On Blueberry Hill!

Saturday 7th September 2024. Beer Lovers Day?

Prague to Litomerice – 112km.

Thank you Prague for being a beautiful city but more importantly thank you for being a low crime city….my bike was still safe after 2 nights parked outside, near a tram stop.

I had a breakfast at the hostel at 7am and was away straight after. On a sunny morning it is so wonderful to be cycling before most of population is moving…and it is so nice to cycling when it’s cool.

I followed the Vltava river for quite a while.

I had one climb for the whole day and I got that over quite early. I arrived at Melnik before lunchtime.

It is also here that I had a lovely chat with three Dutch people.

I didn’t stay in Melnik because I have a long ride today and because it was up a hill. My next stop was interesting….

I arrived into Roudnice and Labem to find a Classic Car event was taking place in the main square. It was definitely lunchtime now.

The event had a jazz band playing

On the last stretch I found the town of Terezin (previously called Theresastadt after Empress Maria Theresa). It was a very thought provoking place. It was fully fortified by Maria Theresa’s son in the style of Frenchman Vauban and it was used to house the Habsburg Empire northern army.

However, it has later used in the First World War is a prison for political opponents. This area was part of Sudetenland, as I mentioned yesterday, and during the Second World War it was used for political prisoners but also as a Jewish Ghetto for up to 100,000 Jews. It wasn’t an execution camp but conditions were so bad that many thousands died and many thousands were sent to Auchwitz.

There is another interesting fact about the town. Gavrilo Princip was the Bosnian Serb, who assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand. He died of tuberculosis here whilst held in the Prison. This was the act that sparked the First World War! It’s not a happy place….but as I said, thought provoking.

Litomerice, the town of my destination, also has a nearby concentration camp where Jews and Political Prisoners were put to work in the Second World War but let’s not dwell! It is actually a very pretty place. Lots of churches and a vast public square.

I called into one of the lesser churches and found an Art Display….

I was desperately looking for an ice cream but instead….

The accommodation is convenient in town. There are other cyclists staying too. I think mainly German. There were certainly plenty of cyclists around today….probably because it’s Saturday and the area is flat.

Janice has booked her flights to Berlin to meet me for four nights in a weeks time. I just have to make sure I get there on schedule. It will be great to explore Berlin together. It’s a city neither of us have been to.

It has been a long cycle. The longest of the trip so far but not too draining. Some good sights, interesting places and still great weather. I think the weather is set to change on Monday but we shall see.