Home from England
- Britain
- 27/07/2025
French coast I took a ferry from Dover to Dunkerque. Dunkerque greeted me with its inhospitable face at first – docks, refineries and a large migrant camp. But the city centre improved the impression and after some tasting of French instead of English cuisine I continued across a pleasant coastal resort area and grassy coastal dunes, a flat route and with a helpful tailwind, to Belgium. Belgium The route in northwestern Belgium was flat, on exemplary cycle paths around drainage and navigation canals, with a stop in the beautifully preserved historic center of Bruges. My destination was Brussels, from where I wanted to return home by train via Germany. And since I have already been to Brussels on a cycling trip, instead of going to see the little pissing boy…
Britain southwards
- Britain
- 21/07/2025
Edinburgh In Edinburgh I was lucky with the weather for a change and could walk around the city in pleasant sunshine. There was a lot to see, even though the city is full of tourists, so for example tickets for the castle were already sold out long in advance. I often had to look both up and down, because some streets are here in two levels above each other. From Edinburgh I proceeded southeast along the coastal cycle paths and in the town of Berwick I crossed the river Tweed from Scotland back into England. Northern England Beyond Berwick I went over the coastal dunes and stopped by at the Holy Island, accessible only at low tide, with the mighty Lindisfarne castle, and from there turned inland to the southwest,…
Britain northwards
- Britain
- 08/07/2025
England By a ferry from Guernsey I arrived to the port of Poole in south-western England. At arrival I was greeted by English grey sky, driving on the left side and Victorian architecture. From the port I went straight north. However, it took a long time to find any open country – the coast is thickly settled, then follows an area of suburbs, then village countryside, but even there is every narrow road surrounded by a high hedge, so it is often difficult to even look around, and every field is behind a hedge and a fence. Only by the evening I arrived to what is here the remote countryside: rolling sheep pastures. I continued further north to Bristol and from there across the wide estuary of Severn river to…
From France to England
- Britain
- 20/06/2025
Arrival to France When I check the map of Europe searching for places I haven’t yet cycled to, I see the whole of the British Isles in front of me. They say there are some beautiful places there, but they also say cyclists can get quite soaked by rain there. I set out to check it out. And to avoid packing my bike on for a plain, I decided to approach it discreetly through France. First by train to Offenburg in Germany, a short bike ride over the border to Strasbourg, by TGV to Paris and by another train to Le Havre. From there, it’s along the coast until I catch some ship across the Channel. Normandie and Bretagne When I got off the train in Le Havre, I was…
Nice to Torino through the Alps
- Other trips
- 19/07/2024
This year I only squeezed into July 14 days off, not quite enough for a long cycling trip. So what about going somewhere into the mountains? I recalled the beautiful view of the Alps when I was in Nice some time ago and set off in that direction: from Nice along the French walk route GR5 north to Larche and from there to Italy, to the source of the Po and towards Turin. This time are the photos only low quality from an old phone, not from a camera. And here are few more observations to the route:
Back from Croatia
- Croatia
- 06/08/2023
Across Velebit In the small town of Obrovac I said goodbye to the Mediterranean and began to climb 1000 meters steeply up from the sea level to the Velebit range. At the top I as a paleface courageously spent the night in the main territory of the Apaches – it is here, under the peak of Tulove Grede a.k.a. Nugget Tsil, where the first 1960’s Winnetou western movie ends, where chief Intschu-tschuna and his daughter Nscho-tschi die and are buried, and a little further under Mount Alanac is where Winnetou himself dies in the third movie of the series. As soon as one traverses over the peaks of Velebit, there is suddenly in a completely different country – instead of the dry Mediterranean, in places affected by recent fires, there…
Croatian coast
- Croatia
- 01/08/2023
Hvar As soon as I got to the coast, I recognised that I truly was in holiday Croatia – cars and buses with Czech license plates everywhere. I drove straight along the coast from the mouth of the Neretva to the north-west only to Drvenik, where I took a ferry to the island of Hvar, which I crossed along its length. Apart from the coastal towns is the Hvar island quiet, with almost no cars on the one main road and beautiful view from the island to both sides, ideal for a ride. From the local ridge, which runs through the middle of the prolonged island, I had a beautiful view both to the north to the coast and later to the island of Brač, as well as towards Korčula…
To Bosnia
- Croatia
- 29/07/2023
Hungary My holiday this year is shorter, nevertheless I still wanted to see some hills and a bit of the sea shore. So I planned a trip to Croatia via Bosna. And to make it in time, I moved by train to southern Hungary, to the town Baja. From there I started going south, first nicely through the flat plains following the Donau river and around the location of the Mohács battle with Turks. And after just a day of travel, I crossed the EU border into Serbia. Serbia I went through Serbia for just a short time, still following the left bank of the Danube. In some places I was in Serbia and Croatia at the same time – the Croats recognize the border according to the historical…
Southern France
- Spain
- 12/08/2022
From Pyrenees to the seaside It was very interesting to ride down from Pyrenees to France and observe the changes in the countryside: first clearly mountainous environment, which then changed into forests and fields that felt like at home in Czech. But after a while the countryside changed again into a typical southern French, sunny, full of vineyards, castles and the typical architecture. Through the vineyards I went to Carcassonne, where the famous fortress is actually a fortified medieval town rather than a castle. And from there I followed a very pleasant route around the astonishing Canal du Midi, which connects the Atlantic with the Mediterranian. I continued along the canal all the way to the coast. There I gave my last good bye to the sea at this trip…
Andorra
- Spain
- 04/08/2022
After reaching Andorra by passing through a still active border control post, everything started to seem being built vertically. The capital, Andorra la Vella, is in the main valley, which is narrowly squeezed in between two steep mountain walls. Lot of petrol stations at the border and luxury brands in the city indicate a different taxation than in Spain. Otherwise is Andorra prepared mainly for winter tourism and skiing. However, even in summer, when one leaves the city in any direction – and therefore up the mountains – there is a lot to see. The only trouble is that the Pyrenees are composed of long continuous mountain ridges with no passes or lower sections – so to get a nice view one has to get at the very top of…