August 13, 2015
Praha to Hrazany: Toughest ride in my life
Prague to Radíč - Hotel Hrazany
Today was a killer. It was 36 C, the road was long and very hilly. I think we both almost collapsed today.
We ate our snacks, checked out with our host and were along the river shortly after 8 am.Luckily there was a bike path along the river, so we could stay out of the heavy traffic. The path had steady bike and roller blade traffic, but neither were a problem.
We came to a bridge which had confusing signposts, so I was not sure which way to go - as it turns out, we should have crossed the river but we did not. It was fine until the bike path simply ended.
Traffic was not too bad, but I wanted to get back on track. The gps ended up leading us down a gravel track then through an off-road trail. The bonus was that there were spectacular views of the Vltava snaking through the hills! But these routes took quite a toll on us.
Finally back onto the other side of the Vltava, our route undulated mercilessly, sometimes up quite steep inclines. We were getting very tired and increasingly had to get off to push the bikes up the hills. My nausea returned and I had no more strength, but we had to carry on.
Both of us were almost destroyed when the gps led us to the wrong river crossing which meant we had to walk back uphill about 1 km before reclaiming the correct road then descending down to a camping area by a beach on the Vltava. Quite pretty.
There we sat for about an hour, waiting for the 50 Kr per person ferry ride across the river (15 minutes). Though the rest was nice, following the ferry was a long, steep plod uphill that must have been several km long. No sooner would we walk up, that we'd race down the other side and repeat. I was so exhausted that I had both arms braced across the handlebars as I plodded alongside the bike. Physically exhausted.
We limped along, on and off the bikes until we got to Radíč where we looked up to the building beside us to see 'Taxi' stenciled on the wall. Sure enough, the guy ran a taxi service and for 10 Euro we put our folded bikes into his van and we climbed the big hill to our hotel in five or ten minutes. I never would have made it otherwise.
We stored the bikes, checked in, then went down to eat. Though my roast beef, dumplings and gravy were delicious, I was too nauseated to eat. I had two ginger ales, gravol, then returned to the room. This beautiful place is up on a hill which looks over rolling hills for miles and had a beautiful swimming pool. We were both too exhausted to do any more than collapse. Terrible day on the bikes. And, oh, so hot, at about 37 C.
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Today's ride: 68 km (42 miles)
Total: 85 km (53 miles)
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