I apologize in advance for the length of this entry. But as you would assume from the title just a lot happend this week!
Also sorry for the delay, but again a lot happened!
So without further ado:
Saturday (22.04) began very early in the morning. Tanya had to pick up some stuff from Liberec, so she had to leave early. And even though she had offered for us to stay a bit longer, we decided to leave as well. We made some porridge, placed it in 2 containers and took it each on their own journey. Ours didn't survive very long as we looked for the next park bench and devoured it. After a quick stop at a DM to use their toilet we took off. Today we wanted to do kilometres as the next days were going to be hilly. And so we rode and rode and in the end did 80km! In the evening we rode through a few street towns and with no gardens to ask we wildcamped on top of a hill.
On Sunday (23.04) morning we woke up early, removed all evidence of our rest, took breakfast in peace and left doing a lot of downhill as we had made most of the climb yesterday.
We passed a few lakes and then rode/pushed something that while officially labeled a bike path resembled more a mudslide that even in dry condition would have been impossible to ride.
But after that it was all smooth road and in the evening we descended into Brno. Something we noticed was the big ammount of bikes rides on the well built parts of cycle infrastructure that were missing on the rest of the roads we rode. Seems they all took their cars to ride their road bikes out of the cities they live in. A sight that is typical of cities with failed bike infrastructure, or should I say of a city built for cars and not for the humans inhabiting it.
And so after a stressful ride into the city we met Silvia, a friend of a friend of my sisters who was taking us in for the next days. To relax a bit we took to our feet and had a small walk through the city.
Monday (24.04.) was our day off! And as we always do on days off, we visited a planetarium. But before we get to that, it's time to highlight something else! It's the public transport in Brno, which is the best we have seen so far! Our first interaction was when we were looking at it through the internet and we realized that getting a ticket is super easy! You can buy it over the internet, but also with cash on the machines that are placed at the stations. If that is too complicated you can buy one over SMS or just by tapping your credit card in the tram. And if you descend within the first 15 minutes, you can tap again and only get charged for a short trip! Else the ticket is valid for 60 minutes with as many pauses as you need. 20 minutes to the supermarket, 20 minutes groceries and 20 minutes back? No problem! Even better, as long as you get on the tram before minute 60, you're good. Even if you ride for an hour! Another fantastic consideration is, that you don't have to buy a day pass. If you buy your fourth ticket of the day, you only get charged for the difference to a daily pass! And finally the price: 25kr (~1€) for a ride. With the tram running every 6-8 minutes, no wonder everyone is using it!
And so did we to visit our 15th planetarium: the planetarium Brno!
Soon after Ida explained our story someone showed up, to show us around. Around the observatorium they had, the exposition of astrophotography printed on huge canvases with backlighting which made the stars seem extra glowy, and their old planetarium with the ZKP1 and finally the big projection system that even had 3D! As far as I understood with a projector showing everything at 120 Hz and active glasses allowing 60 Hz to each eye.
And then we got to see a show about the region Moravia which they had made themselves using a drone equipped with a fish eye. And based on the shots, it's imperative that I file my taxes to get one myself. And after a bit more of chatting, the planetarium was closing and so we had to say goodbye.
We then raced on foot down to Petrov cathedral to see a kind of dissapointing inside, more so given the spectacular outside.
And while we walked back home, we did some groceries to make dinner, only to realize we had forgotten that Silvia had been to the dentist and couldn't join us. I guess soup would have been better...
On Tuesday (25.04) we left early with Silvia. By now we had realized that behind Brno it was going to be flat till Bratislava. A surprising change given the hillyness just before Brno! And so we followed the EV9 till the lakes we had seen in the Moravia show just yesterday.
In between it started raining on us, but luckily we were able to hide in a bus station till it stopped just 10 minutes later.
A few kilometres more and we were in Austria, and just like that the road improved!
At some point the EV13 (the iron curtain trail) took us next to a rail line, but given the surface and the emptiness of the main road, we prefered to take the latter.
And as it was dawning we asked at the last house of a little town where Leopold kindly accepted our request to camp in his garden. He then offered us to sleep inside where he had a few matresses but we refused as kind as the offer was. The offer for a warm cup of tea we couldn't refuse and one thing led to an other so we ended having dinner with more toast than we could say no to.
Now you're probably thinking: Wait we're about to start Wednesday (26.04) and this article has been really short and not too much has happened other than your rambling about about the Brno tram... Well that's about to change!
We woke up to Leopolds offer for breakfast. And what a breakfast it was! And it was accompanied by a chat about the former border situation for Leopold as a train conductor.
Full of energy we continued down the Moravia river till Schloß Hof which sadly costs 20€ entry even if you just want to have a peak at the garden. And so, instead, we watched the ground squirrels sunbathe and looked at the garden over the walls.
The border crossing was spectacularly unspectacular. A weird bridge with just a line showing were the two countries met.
On the other side a few czech hedgehogs and a bunker reminded us of older times, when crossing the border wasn't as easy.
It wasn't very far till Devin and the ruins of it's castle overseeing the end of the Moravia river as it flowed into the Danube.
And so we followed the EV13 again, sometimes next to the Danube on a perfect bike lane and then sometimes surprisingly on the main road without even a shoulder, till we fot to Bratislava. We quickly took a first glance at the city and then went to the cyclokuchyna (velo kitchen) to meet Tomaš. Tomaš had answered on WS that we could not host us as he was taking in a couple already, but that we should come by the velokitchen and we would find someone to take us in there. The place was awesome and after 5 minutes, I had ridden a tall bike and had second one that had to be fixed for the mass. For those that don't know: a critical mass (short mass) is a mixture of protest and a party. It's a big (or small) ammount of cyclists who ride together with (or without) music through a city just to show "we're here, we're part of traffic". Usually it takes place once a month on a Friday at 19 o'clock, but if you search for " critical mass" and the name of your city, you'll find out when and where!
Together with Thomas (not to be confused with Tomaš, this one is French and English) we shortened and rerouted the chain and immediately tested it. A bit wobbly but functional I promissed Tomaš that I would ride it during the mass and in exchange we could join Thomas in Tomašes garden.
To shorten then article a bit Thursday (28.04.) is not going to be a long one. As we waited for fridays mass, we took a day off with Thomas to explore the city proper. We walked up the Slavin, grocery shopped, talked at the tourist attractions and ended up chilling in the park.
At night we made pasta for the 6 of us, but not before getting some real tacos al pastor. While talking with the dutch lady that had arrived that evening, we heard a lot of complaints about the cycling in Vienna. If they are founded or not, you'll probably figure out in the next blog!
Friday (29.04.) was go day. But not until 17 o'clock so we slept in. Well as long as you can sleep in in a tent. After getting breakfast in the city we met up at the kitchen for preparations. And there we met Katastropha: the self-proclaimed grandma of the mass, she couldn't ride herself but helped out were she could, for example by cooking. Thanks to our cargo bike we had brought down a lot of ingredients with us and so with a bunch of bike messangers we moved not only Katastropha, but a stove, a gigantic bowl, a generator and a huge ammount of EUR pallets for a bonefire. The moving alone was a lot of fun as you could hitchhike cargo bikes in both directions.
Starting the mass I immediately fell once as someone had breaked hard infront of me, so I had no chance dismounting. But the rest went smoothely!
In between the riding there were small stops with with talks as it was the masses 13th birthday. And there was even a skater routine!
By the end as we went over a bridge to the party I realized that the tallbike was indeed tall and my feet were of the height of the railling, which isn't the best position for your feet to be if your goal is to not fall of a bridge. Thankfully Ida helped me keep a lot of space and so I safely made it across. Aparently Tomaš, who decided the route, had had the same line of thought, because when he first saw me, he kissed me on the cheek and said he had been worried and was so happy I didn't fall of the bridge!
A few beers and a soup from Katastropha later, we accompanied her to her taxi by taking her on the cargo bike and said goodbye to Thomas who went back to the party, before we cycled back home because tomorrow we wanted to leave early for Vienna.