My forty year old son, Rich, leads a very active life in Boulder, Colorado. He's always biking and hiking and playing volleyball and rock climbing if he isn't skiing or snowboarding. When he asked me to join him for some adventure in Europe for a week he had there between business gigs in Munich and Paris, I should have known what to expect. I was pretty sure we wouldn't be spending time on tour buses and in museums. We didn't.
We took the train from Munich to Prague, settled into our hotel, which, as a side note, I highly recommend. We stayed at the Hotel Prague Castle. The price is reasonable, the staff is friendly and helpful, the view is magnificent, the beds are soft and the location is central. Anyhow, we looked at all of the hotel's brochures of activities for tourists and the one that attracted my son's attention was the one advertising bike tours.
So, there we were early the next morning waiting for a van to pick us up to take us to the starting point for a day long bicycle trip to King George's summer castle in Karlstejn. We got dropped off at a garage on the outskirts of town where our guide, with AVE Travel Bike Tours, outfitted us with bikes and helmets (mandatory) and had us sign a two page contract releasing them from any responsibility. I hadn't thought before about getting lost, injured, drowned or hit by a train. I recommend you just sign without reading it.
We took off through the city traffic (the scariest part of the trip) and got to a bicycle path along the Vltava river. The rest was incredible. We wound our way along the river except when we went through villages of quaint homes and down streets of mansions (where Vlastimil said the bouguise communists used to live). We saw the mark on a bridge of a flood that wiped out towns that were still rebuilding. We saw a circus setting up, surrounded by excited citizens. We stopped in a cafe for coffee and tea and pastries. Note: I asked for ice in my coffee and got ice cream (the restaurant owner said, "No ice here")
As we rode, we got a running commentary and a really interesting history lesson from someone who loved his country. The pace was leisurely and doable so I could enjoy the sights and sounds and people.
We arrived at Karlstejn and had an incredible lunch at an outside cafe. Beer never tasted so good as it did that day after our 30 km ride! After that, our guide left us to tour the castle at our leisure and take the train back to Prague when our sightseeing was done. I highly recommend this bike trip or one like it wherever you go in Europe. The next day, we took a three hour bike tour with a guide around the city of Prague and found that fun and informative as well. I'm hooked!
What I took in my Wisepack Travel Purse: Rich and I both wore a Wisepack. In them, we had raincoats, water, a few maps (just in case we did get lost), Advil (for me), sunglasses, a camera and our iPhones. Last note: I have never had so many pictures taken of my rear end in my entire life as I did on that bike trip. Never let any of your children ride behind you on a bike with iPhones or cameras in their hands.
