasant rolling country lanes through farms, villages, woods and forests. Lots of gentle up and lots of gentle down, and over there somewhere to our left, Poland.
After thirty miles in three hours we stopped in Jablonka for lunch. I picked up some snacks from a friendly shop that was just closing for lunch but which reopened for us. All was well: we were in plenty of time to bag the border at our intended place – the tripoint of Slovakia, Czechia and Poland, not far away – then ride to a station and get a train to our booked hotel in Prague tonight. And then… oh.
Nigel’s phone pinged with a notification that our booked train was going to involve a replacement bus – yes, they have them outside Britain too. One which wouldn’t take bikes. Ah.
We rapidly re-researched and decided the best thing was to cycle to nearby Třinec, where we could pick up our booked train but just after the replacement bus leg. The border with Poland was just a few km from there, so – although it was less ceremonial our intended tripoint terminus – it would at least do.
The ride to Třinec was a delight – smooth flat car-free paths and untrafficked roads, as much of this End to End has been. But once we arrived in town, the weather wasn’t. The threatened thunderclouds rolled in and torrential rain hurled down. It was worse then when you get in those hotel showers thinking you’ve turned on the handheld shower-head, but in fact sluice yourself with freezing water from the dinner-plater-sized rose fixed two foot above your head.
We were going to get drenched, but there was no time to sit out the storm. If we were to make our train we had to bag the border now. So we splashed, squelched and sloshed through vast puddles up back roads to the edge of Czechia. The border was a forgettable shallow top with a car showroom in bland farmland, but at least there was a sign to mark the completion of our trip.
After a sodden freewheel back down to town, we could dry off and warm up a little in the modest station buffet with a cheap hearty soup and cheap hearty beer, and then it was the train to Prague and on to the next project.
CONCLUSION
I’ve very much enjoyed the Czechia End to End. Pleasant surprises have been the quality of the bike paths – many of them with very good, long stretches of smooth wide car-free tarmac alongside pleasant riversides. You’re never too far from a castle or historic town square, supermarkets are plentiful even in village areas, and of course the beer is inexpensive and top quality. It’s a pretty stress-free country to cycle-tour, and we weren’t alone: many of the Eurovelo routes are well frequented by fellow riders with long-distance luggage.
There were some downsides, or rather ups-and-downsides. Because some regions – between Prague and Brno for instance – could be relentlessly hilly, often wearyingly so. I struggled with food poisoning, so wasn’t able to embrace the dinner and beer side of the trip as I normally would.
But overall it’s been great. I’ll certainly be back to explore the country at more leisure. Really: because I’ve been commisioned to update a guidebook, so I’ll be spending several weeks back in Czechia, on and off the bike, doing my research. Into the history, the people, the sights, the spirit, the country. And not least, I hope, the food and beer. Cheers. Na zdraví!
Miles today: 48
Miles Cheb to Třinec: 421