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[kraut]

every year we ride around last weekend of September for a week just the two of us.

This year we wanted to reexploit the Moravian Wallachia on the border to Slovakia and Poland, from where the Carpathian Mountains stretch to the Ukrayina and Romania. I have been there for hunting several times and it's a most beautifull country for motorcycle touring as well.

The Czech Republic is rapidly developing since around 2000 and almost every year you visit a town over there some new hotels or restaurants open up, castles, palaces an churches get refurbished from almost ruines. Their roads are by far the best in Eastern Europe, food, drinks and accomodations are good and still very cheap compared to Germany. The younger people are very friendly and most speak english or german, motorcycles are welcome and Harleys especially are worshipped. So it's really are very agreable country for touring.

This year the weather was not on our side, we had to break off our first attempt after only two days as heavy rain and temperatures just a little over 40 F suddenly were on forecast for the whole week. We just got to Clumec nad Cidlinou halfways to our target Slovakian border.

Some pics from the first attempt: click 

[Chains]

Great pictures, was this a holiday?  I did not see a lot of people in the towns.  Thanks for sharing.

[kraut]

no, regular friday, saturday and sunday.

Link to the map: click

[kraut]

the next weekend our traditional last mile interfered, this year to Prague as it was still far too cold for our usual trip to the polish mountain resort of Karpacz, just between 40 and 50 F in the valleys but perfectly dry and mostly sunny, some pics: click

Small crowd this year, too chilly for most 

The red drink you may see on some of the pics is "Wściekły Pies": click - so there was a little bit of Poland in the czech capital 

[napalm]

Great pictures, where were all the people in the towns???  Seemed empty.

I'm traveling to Germany next summer and renting a bike to travel in Southern Germany...can't wait after seeing your pictures!!

napalm

[kraut]

the towns you see on the way to Prague are Děčín, Litoměřice, the fortress of Terezín and Velvary. Map: click.

In Prague it's best to leave your bike at a save place and travel by cab or metro, we did the last and then walked over Charles Bridge through the Old Town and back over the brigde to the Castle, click. It's called "the king's walk" because the kings used to take this way to their crowning.

[rlavigna]

Beautiful areas.  Must be quiet without people...

[kraut]

Prague used to be infamous for the prices asked from tourists but even that has wastly improved over the last two years. If you know your ways a little you will find a good bohemian dinner including lots of beer and Slivovice for 10 USD. If you should ever be interested to visit the city, thre is a very good knowledge base: expats.cz in english.

Back we went along the Vltava valley to Nelahozeves castle and  Mělník, where the Vltava and the River Elbe merge (and run through my hometown of Dresden some miles down) and through the small nature preservation area of Kokořínsko: map.

[kraut]

you will indeed not meet many people in those little villages and on the backroads in autumn. Tourism season is June to August, in late September you may be the only guest in hotels outside Prague. In Summer that's different as a "classic" bohemian town has a marketplace and cafés and beergardens all have outdoor places there. And temperatures in addition were not really inviting for outdoor activities 

And of course the northern part of Bohemia is still underpopulated compared to 1945. In many towns over 90 % of the original population was expelled after the war. Most of those small housings in the countryside today are just summer cottages.

[kraut]

but the weekend after the last mile had promising weather forecast so we startet again to the east.

Friday morning was perfect sunshine, 55 F already at 10:00 so we went via Autobahn to Ústí nad Labem due to war damages today a busy industrial town with almost no historic sites left. From then on over the mountains, along the Lake Mácha to Žďár nad Sázavou, the first step into Moravia. We had quarters in a beautiful ancient chapel on the premises of the local Kinsky-palace, the Chapel of St. Margaret. The next day we visited
the church of St. John of Nepumuk, the last World Heritage Site in Czech Republic we had missed until then. Next World Heritage Site for the evening, Kroměříž, we never stayed there before and found a decent little Hotel and a nice brewery in a town mostly untouched by tourism. Next morning we visited the famous bishop's gardens - we were mostly alone there.

We had intended to visit the destillery museum in Vizovice but to our disappointment it's closed on sundays - so we rode on to  Bat'a-town Zlín, had a very enjoyable lunch at the castle's restaurant. The evening saw us in Slavkov u Brna, the old battlefield of Austerlitz. Next day we rode to Kutná Hora, World Heritage Site too and a beautifull ancient town we know quite well. It got really cold for the last miles that day, just 30 F after sunset and we saw a lot of game near our road  

But next morning was sunny again, we rode via Mladá Boleslav back to the Elbe valley  where we were met by the first clouds of the whole trip.

Much too short, but we had used up three days for the first attempt so that was all the time we had.

map: click

[Keats]

you will indeed not meet many people in those little villages and on the backroads in autumn. Tourism season is June to August, in late September you may be the only guest in hotels outside Prague. In Summer that's different as a "classic" bohemian town has a marketplace and cafés and beergardens all have outdoor places there. And temperatures in addition were not really inviting for outdoor activities 

And of course the northern part of Bohemia is still underpopulated compared to 1945. In many towns over 90 % of the original population was expelled after the war. Most of those small housings in the countryside today are just summer cottages.

Please excuse my lack of knowledge in history.

But was the Population decrease in northern Bohemia after the war ended due to the expulsion of the Germans? The Croat populatiion losses during the war? or the population fleeing the takeover by the eastern block?

[kraut]

there were of course various factors.

At first many Czech people who had settled quite in numbers after 1918 in the so called Sudetenland, i.e. the part of the Czech Republic occupated by the Germans in 1938 fled to the South after the occupation. Second both Jews and Sinti used to be quite nummerous in the North and got deported and killed almost 100 % after 1938. Then there were military casualties during the war and especially in the industrial centres heavy civilian casualties during bomb raids.

At last however after the expulsion of the Germans many towns were virtually uninhabitated, in some of the mountain areas 3 out of 4 villages entirely disappeared after 1945. Estimated 2.4 Mio people alone were deported 1945/46, that was approximately 30 % of the pre-war population of the whole Czech Republic in it's today borders.

[ice6900]

great pics, I feel like I was on the journey with you.

[semperfi81]

Awesome pictures I can only wish

[kraut]

I hope we get the pics of the last part online tomorrow.

It's a unique country however, imagine this was the richest part of the world for over 4 centuries, the very center of Europe, nowhere else you will find such a mass of cultural heritage. As an average every 440 yards there is a a monument 

As blessed as this country was, is was haunted also as the battlefield of Europe, even today the farmers dig out skeletons each day on the battlefields of the Napoleon and Prusssian-Austrian wars. Terrible deeds happened here, genocide every other day ...

Today it's emerging out of the ruins of WWII and communism - and a young international community is arising in Prague and Brno. We travelled all countries of Europe, from Spain to Greece and Greenland - but the Czech Rebublic is by far our favourite.