Orlické hory
I have already been on a bike trip this year, travelling abroad is still prohibited, so where to go for a few days of July holidays, so that it is a trip to the nature and at the same time again something new? How about to Orlické hory, or Eagle Mountains, but cowboy-style on horseback? The route led for the first two days through forests and meadows from the ranch in Hrádek near Ústí nad Orlicí, around the river Tichá Orlice, through Brandýs to the Potštejn castle, from there around the river Divoká Orlice through Litice castle and Žamberk to pastures above the dam of Pastviny. And another two days back, through a bit different path but roughly the same route around the river. Based on this trip, I can…
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Bohemian Paradise
The holiday and the following weekend around May 8 saw the very best weather that one can imagine for a bike ride – warm, sunny, but not yet too hot. I could not miss that, so I went for a three-day trip crossing the river Elbe behind Poděbrady, through the rolling plains following the river Cidlina through Nový Bydžov and Jičín to the sandstone rocks of the so called Bohemian Paradise and back through the groves near Mcely and around the dead arms and wetlands of the Elbe river in the Káraný area. The nature this week decided to show some of its best – so in addition to the usual roe deers, hares, buzzards or lizards, a fox also showed up in the evening, I saw beavers for the…
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Pandemic Prague
The Coronavirus epidemic swiftly cut off any possibilities of travel to so far unknown places. However, then it turned out that this is not true exactly – for example, the below kinds of views of quiet Prague during a workday, including, for example, a clean and empty Charles Bridge, were completely unknown to me up until now.
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Sázava

Sázava

During the beautifully sunlit but pandemic Easter I went for a small two-day trip, following the river Sázava upstream to the hilly area around the Želivka dam.
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Kyrgyzstan

Kyrgyzstan

Last year I enjoyed a holiday in a bike saddle in somewhat remote places. So even if this year I had just two weaks off, I went to Kyrgyzstan, which again promised both remoteness and travelling in saddles. In addition to it I found here a landscape that is worth visiting due to its variability – from the hot valley around Bishkek, around local “see” Issyk-kul, through steppe plateaus with grazing horses and cattle, green mountain valleys all the way to snow-covered tips of local peaks reaching over 7000 m. The capital city itself does not offer many attractions. However, just south of it already raise the mountains – here Ala Archa and a route around the stream of Ak Say to the mountain camp of Racek under the Pik…
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Nearby the Ohře river
During two July weekends I was attracted towards the Ohře river. First time I went by train to the industrial town of Lovosice and from there I trekked through the green Oparno valley, visited the castle ruin Oparno, Lovoš hill with beautiful vistas all around and then another ruin Košťál, again providing views all the way to the river Ohře, the legendary peak Říp and Elbe river and beyond. The second time I went by bike from Roudnice nad Labem, took a pleasant cycle path around Ohře to the Nechranice dam, where I spent the evening by the water and the next day returned back home via Rakovník.
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Třeboň

Třeboň

During Easter, the forecast promised irresistibly beautiful weather. And it was true – no wind or tailwind, sunny, warm but not too hot, cloudless sky. Such weather had to be used for a bike trip. So I set out to admire the sights of South Bohemia – through Písek, Týn, Temelín and Hluboká to Třeboň, where I wandered around the ponds and branching streams of river Lužnice and thereafter back through Choustník and Chýnov.
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Crossing the Alps
The top of the trip (in metres above sea level) was the crossing of the Splügen pass. On my way there, I avoided Milan and passed through the valley of several the lakes: Lago di Garlati as the appetizer, Lago di Como as the main course and Lago di Mezzola as the dessert.
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To see the sea again
From Pisa it takes only a short distance to the sea, this time to the Tyrrhenian. The entry point to the sea is the harbour of Viareggio, with moored small boats as well as luxury yachts, which also have their service station here.
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Tuscany

Tuscany

In Rome I turned back north, passing three lakes in former craters. This turned out to be a very strategic choice – as temperatures started to attack 40°C in the afternoon, I quickly replaced cycling for bathing.
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