Hungary into Czech Republic
The start of some country zick-zacking ;-)
29th June - 3rd July | 2022
After a nice week back at home, seeing James and friends, I arrived back last night in the hotel in Budapest. Pretty hot still at 20h00 in the evening. They must have had a heat wave with over 40C over the weekend, well still around 30C on my arrival ... Steffi, stop complaining as surely further North I will get sufficient cold and rain!
After a good breakfast, last time their yummy pancakes, I packed Schimmelchen up again and fitted the new, smaller Mosko tank bag. Managed to fit all into it what was before in my old one though! Finally at 11am I hit the road direction Györ, in 35C - puh! Driving was not too bad but stopping at traffic lights ...
As it was late last night and I didn’t get much sleep I opted for a private camping spot North-West of Györ (www.kompasz-kemping.com), which was only a 170km drive. Enough for the day with the heat ... I also wanted to arrive earlier the day to start planning the next steps ahead.
I came to the conclusion to give a Bratislava visit a miss, just driving through the centre and maybe having an ice-cold coke it might be. The plan is to loop around partial Czech Republic up to Prague and then to the south of Poland and then into Slovakia. Like that, I only will need to do the North-West of Czech Republic on my way home as on the doorstep of Dresden and Leipzig. So, that is the latest plan ;-), but you know me by now and my plans ...
Once my tent was up, I had a rest as far too hot to do anything else. Once it was a bit cooler I went down to the river to enjoy the evening breeze and atmosphere. Unfortunately with sunset, the mosquitos came out and hell, nothing would stop them! Even through my t-shirt they attacked me! By the time I went to bed, lightning started, but no rain!
The next morning it took me two hours to pack all away (trying to find a better way of packing again), of course, including breakfast, payment, etc. It didn’t take me too long to be in Bratislava and I am glad, I gave it a miss. It is a tiny centre, but all around just blocks of houses of all styles and ages! So I went on to Brno, passing by a lake for lunch. Lunch was not successful at all, either no food or no credit card - welcome to the Czech Republic ;-)
Around 15h I was already at the hotel, but the gate only opened by 16h, so I looked up a restaurant. Have you ever driven in Brno close to the centre? Pretty entertaining with a fully loaded bike as google tells you to turn left, crossing two tramlines and the opposite traffic! As I was tired and it was hot, I was not in the mood for this anymore! So after another unsuccessful attempt for lunch, I went back to the hotel and waited outside in the shade for the gate to open.
Later on, I went to get finally some Czech Krona (KC) to get me going -or getting some lunch next time ;-) -, water and then I went to the restaurant the girl from the hotel recommended. Not really my choice, but I was too tired and hungry, that I didn’t want to look for another option.
Meantime, in the last few days, I am in touch with Pavel (remember Albania, IG: FarandFurther) as he is back in the Czech Republic for a while. It looks like we will have a beer together and maybe he joins me for one of his famous shortcuts into Poland ...
Let’s hope, the old town looks prettier than the part I strolled around for my dinner! It does!
As I had a migraine again this morning (rain is coming!), I only left the hotel after I had a rest for the tablet to kick in. Luckily a lot of places to visit are underground, so I could escape the heat for a while.
If you ever go to Brno (German Brünn), you should visit the nuclear bunker 10-Z (www.10-z.cz) and the labyrinth under the vegetable market (www.brnenske-podzemi.cz) besides all the other touristic attractions that might be interesting for you.
The next morning it took me a while to get out of Brno due to a lack of navigation skills and lots of road work. Once on the right route, it was lovely riding through rolling hills in only 20C. I really enjoyed it today! I stopped for a cafe at Telc - what a cute old town! I tried then to get a nice shot of Hluboka nas Vitavou castle, but I wasn’t fancying leaving my bike behind and walking up the hill with my gear.
Instead, I started hunting for a camping spot for tonight. Let's put it this way, as bad as the morning started, the finish seems not much better! It was my "lucky" day: no camping anymore, rude, no English, no camping allowed, overcrowded, loud music, etc ... within 3 camping places of 60km distance! So my friend booking.com had to help here out for tonight! Like that, I ended up in a little hotel close to the city of Tabor, next to the motorway, but clean and actually didn’t even hear the cars passing by. The "bed"-hunt cost me a detour of 100km and more than 2 hours! ... and I was so much looking forward to sleeping in my cosy sleeping bag!
The next morning I took it easy as only 230km to Prague, including a little detour. I visited an eery-looking place in Rvacov. Someone decorated his whole premises with old dolls! After that, it was time for the underground again ;-) The Ossuary of Sedlec (www.sedlec.info; The Roman Catholic Cemetery Church of All Saints with Ossuary). Unfortunately, you are not anymore allowed to take pictures of the place, so please have a look at their website. What an amazing place to visit! From there it was just a short drive to the hotel in Prague, where I will be staying for two nights to do some sightseeing.
Come and join me in Prague in the next blog; let’s discover the city together!
Places | Cities:
HUNGARY
Budapest, Tatabánya, Györ, Kimle.
SLOVAKIA
Bratislava.
CZECH REPUBLIC
Brno, Trebic, Telc, Trebon, Lisov, Hluboka nas Vitavou, Tabor, Kutna Hora, Prague.
Driven km | Trip:
Total | Steffi: 16790 km
Maintenance | Breakdown:
./.
Health issues:
./.
Special thanks to:
Johana and Adam (www.kompasz-kemping.com) for the lovely spot they have at the river .
Brno for its interesting underground.