Bicycle touring is tiring. Our rest breaks in Český Krumlov and Znojmo were so lovely we decided, after a few more days riding, to take another break in Brno. As with Česky Krumlov we were just amazed at how beautiful these towns are. Although the country has a tumultuous history, most Czechia towns and cities were relatively unscathed from bombing during WW2.
Hmm…sounds like a lot of rest days, you may be thinking. Well, once we left the relatively quiet and empty region of Bohemia the roads started to get busier, and the car drivers faster and less careful around cyclists. Our day into Brno was pretty awful, a busy rural road with many trucks and no shoulder, long stretches with no towns or trees, but thankfully no head wind.
Once we got to the true outskirts of Brno we were on a cycle path again. Czechia has a lot of recreational bike riders, a lot of folks in road riding gear (mostly men), who ride fast. As we know from our bike activism in the US, women on bikes are an indicator of how safe and accessible places’ bike infrastructure is. And families. Parents with children in a cargo bike or on their own little bikes is a good sign too. We saw a few families coming into Brno along the Svratka River, but our hopes of a cycle friendly city center were not to be.
We both know firsthand from years of activism and professional work the many challenges that face a city trying to become more bike and pedestrian friendly. Our own city, San Francisco, has come a long way but still struggles to make changes to the streets, fighting against the conventional beliefs that cars must have unfettered access. So we understand how hard it can be to create safe welcoming spaces for people on foot and on bikes. In many cities we joke that we should stick around create a bike and pedestrian advocacy group, Walk Bike Brno (Procházka Kolo Brno) has a nice ring to it. But there is the language challenge, and the irony of two Americans lecturing any place about sustainable transportation.
Brno is a perfect candidate for a Copenhagen style makeover, or even a San Francisco style makeover. It’s pretty flat in the core of the city, loads of Universities, trams and buses, not a great pedestrian environment due to long traffic signals and missing connections, and really no bike infrastructure. But despite that there is a bike culture. And lots of folks walking. They could harness what they have and create a more walkable and bikeable city. Sure, the first thought is about the cost, but as Copenhagen has proved, cities get a better return on their investment from bike and pedestrian projects than car projects.
When we get to small cities like Brno, population 380k, we appreciate how quirky culture and experimental businesses can survive in a place which has not suffered the homogenization of wealth. We look back to San Francisco, which we love dearly, but which has changed due to loads of monied folks. And the subsequent pushing out of less monied folks. Many of our favorite places and favorite people have been priced out of SF, or they left to have a more complete life elsewhere. Sometimes while traveling and enjoying a bar or restaurant we say to each other: this business could never exist in SF (or name another A list city with space and money constraints). Or if it did, it would be so expensive we wouldn’t go to it.
With the sad realization that we didn’t feel very safe cycling in the south Moravian region of Czechia, we bid a fond farewell to Brno and headed to the train station.
Rich does so much good work figuring out our cycling routes and train hops. If we can we get on a train at the start of its route, that allows us to get to the station early and load the bikes on the train before most folks show up. This is especially important if there is limited bike space. The Czech train did have on line booking of bike spaces and seats right near the bike space. Rich also booked the two bike slots far left, closest to the train wall, less chance of our bikes getting banged around by other bikes and train movements. These are the details that make our train travel days a bit better.
A must have for train days is food, charging cables, and an extra power source in case the outlets don’t work – which these didn’t for several hours – which also meant the AC didn’t work, and the windows don’t open. Made for a slightly clammy journey. And I don’t think we or the other three cyclists were at our freshest to start with. The one empty unreserved seat in our bay of six seats was eyed by a few people, but something kept folks from choosing it… It was all of us! We were stinky cyclists.
Our next hard date is July 18th on a ferry from Hook of Holland to Harwich, so another train hop was necessary to get us closer to the German border. So enough musing about bike infrastructure and affordability, let’s get off that train and ride.
We’ve been amusing ourselves by noticing the license plate country registration as drivers pass us, and we can reliably predict when a driver is German vs. Chezch. The German laws have been updated to mandate a 1.5 meter passing of cyclists, and bless those German drivers, they do leave that passing distance even when driving in Czechia. So, we were happy to cross to Germany and feel safer on the roads. Love you so much Czechia, but you’re not a fully realized cycling destination yet.
Even though the distances we cycle in a day seem quite short compared to driving a car, we feel so immersed in nature, thanks to the good bike path network in Germany. The routes keep you away from major roads as much as possible, and when you do need to spend time on a road the speed limit is frequently lowered and drivers do exercise caution. A hill or ridge that you might not notice while driving a car, we feel with every pedal stroke up, and every gleeful down hill coasting moment.
Bicycle touring strips you down to basics. You need food and lodging. Unless we have a rest day we don’t really do any cultural activities. But we see so much. The hours on the bikes looking at the river, or winding along vineyards, or searching for a place to stop and have a picnic lunch, are very elemental. Once we get to our destination we want a shower, some food and drinks, maybe watch a Netflix show on the iPad, and then we sleep as if we’ve been dropped to bed from a high height.
We have just a few more nights in Germany before we reach Belgium, and then the Netherlands. We need to get our new touring bikes to a Koga dealer for a tuneup. We’ve already ridden about 1,100 kms/800 miles on these bikes, and that’s tuneup territory. So off we go! More from the road later.
Less Car, More Life 