August 11, 2015
Arrival to Praha: Bikes: Damaged, repaired and ridden into the city centre
U Zeleneho Jalovce, Prague
THE agony in the seats continued til 9:30 am when we finally arrived. I used to think Air Transat was mannerly with bicycles. I was wrong, but let us start at the beginning. After making up the lost time in the air we arrived on schedule and made our way through customs without a hitch. I started to worry when the bikes did not show up. De-planing and customs had been quick but waiting for the bikes took a long time. So we waited. And waited.
After an hour they finally arrived. Damaged. Bent crankarm spider, crunching rear hub. All of this for a fee of $30 plus a release for indemnity. Thanks Air Transat. MA's bike was scratched all over. I almost thought my bike was finished, but I finally seemed to have it rideable after bending and twisting things.
Next up was a gps that would not route properly at first. When I put in the co-ordinates for our hotel it took forever to calculate just 10% of the route. I just pointed to the city centre and that worked so we headed out of the airport along a very busy highway on a hot and sunny midday in August. Yikes. There were a few long climbs made higher by the heat. But finally we came to Prague Castle, then descended to cross the Karlovy (Charles) Bridge, walking the bikes through the salespeople, tourists and such. The cobbles in the old city were treacherous so mostly we walked the bikes there, too.
The gps led us through the cobbled back streets until we finally arrived to this beautiful hotel apartment. A place with no lobby, we were lucky that the fellow (Karol) was around to let us in. And what an apartment! Loads of room to keep the bikes safe. Shortly we will seek food and, photo ops.
We cleaned up then headed to a bank for local money, then to Cafe Louvre for supper of chicken, deep-fried zucchini, then home-made ice cream. Delicious. MA had a mojito, I had an amber ale, local to Czech Republic. Delicious as well. All for CAD$25.
By now it was 6 pm and though we were zonked, we walked along the Vltava a bit to the bridge but it was so packed it was terrible! I was sweltering hot, we were thirsty and exhausted so we returned to our room where we crashed at 7 pm. I was numb, I was so tired.
- Prague, Czechia
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- Prague, Czechia
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- Prague, Czechia
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Today's ride: 17 km (11 miles)
Total: 17 km (11 miles)
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