Day 4: July 11, 2025

 This was our second full day in Prague.

After an uneventful breakfast (although without the Japanese tour group), we were picked up by a driver and taken to the bike tour shop. Thanks to Mike for researching and booking the tour.

There was nobody there when we arrived, and the door was closed.

Soon a guy appeared from another closed door, and Pavel, our guide led us into the storeroom with the bikes and helmets.

The bikes were hybrids, and much better than the bikes from the city tour,

We started off on side roads in Prague before getting onto a multiuse trail. The trail alternated between blacktop and railroad sized gravel. The latter was particularly difficult to manage.

Here's a picture of Walter and Marty while Mike drafted Pavel.

We stopped a number of times when Pavel had something in his script he was supposed to tell us.

We had more questions, but often he didn't have the answers. Sometimes, he just did't know. Sometimes the problem was the language barrier, and he didn't understand the question. He tried very hard, but conversation was sometimes only functional rather than free-flowing, and it was always awkward. 

There's more street art than in the US, and it's not just graffiti. I thought this was worth a stop for a picture.

Here's one of our first stops, a hydroelectric station.

Here's a map that may or may not show where we were.

Here's Pavel pointing out the "America" and "Mexico" quarries on another map. Maybe they'll rethink the name of the "America" quarry.

We hit a steep section of single-track that did a hairpin, so we had to get off our bikes. Mike was ahead of Marty in this picture and had just climbed back up from falling down the embankment.

The tour allowed us time to get lunch. Pavel recommended an authentic Czech restaurant. It was clearly a biker hang-out.

This (below) was the second bike rack. Our bikes were on another one.

This was not a tourist destination. No one spoke English. There were no English translations of the menu. Pavel did his best to tell us what was what. To be safe, I ended up with a salad.

But here was the fun part. When it was time to go the bathroom, this is what I saw.

What would you do? I figured I had a 50/50 chance.

Fortunately, a staff person took pity on me and pointed me around the corner to a door with the words "Toilet" on it. Phew.

But past that door, here were my choices:

(which sounds like a sandwich)

and

which seemed like it might be a derivative of "dame". No international incidents.

It reminded me of a Bavarian beer haus in the Alps.

The tour was designed to bring us to the Karlstejn Castle. We rode from the restaurant to a vantage point to see the castle in the distance and to see where the rail station was located. 

MacGyver Story #1. Over some rough pavement, the front fender on Mike's bike became detached. We stopped while the tourguide fiddled with it. Walter successfully reattached it with duct tape.

We rode to a hotel near the castle to drop off the bikes and say goodbye to Pavel. Then we walked up the hill to the castle.

We took a guided tour. Here's the tour guide showing us a replica of the castle.

There were a lot of rooms with a lot of portraits and furniture. I liked the explanation of the toilet, a hole in the floor (since filled in).

Here is a replica of the crown jewels, gold and precious stones plundered from other people.

Apparently the catapult was used to hurl dead bodies as well as cannon balls.

Monty Python: "run away, run away!"

We walked back down the hill to the train station. 

The train to Prague came every half hour. We missed one by about 5 minutes but the next train was canceled.  But we hung out the platform and watched the people as the crowd grew. 

Here's the train going the other direction: modern, sleek.

And here's ours pulling into the station.

When we got on the train, I suggested we go to the second level. It was empty. When the conductor came around, he asked if we knew that we were in first class. That's why it was empty! It wasn't much more expensive, but we moved and it was indistinguishable from the other section.

The ride was quiet, fast, and cheap. $3.89 each.

We noted the next day that he was friendly and patient, an anomaly among Czech service workers.

Here's the Prague station, a proper-looking European train station.

McGyver Story #2. The sole of Walter's shoe had become detached from the body, so he kept it together with duct tape. While walking back to the hotel, we came upon an arts and crafts store, and he bought a tube of contact cement.

This is what it looked like before the repair.

And here is the repair in progress.

So far, so good. 

Here are my biking data for the day from Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/15077112359 

Here is the extension: https://www.strava.com/activities/15079708218

In total, 21 miles, almost pancake flat.