Day 16 - Prague, Czech Republic - Rest Day in Prague

Tony's view

We decided to sleep in this morning so that we could recover from yesterday and get ready for a very big day tomorrow.

Unfortunately, the weather forecast changed overnight, and we're now expecting rain all morning. Since tomorrow is at least an 8-hour ride, and more likely a 9-hour one, we'll need to get an early start. If there were no rain in the forecast, I'd be rolling out between 6:30 and 7:00 a.m. If it does rain, this will be Joan's first ride without a fairing. She'll get just as wet as I do now. Bummer. Welcome to my world, Joan! Sorry for breaking your fairing.

Because of the forecast, I rerouted tomorrow's ride this morning so that it's 99% pavement. Gravel and dirt roads tend to lose some of their charm when they're wet and muddy. The reroute added about 3 miles, bringing tomorrow's adventure to 66 miles, with 4,850 feet of climbing and 2,200 feet of descending.

My route-planning software, Komoot, kindly informed me that it recommends breaking this trip into two or three days. Clearly, Komoot doesn't understand that we have grandkids waiting for us at home. 😏

After that, I cleaned up the bike, adjusted a few spokes, rewaxed the chain, and generally got everything ready for tomorrow. Now all that's left is to hope the weather forecast changes again... preferably in our favor.

Then we headed back out to tour Prague again today. One thing we've noticed is that there are ice cream shops everywhere selling those giant sugar-donut creations where they stuff the middle with goodness and pile ice cream on top. Naturally, we had to stop and try one.

Mine was filled with bananas (which officially made it healthy), covered in caramel sauce, and then topped with ice cream. It was absolutely delicious. Being the generous husband that I am, I shared it with Joan. Being the efficient eater that she is, she finished most of it. In the process, she also managed to spill some on herself.

Fortunately for her, she was reviewing the photos later and somehow the evidence of the ice cream incident got deleted. I'm not saying it was intentional, but the photographic proof has mysteriously disappeared. 🤔😂

Aside from the suspicious loss of evidence, we had a great afternoon wandering around Prague and enjoying the city.

We walked a little farther and came across an all-metal motorcycle sculpture. Of course, Joan immediately climbed on it for a photo.

The more we looked at it, the more we realized it looked like something Clyde Verhoff would build. Every single part was made of metal, including the wheels. Then again, as a Welding Engineer, Clyde seems to believe that if something exists, it should probably be made out of metal. Need a chair? Metal. Need a table? Metal. Need a motorcycle? Definitely metal. Need wheels for that motorcycle? Why would you use anything other than metal?

As if the motorcycle wasn't enough, there was even a metal Minion nearby. I can only assume Clyde would approve of that too. 😂

We went into the Greek Catholic Cathedral of St Clement. We arrived right after their Mass

People got in a line to venerate the wood of the cross after Mass. So we decided to get in line after a while and do the same.

After they venerated the cross, they would go over to the holy water container and pour some into a cup. I decided  to do the same, Joan probably wisely decided to pass.

Then they would drink it, so I decided to do it myself.

We then crossed St Charles Bridge again and took some cool pictures with the clouds and sun in the background.

There was another statue that people have been rubbing for good fortune for many years. Joan first rubbed the figure on the right, figuring a little extra luck couldn't hurt. But then I pointed out that Luna would probably have strong opinions on the matter and would definitely want her to rub the dog instead. Not wanting to risk upsetting Luna, Joan switched her good-fortune strategy and gave the dog a proper rub too.

We stopped and toured St. Nicholas Church, and what a beautiful place it is. Everywhere you looked there was another stunning painting, statue, fresco, or piece of architecture. It was one of those churches where you can stand still for several minutes and keep discovering new details in every direction.

Of course, it was another excellent stop on our ongoing World Catholic Tour (WCT). We're not exactly sure how many churches we've visited so far, but we're building quite a collection. Most importantly, we have to keep Bud happy. He would never forgive us if we passed up a beautiful Catholic church without going inside. 😄 So, for Bud, we dutifully toured St. Nicholas, admired the craftsmanship, and added another successful entry to the WCT record book.😂

This was one of the first times we were able to go up into the balcony that runs around the church. You see these in many of the old churches. So here are a few pictures from up there, although they really don't do it justice.

Here is a statue of St Cyril that I had to include for my Dad. Well, also for Luke and Santi, since their middle name is Cyril.

Here is a beautiful side chapel that Joan stopped and prayed.

Last two pictures of St Nicholas of the dome and the ceiling, I have many more but I think I have plenty already.

These three pictures are from another amazing church, the Church of Our Lady Victorious. Once again, there were photo opportunities in every direction you looked. But the main reason Joan wanted to visit this church was that the Infant Jesus of Prague is located here.

Here you can see Joan praying at the Infant Jesus of Prague, which is dressed in green for Ordinary Time. If you look closely at the picture below, you can see the green outfit.

They many cases of the different garments that have been used over the years, got a picture of a few. 

This explains what what the dressing of the Infant Jesus of Prague is all about for you that are interested.

We then wrapped up our church tour and made a quick stop at the Lennon Wall of Freedom and Energy. The Lennon Wall is a historic outdoor stone wall covered in colorful street art, Beatles lyrics, and messages of peace, love, and political freedom. It's a fascinating spot that has been evolving for decades as visitors continue to add their own artwork and messages.

As we looked around, I couldn't help but think it felt a little like something you might stumble across in Yellow Springs, Ohio. 😂 The mix of art, creativity, free expression, and colorful opinions would fit right in.

We then found this basketball hoop that Linda would absolutely love for herself, not her four boys. And yes, I'm counting three sons plus Wade, who may be the oldest but is definitely still the biggest kid in the family. 😂 What made this hoop really unique was that the net was made entirely of crystals. Most people would look at it and think, "What a beautiful work of art." Wade and the boys would look at it and think, "I wonder if we can play a quick game of HORSE." Linda, on the other hand, would probably have a heart attack imagining four boys launching basketballs at a crystal hoop. It's a good thing this hoop is in Prague and not in their backyard. It might survive that way. 😆

We found a place called that brews its own beer, and I decided to order their sour beer, doing my best Dan Ernst impression. I'll admit, I approached it with a little skepticism. After all, sour beers can range anywhere from "that's interesting" to "did someone accidentally ferment lemonade?" But Dan has been trying to convince me that sour beers are a gift to mankind, so I figured I should at least give it a fair chance. Well, Dan, you were right. I really enjoyed it. In fact, I enjoyed it so much that I ordered a second one. I felt it was only fair to make sure the first glass wasn't a fluke. Scientific verification is very important when it comes to beer. 🍺😏

The place is called Fat Cat, and after sampling the beer, we decided it was only logical to eat there too. One of the first things we noticed was a sign that read:

"Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy."

Now that's a philosophy I can get behind. 😄

The people over here definitely love their beer, and honestly, I'm starting to understand why. Everywhere you go, there's great beer, great food, and people enjoying both. I feel like Prague may have found the secret to happiness. At the very least, they're making a very strong case for it. I love this place. 🍺😂

Check out these burgers, yummy. Joan even got gluten free and the bun held together. And yes, Dan that is my second sour.

We even found the Prague Beer Museum, a place that I could happily spend some time exploring. I told you these people like their beer over here!

Now let's all hope the rain decides to stay away tomorrow. The ride will be difficult enough without getting soaked for 8 to 9 hours. In fact, tomorrow's climb is bigger than any single day Wade and I had while riding through the Rocky Mountains, including our climb over the Continental Divide. That's saying something.

For anyone who wants to revisit that adventure, the blog is:

www.TonyChasingWade.Blogspot.com

As for tomorrow, my prediction is simple: regardless of whether it rains or not, there will be one very tired blogger writing tomorrow night's update. 😅🚴‍♂️

At least if Prague has taught me anything, it's that after a hard day on the bike, there seems to be a good beer waiting around every corner. 🍻😂

Joan's Extras

Prague has retained so much of its original beauty. I looked it up and only 1% of Prague was destroyed in WWII. The one bomb that was dropped on Prague was meant for Dresden, but there was thick cloud cover so the pilots got disoriented and hit Prague by mistake.

This picture is a collection of creches from around the world in the Church of Our Lady Victorious. There are almost as many creches here as in the Pat Francis and daughters' collection. 💗😀
 

Day 15 - Prague, Czech Republic - Goodbye Fairing, Hello Climb

Joan's View

If you ever saw the video that Wade created about his & Tony's 2010 cross country bike trip, they did a 4,700 foot climb to cross the continental divide at Monarch Pass. On the video Wade played the Miley Cyrus song, "It's the Climb." to show how much fun they had on that endless climb. For our ride today, I'm still looking for the song, something about thighs and calves burning? 😂

The first 11 miles of our 63+ mile ride were mostly bike path along the Elbe and flat. We passed 3 Nazi / Communist bunkers that were fairly close in proximity. 

Tony made the executive decision to save 7 miles today by taking the short cut through the mountains. OK. 🥺 

About a quarter of the way up the mountain, we came upon our first roadside shrine of the trip. That's interesting because the majority of Czechs have no religious affiliation, credit given to the Soviets that wanted religion removed the country.

Even more interesting is that only about a mile from this one, we had to avoid a group of people congregated on the road. We realized just as we were passing that a priest was blessing a shrine there.It would have been nice to stop to ask someone, but when you stop on a hill, you know what it's like to get started, and then add another 75 lbs to that start.

Ascending the mountain there were several cute wooden figures. My guess is that they were put there to give the goof balls that ride up the mountain some encouragement, or maybe laugh at them.

We stopped a little farther up the road to give the heavy breather in the back a break. Notice the bike parts of riders that never made it. The log was a creative bike rack too.

I took a picture of the Garmin when we and the little marker finally reached the top. Note the elevation. Tony said the grade hit 15% at times. In comparison, the hill by the Wolters to the bike path is probably 20% grade per Tony, and if you've ever been on that one, you know what it takes to get up that beast of an incline.

 

We chilled on the cruise down the mountain while Tony used the brakes to regen the batteries a little. Somewhere closer to the bottom, we stopped to watch a dog competition in progress. This one was more of an amateur competition because the dogs went their own way at times. The handlers still gave them their treats, Anne!

You can see that we were back riding along the Elbe again. At about the half way point in today's ride, we came across a kayak navigating competition. It was a tent city, kind of like GOBA, set up around the makeshift rapids built alongside the Elbe. We watched a little while. Lots of people of all ages competing. 

The starting line

We decided to move on, but the direction that we were supposed to go was up a curvy ramp to get to a bridge. Well, we went for it and got stuck on the first curve. Tony was lifting in the front and I was pushing from the back, but one of the panniers got wedged. This nice German guy whose kid was probably at the competition saw us and decided to help. He tilted the bike without understanding what could happen. Well, guess what? The fairing broke...again. Tony backed the bike down and parked it to decipher what plan C was for the fairing. He removed the quality tape and zip tie creation to find out that the part our hero fixed in Denmark was busted in half. Tony salvaged whatever pieces he wanted and we left the broken parts and scratched fairing in the trash can. We can all take a moment of silence for my beloved protective fairing now.

                                                                                                                                                        

The Z ramp in the background is where we got stuck

Tony doing salvage work

It took Tony a little while to disassemble and decide where to relocate the Garmin and mirror since those were once part of the fairing. Our German friend that tried to help us told us how to get up to the bridge another way. When we did figure that out, the bridge was under construction and the walk bridge was barely wide enough for our bike. Tony had some close encounters with other bikes.

Made it to the bridge

The view of the competition from the bridge

A few more miles in the town of Rundnice, there was a nice Cafe that looked like a possible spot to eat and charge the batteries since we still had 1,500 foot of elevation ahead of us. I went in to ask the server if we could charge the batteries. At first she was apprehensive, but agreed when she understood that we would eat there. Our food with great presentation was eaten at a slow pace so that the batteries had more time to charge. Tony had to get another beer just to make more time for the batteries. During all that we started chatting with our server, Natalie. She is a political science major studying in Prague with plans to work at an embassy. She wanted to know our thoughts on the political happenings in the US. She explained how she and her boyfriend are becoming more conservative in their views. Her boyfriend who is from Canada lives in Croatia now, but is trying to get citizenship in another country.  Her Mom owns the Cafe and Natalie was there to work before going back to school in Prague.

Our newest friend Natalie

We climbed then coasted, climbed then coasted again and again until we arrived at our Airbnb around 4:00. Tony booked this one like others on the ground floor. The ground floor here means going up a small curved staircase. We took as much weight off of the bike and pushed it up into our room. There is no fairing to remove at least. 😂

We walked about 30 minutes to St. Thomas Church for 6:00 English mass. The priest, with shaky hands and using a cane, gave a 35 minute homily from his seat. He served in Poland during Communist control. Included in his message, he told about how the government knew everything that he did and was called in monthly for questioning. 

After mass, that same priest was doing confessions so we got in line. There was one person in front of us. The priest was talking to some people in the back of church. The guy in line with us told us how that priest works on his own time schedule. We started chatting because he knew that we were American. Turns out that guy is the US Ambassador to the Czech Republic, appointed by his colleague, Trump. His name is Nicholas Merrick, and he told us about his career and he taught at a Catholic High School in Pittsburgh. He had a friend who taught at Bishop Alter in Dayton. Wow, this trip just keeps getting more interesting all the time.

On the way back to the Airbnb, we crossed the famous St. Charles Bridge which is lined with religious statues. That bridge and most of the heart of Prague is the place to be on a Saturday night!

Tony's Extras

I felt terrible when the fairing finally broke beyond repair. This is one of Joan's favorite part of the tandem. We get caught in rain now and she will be as wet as me.  In fairness to the fairing, I gave it three separate chances to retire gracefully.

First, I turned left and crashed without checking. Then I dropped it while attempting to reinstall it. Finally, I tried to take it up a ramp with a sharp turn, despite the fact that everyone (meaning Joan) involved knew there had to be a better idea.

That fairing survived crashes, repairs, and my decision-making process. It deserved a medal. Instead, it ended up in a trash can alongside a bike path.

Today's climbing was absolutely savage on the lungs and heart, but we survived. Tomorrow is a well-earned rest day before tackling 4,900 feet of climbing on Monday. Because apparently 3,200 feet today wasn't enough character building.