Tuesday 31 July. Podebrady to Nymburk.

Today was a short but very pleasant walk on well surfaced cycle track almost all the way from Podebrady to Nymburk. It was nice and cool as we left Podebrady but it very soon warmed up. However as we used the path on the N side of the river we were able to make use of shade from trees on the river bank. With a walk of only 10km we arrived in Nymburk well before our pension nomally takes in guests (14:00) and so we stopped for a liquid lunch followed by a little sightseeing.

We took our evening meal in the town square at a pizzeria. We now know what calzone means - "a Cornish Pizza?" It came as a bit of a surprise as I was expecting a flat pizza but I will definitely order one again. It was very good. 

Shiel ordered a salad from the Czech menu, we thought salad was a safe bet. The bacon bit went down a treat but the liver put a bit of a damper on things! Note to self - must learn Czech for liver, kidneys and, for a worst case scenario, tripe. 

The red wine I ordered was also a mistake, worse even than Shiel and some of her friends are prepared to drink!!! It was supposed to be a merlot. Well it wasn't like a New Zealand merlot or even an Aussie one. :)  

However as we only paid NZ$33, including tip, for 3 x250ml glasses of wine, an espresso, and two main meals you can't expect perfection.

Monday 30 July. Kolin to Podebrady

Today we had an easy walk with very little walking on main roads. Mostly we followed the cycle route 24 but where it deviated from the 'red' trail we followed the 'red' trail instead. We still walked over 20km but as the temperature stayed below 25°C and there was plenty of shade from trees it was not as tiring as it could have been. 

Because of a pretty active thunderstorm last night the path was quite muddy so it was very much like a country walk in the UK. We only passed through one village where we bought orange drinks and drank them whilst we did a sock change and waited for our feet to dry out.

Shortly before reaching Podebrady we had a long chat, whilst walking, with a 74 year old Czech who spoke pretty good English. He had had a pace maker fitted and was walking for exercise.

Podebrady is a nice little spa town with a different structure to most towns we've visited so far. It has a rectangular town square, with the required statue of saints, but this does not seem to be the centre of activity. Podebrady has a very beautiful park with two long avenues running the whole length and this seems to be the area of greatest social interaction. It also has some very cunning automated fountains. We are in a small Pension off one of the main avenues. Tomorrow we are having a short day and we are only walking as far as Numburk.

Saturday 28 July. Tynec nad Labem to Kolin.

We left Tynec nad Labem at 10am after a late breakfast. We initially had a bit of road walking, uphill, to join the cycle route 24 but this shortly left the main road to cross the country fields to the banks of the Labe. It was very, very hot and we sought the shade of trees where we could. Both Shiel and I ran out of water before we reached Kolin.

We crossed the Labe at Kolin and popped into a pizza parlour to get 2 bottles of orange. We then rang our pension, as requested, to tell them we were on our way.

Tomorrow (Sunday 29th) we are having a rest day.

Friday 27 July. Prelouc to Tynec nsd Labem.

We initially thought that on leaving Prelouc, heading north, we would be on a busy arterial road. It was shown as a red line on the map. However it turns out this is the colour used for some cross country trails on Czech maps. As a result we had a nice quiet walk north out of Prelouc passing over the Labe in the process. We eventually hit a minor road heading west, which is also cycle route 24. It was pretty quiet but had long straight stretches. It became very hot and we searched out all the tree shade we could. The main crops grown in the area seem to be sunflowers and sweet corn.

We stopped for a liquid lunch at Kladruby nad Laben, at the only place we had seen open so far. It turns out this is the location of a massive stud. We had a sneak peek in one of the stables, full of occupied loose boxes. All the horses were grey. As we walked on we passed several large fields with about 20 horses in each.  Earlier we saw a large group of mares and their foals being moved to a different pasture. We walked for about 3 kilometers with the paddocks on either side of us and came upon another set of stables in which there were a few enormous black horses. This estate was first established in the 1400's and served as the royal stables of the Haspburg dynasty. After a few kilometers we turned off on to a track which went through farmland before joining the banks of the river. It was very hot! When we reached Tynec nad Labem we had to climb up to the village first before walking back down again to get to the river. 

We found the marina where we were staying alright, but I think we missed the proper reception place. The people we chatted to had as much English and German as we have Czech but we eventually sorted things out using Google Translator and a lot of hand waving. I don't think we were expected but a few guys rallied around and after about half an hour we were taken to a mobile home which we had booked for the night. It had only just been opened up so took quite a while to cool down. It was very well set up and had room for 4 people. The hot water worked really well with an on demand gas heater and the shower, which effectively had a plastic armchair built into it, was great for oldies. The units are set up for self-catering but we were not, so we ate at the adjacent restaurant where we also got breakfast. We really had an enjoyable stay there as the people were so friendly. If you are walking or biking the Labe/Elbe path this is a good place to stay. Plenty to see with boats being launched etc.

Thursday 26 July. Pardubice to Prelouc.

We left the hotel on a quiet route via the old city and soon reached a path beside the Labe. We started on the eastern bank and shortly crossed to the west bank. We saw the fire brigade having an exercise deploying a barrage across the Labe presumably to contain something like an oil spill. After a few kilometers we crossed back to the eastern bank via a one lane bridge with traffic lights. It was here the 24 joined the road  and for a time it was quite busy. This was followed by a section of good cycle path, better than the road alongside but this soon ran out.


It became very hot and sunny and although the road became quieter it was really too hot for road walking.


We walked through many small villages and between fields of maize and corn. In passing through the villages we were always greeted by a cacophany of canine barks. Often many households had two or three dogs, all barking.


We stopped for a liquid lunch and shortly afterwards the road became more of a track. We eventually left the cycle route 24 to take a green blazed walking trail into Prelouc. The walking trail ran through a wood and it was great to be out of the sun. The downside was I was attacked by a cloud of bighting flies. The track came out on the main Pardoubice - Prelouc road about 2 km from our hotel (Fontana).

Wednesday 25 July. Hradec Kralove to Pardubice.

We left H K at 8:30am and headed south out of town on a track beside the river which we reached just where the Labe was joined by the Solice. It was an overcast day and very warm. We had a few small showers throughout the day and a very heavy one minutes after we reached our hotel in Pardubice.

The track soon joined a very busy road which we walked on for most of the day. At times it was quite hairy with lots of heavy industrial  vehicles and farm machinery. The combine harvesters were also busy working in the fields. 

Things were somewhat improved as we went from the county ruled by HK to the county area run by Pardubice. The small villages started to have better and longer sidewalks.

It was only in the last 5 km, after we had passed Kuneticka Hora, a delightful castle on a hill, that our route was on a rural track again. The last two km, beside the Labe, were more tree lined and quite deserted. We didn't pass a single person.

We passed a large solar panel set up just where the cycle route 24 joined the road south of the last major suburb of HK. It was just sited on farmland and had an area of about 20,000 sq.m 

We went through several small villages, during the day, having refreshment in one. We also had a couple of rests at bus stops as they had seats and were undercover.

In retrospect the walk was too long at 26km and over 7 hours with stops but there was no suitable accommodation to be found between the two endpoits.

Tuesday 24 July. Rest day in Hradec Kralove

As the last two days were pretty long, and we've been on the road for a week we took the day off to rest and catch up with washing. We couldn't find a laundrette so we were busy in the bathroom fo a while.

As usual I packed too many "just in case" clothes making my pack heavier than I liked so today we also visited the post office to ship back 2kg of clothes to my sister in the UK. This means tomorrow Shiel can pass 1kg of her bag contents on to me.

It's been heating up as we've come south, ~29C today, so it was nice to be able to 'blob out.'  

Thinking it would be easier to blog on a full size computer we visited the local tourist infomation centre to use their internet, 50 crowns/hour. Beware if you try this as it is not as simple as it first appears, quite a few of the letters are in different places on the Czech keyboard to their location on the NZ/US keyboard.

As a general comment we have found the standard of living seems to be quite high, at least for some people, but the cost of living (holidaying at least) seems much cheaper than NZ or the UK. We've passed lots of large detached houses with large gardens and many with swimming pools. In contrast we've also passed some very delapidated houses very near the well maintained ones. Sometimes next door.

Another feature of the Czech landscape that has surprised us is the number of dog owners (and dogs!) Shiel has been using walking poles and the noise they make on hitting the road seems particularly irritating to our canine friends. There are dogs in almost every garden, dogs in hotels (barking to each other), dogs in restaurants and dogs on carriers on bicycles. I haven't seen, let alone trodden in any canine faeces though. 

I never thought I'd say it but I think the English come second to the Czechs as dog lovers.

 Holy Spirit Cathedral and White Tower