Prague to Hamburg along the Vltava and Elbe Rivers

July and August, 2001

I was browsing in a bookshop in Braunschweig where we were on holiday and came across two spiral bound cycling books describing in detail a tour from Prague to Cuxshaven along the Vltava and Elbe rivers following cycle paths alongside the rivers.

Liz and I discussed the idea and invited Cedric, Simon and Mick to join us. Liz would drive our backup car and the four of us would cycle. Rob arranged to fly out to Prague and join us for a couple of days looking round the city.

Wednesday 25 July

I had been intending to drive there in my Volvo estate car but at the last moment it’s catalytic converter packed up and could not be replaced before we left, so I was offered the use of a diesel Peugeot 206, a very much smaller car. I managed to get a roof-rack and four bicycle carriers onto it and Cedric and Simon squashed in all the packing. We drove to Harwich and met Mick at the docks on his Harley Davidson motorbike. We all caught the overnight ferry to Hamburg. Mick offered to get some drinks from the bar but pulled his back standing up awkwardly, and that was to cause some difficulty.

Thursday 26 July

We had arranged to drive to Braunschweig and leave Mick’s bike there with our friends Eva and Jürgen. We docked a one o’clock and set off for Braunschweig, Mick on his Harley following the rest of us in the Peugeot. We stopped every hour or 100k and had to help Mick off the Harley as he was so stiff. We arrived in Braunschweig at about four o’clock. Jürgen took Mick off to a clinic for a hot mud bath and massage. Later we all enjoyed a barbecue on the terrace of their house.

Friday 27 July

Jürgen took Mick off to a doctor who prescribed pain killers and told him he “was getting old”. On their return we had a good breakfast and rolled Mick’s Harley onto a wire netting mat: pine martins had been reported to be nibbling through vehicle break pipes. Mick and Simon caught the train to Leipzig and we all meet up at the railway station. Mick, Simon and Cedric took a taxi to our hotel and Liz and I followed in the car. After booking in we removed the bicycles from the car and locked them to a cycle rack outside the hotel. We drove into Leipzig centre for the evening. Cedric led us to a street café for a beer and then continued on a mini-tour soaking up the sights before returning to the hotel.

Saturday 28 July

We put the bicycles back onto the car and Cedric and Simon cycled into the centre and we met up at the railway station where we locked the bicycles to a cycle rack before leaving the car in a multi-storey car park. We continued following Cedric round central Leipzig, visiting the Paulskirche and then the Thomaskirche where a choir was rehearsing a Bach cantata in the gallery. Outside in a shady street a sextet was playing excerpts of Bach, Mozart etc. We had lunch in a street café and then back to the station where Mick, Cedric and Simon took a train to Prague, changing at Dresden, while Liz drove me, the bicycles and luggage to Prague. We arrived at around five o’clock and managed to find the Pension Madonna on Pod Vilami in Nusle. Rob, was already there having flown in from Birmingham at around two o’clock. The others arrived by taxi at around six o’clock and we walked round the corner to a café-bar-restaurant in Nusle for a really good meal at a ridiculously inexpensive price.

Sunday 29 July

We set out for a day in Prague, catching a tram to the centre and then walked across the Charles Bridge and up the steep and sweaty hill to the Hradčany Castle and St Vitus Cathedral for eleven o’clock mass. The priest gave a sermon in Czech and German but never once looked at the congregation – we might as well have been listening to the radio. We bought a group ticket for entry into various parts of the castle and climbed spiral staircases to one of the towers on the cathedral viewing gallery for a panoramic view above the city.

We stayed on the west bank of the Vltava and walked up into the old town before taking the funicular railway down to the river. We found an outdoor restaurant tucked in beside the Charles Bridge. It started to rain but the restaurant had a canopy that unfurled to keep us dry. It cleared up and we walked to a tram stop and rode back to Nusle. Tomorrow we would start riding.