Eastern Europe: Cesky Krumlov to Trebon, CZ

Today was another great day to be on a bicycle. Perfect temperature, great scenery, smooth roads, very little traffic.  We knew from two days ago that there would be a significant uphill going out of town.  Bus most of us weren’t prepare to the hill after a left curve at 10km.  It went straight up.  A tandem in front of us stopped which made us stop. Fearing we couldn’t get started on the hill we walked. And were glad of it as the hill was 15% to 20% grade.  We probably wouldn’t have made it with our rental bikes.

Rental bikes?  This is a change for us.  We almost always take our own bikes.  They were built custom for us in 2002 – touring bikes, low gears – and they come apart and fit in airline legal cases. As American Airlines Gold Members we’ve always had a second bag free. Until last year when they changed the rules. Last year our two bags two ways cost us $400.  We can rent bikes for that.  So we have.  They’re pretty nice (Trek) bikes but do not the low gears our touring bikes have.

 

 

Trebon, a well-preserved medieval town is centered around a Renaissance square. It’s a nice place to explore a unique biosphere of artificial lakes dating to the 14th century. Over the centuries, people have transformed a flooding marshland into a clever combination of lakes, oak-lined dikes, wild meadows, Baroque villages, peat bogs and pine woods. Today this is the fish-raising capital of the Czech Republic and has the biggest diversity of bird species in Eastern Europe. A charming town.