Travel Tips

The border post of the Czech Republic was marked with decrepit and now defunct immigration and passport control offices and beyond, the disparity with Germany was stark and raw.

No more cycle lanes. Broken pavements. Pot holed roads. Faded billboards advertised sordid hangouts such as ‘Lipps’ and ‘The Gentlemans Club’. Towns pock-marked by disused factories. Houses with crumbling facades. Relics of war or neglect I could not tell. The countryside looked scarred. I felt suspicious eyes follow from the roadside, yet no one made eye contact.

Every ramshackle dwelling had a vicious guard dog, invariably an Alsatian, which would run at the picket fence snarling and barking, scaring the hell out of us. After having a limb almost chewed off in Thailand by dogs Id become very wary of aggressive mutts. Sooner or later someone would forget to close the gate behind them.

We cycled into one shabby little town and I was gob-smacked to see a sign saying ‘Tescos – 1km’ So there really was a god! Cheap food at last! It was a diversion up a steep hill, but we struggled up and I excitedly rushed in. To check out the comparative prices I headed straight to the baked bean section. I found the red and white stripy value cans and… HOW MUCH? That’s seventy five pence! What a bloody rip off. Apparently Tescos here is the Sainsburys of England. Tescos. Pha! What a disappointment.

We stopped at the historic town of Loket, camping at a municipal camping ground. Toilets, but no shower and hundreds of party mad Czech campers who kept raving until 3am in spite of the violent thunderstorm that dropped ten thousand gallons of water onto the tent.

It took three days to cross the western part of the Republic, at one point climbing to a high wilderness of grassland and forest, killer hills and stormy winds. Juliet decided ýt was all just too much and threw a paddy. “That’s it. Had enough. Not doing any more”, she yelled over the howl of the wind as she dumped Mybike at the side of the road. It didn’t take much reassessing to realise it wasn’t the ideal place to abandon her bike and start walking. Very reluctantly she climbed back on and we continued east.

As we drew closer to Prague the villages became neater and better maintained. Most still had what looked like huge collective farms in ruins, but nothing comparable to the far west. Im at a loss as to why that part of the country was in such a state.

Near the capital we passed the international airport. I pointed out an Easyjet flight coming in to land and tempted Juliet to make a run for it. She ignored me, put her head down and cycled into the city.

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