Praha (Prague) - Terezin 5th July

5th July

Despite expectations, the Vltava bike track leaving Prague was atrocious. It consisted of puddles, mud or very rough large stones for some 3-5 kms. This improved to wet gravel then was paved until just after Husinec (at this point we were still only 12kms from Prague) where we were advised by a German cycling couple, who had in turn been advised by a local, that we needed to cross Vltava and continue on the other side. (The track on this side being apparently too dangerous and narrow and likely to result in a fall into the flooded river).

Pat stays out of the saddle to ease the pressure on the Mongoose over the rough cobbles.

The pedestrian bridge across the river led to a small rural train station. We had to descend steep steps and carry our bikes across two sets of serious rail tracks, upon which travelled extremely long, fast trains.

Tracey having second thoughts re the Vlava bike track at this point.

Tracey, with Pat trying to keep up, takes the single track in her stride.

Once over these hurdles, the "better" track turned out to be single MTB track - a 10" wide stony goat track, which ran within inches of the rail line. Did I mention the track went up and down like a roller coaster? Within 75m a freight train had blown it's whistle at me to warn of it's proximity. After roughly a kilometre of this, we reached the next village where a ferry was supposed to take us back across the river. Despite upwards of ten cyclists waiting, the ferry skipper continued to fish on the opposite shore. We gave up and took a road route to Kralupy.

A storm brews ahead of us as we head for Terezin. We beat this one.

It had taken us over 2.5 hours to do 28 kms. After a coffee stop and some map study we decided to abandon the route and travel on the road to Roudnice nad Labem - a good ride! - beautiful rolling farmland with layered blue hills as a backdrop. And we had reached the Labe (Elbe) which would accompany us all the way to Hamburg.

Pat our ''Navigator'' hunched over his instruments during the coffee break.

Another pit stop (hot chocolate and cake for some of us) and we decided to push on still sticking to the roads to Terezin.

Our route still followed the river for a while, past hop farms, cropland and an old fortress at the edge of Terezin. It looked interesting and we decided to explore.

We soon realised that the 18th century fortress we had viewed from the road had a very dark background and was in fact the infamous Teresienstadt Concentration Camp.

Nazi propaganda ''work brings freedom''

The Jewish section of the Teresienstadt cemetery, 10,000 bodies are buried here, only 2000 in individual graves.

As we approached the fortress a large and exceptionally well tended cemetery came into view which was divided into two halves by a crucifix and the star of David. We confirmed that this was indeed the infamous Teresienstadt, an 18th century fortress that had been used by the Nazis as a WW2 concentration camp.
Having toured Mathausen and seen a similar fortress in Spain, I decided to mind the bikes while Pat and Rod took a tour through the old fortress. None of us wanted to tour another concentration camp after Maurhausen.
Pat and Rod were not enthused about the old fortress, the emphasis being unfortunately on it's WW2 history.
We rode on to the Terezin campground. Though we initially had doubts about the campground, after three beers each and a large and tasty home cooked meal it proved to be a good night. The whole evening cost us 700 Kroner (47 Aust. dollars).

• Nine beers
• Pork stuffed with spicy sausauge and champignons
• Crumbed chicken breast and vegiez
• Grilled pork and chicken with vegetables and salad
• One dessert
• Two glasses of red wine
• A complimentary bowl of home cooked pastries
• A tip of 65 kroner.
• Camping costs for the night were 20 Aussie dollars.

The son the proprietoress, a young man who incidentally had been married the day before, helped us translate the menu and place our order.
We had a very interesting conversation with him about Czech history in general and the Czech attitude to Russia and Russians.