Day 31 – Prague (CZ) to Benešov (CZ)

April 25th, 2022

We could hardly call the last four days in Prague relaxing, but still, we didn’t manage much sleep last night. We dragged ourselves out of bed at 7:30 am as Honi and Benas had their taxi booked for 9 am, and we still had a few more things to stuff into their hold luggage for their flight back to the UK. I’ll go into more detail in another blog, but we have spent time in Prague reassessing our gear and tandem setup, resulting in Honi and Benas having two heavy bags to hump back to Scotland.

Shower, breakfast and a quick photo shoot, and it was time to say goodbye. We had said our goodbyes to Feni and Ali the day before, and all too soon, it was time to say goodbye to Honi and Benas. While I managed to keep Deborah in the dark about the family joining us in Prague to celebrate Deborah’s 50th birthday, I knew that I would be seeing them all again within a month of setting off on our adventure. This time we have no idea when we will see our daughters again, so I was feeling a bit down during our final hour or so together.

We waved Honi and Benas off at 9 am prompt and got on with packing our new bike setup. With our trailer now heading for Prague airport, we manoeuvred the bike out onto the road outside and piled up the six panniers and rack bag that our remaining belongings were now skillfully packed into. Just as we started to load the panniers onto the tandem, Melania, our AirBnB host, pulled up in her car, which is when the fun began.

With little introduction, Melania explained to us that Ukrainians ruined the local area. Too many of them had come to Prague and were destroying it. She was also happy to share that President Zelensky was a puppet of the US. In the nicest possible way, I suggested that maybe we had a slight difference of opinion on this one, but she didn’t seem to have any time for such frivolous debates, so headed into the house. We followed as we still had a few items to collect, which is when the abuse started.

Without warning, our host started to complain that the heating should have been left at 15oC and not set at the 20oC that we felt was needed after a cold and wet day sightseeing around Prague. She also complained that we had left the internal doors open, not conserving heat in the house, and then was forced to explain that she had visited the place while we had been out. She complained that we had used the incorrect setting on the dishwasher, wasting electricity, and that we hadn’t cleaned the house before vacating it.

I’ll not go into details on this one but instead will leave it at the fact that she received a robust response, which left her in no doubt about my feelings, feelings that will be shared with everyone that wishes to read them when I complete the post-stay AirBnB review.

Luckily all of our belongings were on the pavement outside the house before the door was closed on us, some four hours before we technically had to vacate the property. With the bike packed, we headed in the direction Komoot had decided the best route out of the city, which surprisingly happened to be directly through the city centre.

The bike, minus the trailer and around 15kgs of stuff, felt good. The new brake disk rotor removed the constant clicking sound created by its predecessor, plus the new twenty-one tooth sprocket on the Rohloff Speedhub, replacing the original seventeen tooth sprocket, making the tandem feel like a proper expedition bike for the first time.

As the journey into the city centre was primarily in the downward direction, we found ourselves at the end of the Charles Bridge surprisingly quickly. In fact, I’m sure we made it into town on the tandem much faster than when we had taken the tram over the days previous. With the photoshoot and toilet stop done, we continued through Prague’s busy streets until we broke out through the city limits.

While we were no longer in the city, the traffic didn’t end all day. We received respite from the heavy traffic from the occasional bike path and forest road, but on this route chosen by Komoot, they were few and far between.

While it was great to spend time with Honi, Feni, Benas and Ali while celebrating Deborah’s birthday, we could hardly call the last few days restful. With the cycle from Scotland to Prague being on a schedule to ensure we were there for the celebrations, this was the first day of the tour so far that we could cycle as much or as little as we liked, in theory. In theory, as we also needed to take into consideration where we would be sleeping.

With everything considered, we decided to make today a short day of approximately fifty kilometres, heading for the town of Benešov. This would enable us to end the day in a town with a cheap accommodation option, an early stop so that we can eat, drink and still have an early night in bed.

With 15km left to cycle, we sat in a children’s playground and completed the booking.com booking for our accommodation for the night, which appeared to be the accommodation block of a sports centre. Upon arriving at our accommodation an hour later, it was indeed the accommodation block of a sports centre, along with bunk beds. There was no bike storage onsite, and our room is up an unnerving steep flight of stairs, so with climbing gear on, we managed to haul the dead weight of the Pino up to its resting place for the night, outside our allotted bedroom.

After a quick shower, we headed into town toward the nearest pizza takeaway, or rather the nearest pizza takeaway to the nearest ATM due to our dwindling supply of local currency.

With an authentic Italian pizza in hand, even though Deborah’s half of it contained pineapple, we headed back to the accommodation block to enjoy the feast in comfort. We settled in a seating area just along from our room to feed, which based on the fact that we skipped lunch, didn’t take long. Not ready for bed just yet, we are now sitting in the sports centre bar, writing this blog, catching up on Facebook and email, and enjoying a couple of pints (or hot chocolate in Deborah’s case).