Prague Museum - Karlin

The district of Karlin in Prague, just east of the tourist centre, has an interesting history, and for me its is where the Museum of Prague is located. Tourists are rare here, the area run-down, so I had the freedom to explore it at my leisure.

The sign said no photos, but we all understand the drill here.

Amongst its notable achievements it is where the foundations of German and Czech primary and secondary schooling were started. The museum is undergoing external renovations, there are more friendly staff than tourists, and I commend it to you - the story follows.

Prague - day 1: The Castle

Prague Castle is the dominant attraction. Nothing else comes close. Now I don't do crowds well which is why I travel after the peak season and ride my bike. But Prague is one of those cities I felt I needed to see what all the fuss is about knowing it is always crowded here except when the snow is too deep.

Armed with my Prague Card entitling me (be careful and be warned) to lots of free access for the price of 980 crowns for 3 days, I ventured over the Charles II Bridge up to the Castle.

For those not familiar - this is not a single impressive building - it is a large collection of buildings as a self contained fortified town of its own spanning the top of the hill. Mostly walking around the site is free, with the Prague Card entitling you to free access to some of the buildings. Of course people everywhere.

One of the not free buildings is the Lobkowiz Palace. Nearly empty of people and containing many treasures that tell the story of this most central and powerful of dynasties of Prague for about 4 centuries. The family lost everything during WW2 and escaped to the USA. After the war they got it all back only to lose it again in 1948, and then to get most back after 1989. The audio guide superb. The rare manuscripts are just a draw card for some - the collection and the story it tells is vastly more.

Later to the Prague Museum (separate post - not in the Castle) but on the way I thought I would have some Old Prague Ham that is sold at many of the street stalls. I know it is a bit pricey but I am a bit partial to baked ham. I will say more of this in the comment section.

Reaching Prague

The ride to Prague was relaxed, plenty of time and uneventful being a gentle 60 kms either flat-ish or down. I followed R3 most of the way on good roads and paths, although the final bit being the A1 variant into the city centre one of those common events of seeing the daggy bits of great cities first.

So a bit of a status update after day 17 of the intended 84:

• no Egyptian fenugreek in the salads so still healthy
• the niggling left knee damaged in training not quite right, except on the bike when it is near flawless
• the new tubus lowrider front pannier racks, found at the 8th bike shop in Nurnberg, are great as they are, and will be greater if I could have half and hour in someone's fully equipped shed. With a few kg moved to the front, against the advice of John Kennedy, the resonant frequency of the bike has increased, the centre of gravity moved further forward so the front tyre does a bit of work, and overall handling much improved
• got back in the rythym of using the Garmin GPS 60CSx in conjunction with maps, and looking. The technique in these eastern block countries where the map data is a bit light on requires some change. Noticeably, the auto routing function occasionally mimics the notable story of the BMW owner who was so pleased with the new toy he followed his GPS advice blindly over a cliff.
• all the other bits ok but 1 or 2 might be sacrificed on the theory of no free rides on this trip
• a reader has asked for some clarification on the ABC. They are in fact a sub-group of GORM which is not anarchic, but a fully authoritarian and highly structured group, with the ABC comprising more than half of GORM membership. If this is not clear, some explanation: initially you might have thought that "half" was a precise term, and "more than" a vague indicative expression. However as you will now know quite the reverse applies. As we are clearly only talking about all real numbers in the range 0 to 1, and from a previous post "half" includes all numbers between 0 and 1, then simply "more than" can only be equal to 1 or "all of" and is thus a precise term.

Now there is Prague to see next - the city of endless beauty and endless repetitive fast food stalls all only selling about 4 different foods, and the youth on endless pub crawls where beauty is not a criterion.

Here for 3 days and 4 nights, then north to Dresden, Berlin, then west all the way to Aachen, then a re-assessment of the weather.

For the ABC, and Dobrý den Czechs

The day began with a visit after breakfast to the Rathaus in Eslarn and I obtained good maps. The walk to the Rathaus was past an active indoor cattle barn common in Europe to winter the cattle and keep fresh dairy supplies all year - this barn was in the middle of town with no external grazing land nearby. It had cattle indoors today and the season is far from cold so perhaps they have a permanent life indoors?

I suspect of more interest is their fire brigade.

The original idea of going 107 or 97 or some other no of kms to Plzen was adjusted to a shorter ride to Stribro. This choice in part because of the great photos in the guide book that had the maps, and partly Plzen was estimated to be a stretch too far if I was too keep stopping and taking photos. (I am working on a new idea about sharing some more of them).

By the Pan Europa R37 path Stribro would have been perhaps about 80 km but I will never know nor anyone else. The Pan Europa (I was not going to go on about this again but I am today) in the Czech Republic is Route 37 till Plzen, with so far comprehensive signs. However from just after entering this country R37 was another goat track for a while so for the most part I was not on R37 but on rural roads. Quiet, near deserted, perfect pavement condition and clean, 4 to 6 metres wide and much more direct than R37. The last section to Stribro was a classic - 12 kms of rough track with bone jarring surface occasionally for what I saw of the first few hundred metres (and I do not have a mountain bike) averaging perhaps 10 kms/hr and seeing the occasional wild deer or lost cow, or, 6 kms in under 20 minutes at 20 km/hr ++ on perfect pavement with hardly a car to see. For christ's sake!

For the GORM-ABC (Grumpy Old Railway Men's - Anarchic Bicycle Collective) the Czech Republic should fit well after the warm up to Bendigo. More active railway lines here than the Victorian Government Railway in its heyday. A wonderful day's ride, easy pedalling except the quite occasional short steep bits, scenic and lots of places to stop on the way. Great quiet bicycle paths (including their great rural roads without cars if I navigate) and about the most atheist nation in Europe. And apparently big on chimney climbing. For this most picturesque of countries with the remnants of near total christianity everwhere like the rest of Europe, at some stage they too like GORM-ABC embraced anarchy and let their Emperors of old know that their christianity has no clothes - they saw the light and decided for themselves that christianity was a charade. This place might grow on me, but it is only 1 day so far.

For the other reader who might be curious, the ABC has a small number of members - one who is selective on the use of his money and still owns a perfectly functional low-cost car slightly more recent than the FJ Holden and borrows his son's bike, another asked my advice on buying a bike and ingnored it, and another who possibly accepted my advice but has not bought a bike. Another member in training curious about how a request for advice fits in with anarchy. Each day new adventures if they can at least purport to agree on a ride and complete it before they disagree.

The destination for the day had been changed to Stribro and I stuck to that choice. I am riding alone remember. So about 14:30 I arrived there after perhaps one of my slowest days rides, occasionally stopping to update my route, but for the most part just pootling along and sucking it all in. Lunch in a cafe in probably a former monastry now being spruced up as a hoped-for tourist attraction. I was the only eater except for friends of the waitress and a workman.

On arrival at Stribro it appeared that in the guide book I had been following the remnants of the Late Moravian Empire's Cultural Preservation and Promotion Unit had photoshoped a few of the images from their archive. The place looked tired and I seemed the only tourist in town. (see next post on breakfast). But I have a photo - the dates in the second enlarge - about 1111 to 1427.

For those that were not paying attention during their middle ages classics classes: The Czech region was inhabited by the Celtic tribe Boii for the first 4 centuries of the first millennium. The Celts gave way to post-Roman Germanic tribes. Later, Slavs arrived and, in the 9th century they founded the Great Moravian Empire, stretching from Germany to the Ukraine. After the fall of Great Moravia the Bohemian Kingdom was formed, creating a territorial unit almost identical to the modern Czechia. The rise of the Habsburgs led to Czechia becoming a part of the Austrian Empire, and later Austro-Hungarian Empire, and a massive influx of German immigrants. It too has the remnants of good technology but the mass eviction of Germans after WW2 didn't help.

Note: The 40 Germanic nations did not get together to form anything till 1871 when the German Empire was formed after a lot of war.

For the most part my sources might be a bit dodgy, so readers should make their own enquiries - comments welcome if someone is a bit niggled about something.

The day's odd spot: At the border are the decaying remains of the former 2 border controls (a German and a Czech !) about 100 metres apart and for the last few decades completely free unmonitored border crossing. In between is a near new large tax free shop and some older small tax free souvenir places. What gives? But then the scenery unfolded.

The Roast Chicken Van

From Hirschau to Eslarn was 62 kms nearly all by excellent quiet roads and including the highest hills so far. Virtually none on the cycle path. With a laden touring bike the apparent grade is the actual grade magnified about 25% so a bit weary tonight as my fitness is still adjusting. Some of the ups pushing my limits, but the downs some wonderful effortless windchilling at 55 kph. The effort put into climbing the hills ( as in potential energy) is not all useful on the downs because of the non-linearity of aerodynamic drag and our own personnally defined boundary conditions on max and min speed. 62 kms was a reasonable day.

Near the church another Camino de Santiago de Compostella stone and route maps through the region.

Many tiltles came to mind for this story. The first was "remembering Neil". Back a few days whilst meandering through Furth before Nurnberg, on an average road and not where I wanted to be, I could hear a truck approaching from behind and as it moved on another large noise behind so I just decided without looking to flick the bike right, onto the narrow footpath, and within seconds a large tractor and trailer went by. This morning, just after starting the ride, and as the multi-purpose path was excellent, I was on it, and just then another large tractor with trailer. It was back in 2008 somewhere just south of here on the Donau Radweg, that Neil, a North American and the elder statesman of our Orient Express ride, fell under a tractor and thanks to German medicine, he has survived and made a good recovery I hear.

Another possibility was The QantasLink Hostess who on the Canberra-Sydney flight would have a habit of scoring each landing out of 10. You see I was wondering about a score for this Pan Europa bike route. But as it is still a work in progress that would be premature to score as I would be unkind. And it also brought to mind my youthful understanding of what Qantas, and then Lufthansa, are acronyms for, so I thought better of it.

But it was in Wernberg-Koblitz about 30 kms into the day that a bit of clarity occurred. Whilst riding through the centre of town the strong smells of roast chicken wafted past and as I slowed to notice the roast chicken van I also noticed Backerei Melinger which was the sort of place I was really looking for. The owner spoke a very good version of english-canadian English. Apparently this town was the place for much recent fanfare where the politicians announced the official opening of the Pan Europa Paris Prague Radweg. The route is on my map in red like all the other major established bicycle routes that cover the country.

But the opening WAS like, when in 1948, the Prime Minister Ben Chifley in 1949 at Adaminaby announced the official opening of the Snowy Mountains Hydro Scheme: viz construction had just begun and then we knew (well not me at the time as my understanding of english was very slight) what opening meant. That would turn out to be a wonderful project with much great technical challenges and as we subsequently saw, much technical development. (Unlike our recent small minded smarty-pants scheming prime minister John Howard who liked to call the Adelaide-Darwin railway project a modern "Snowy" project where there was no "development", no great challenges, a financial misadventure of a large kind, and no residual value:- there is no comparison).

It was NOT like when Premier Lang opened the Sydney Harbour Bridge in 1932 and you could then drive your car and ride your bikes over it.

The Pan Europa currently is a connecting sequence of paths, roads and goat tracks, and is under construction. The Backerei owner pointed me in the direction of the Rathaus (as in rat for information or advice) also known as the Mayor's house or simply town hall where she promised me there would be all the maps and information I needed to get me to Prague. Alas it was not to be but was useful and gave maps and the route I followed today. They also said Eslarn, from where I have just had dinner in the Gasthaus, was a popular tourist town, and their Rathaus would be very useful, and had lots of accommodation. This place it turns out is the only accommodation I could find but it is terrific.

The Rathaus is closed in the afternoon when all cyclists arrive.

So for dinner. There was myself and 3 couples of the traditional type - 2 together and the 3rd separate, all drinking beer from the traditional 0.5 L size mugs - no wine. The separate couple hardly said a word and spent the whole evening reading their own magazines. Would they be further round the marriage-go-round than the others? At least it was peaceful in the dining room and the waiter as good as you need.

For some reason I won't delay you for, the waiter gave me without asking a heated schnapps/liquor drink - exquisite! And the paprika schnitzel the best and with no fried bread crumbs.

Czech Republic now just a few kms away - perhaps 5 and Plzen 107 by some route.

the London Cartographer, Struggling, Blackbirds

Day 13 and I rode 85 kms to the only hotel in Hirschau - the Schlosshotel. A Monday, and there were 4 or us travellers, of some sort, alone at dinner. Disconnected in a way from the locals. There were 8 of them - middle aged men who had probably been coming here all their drinking life. For the usual beer fuelled inane conversation. And the barmaid of similar age who could not speak any Englisch, but somehow I got a bier and a delectable main course and an Apfelstrudel like no other - as in it did not appear like any I had eaten before.

The 8 drinking men and the waitress had some undetected rapport as the bier was provided when needed with each of the drinkers clearly having their own specific needs, as well as several rounds of the local firewater that required more bier chasers. All whilst I quietly without common language had dinner and departed a little weary after the day having appreciated the inanity as I could not understand a word.

The day had started cold and overcast and stayed that way all day. My first day on the PPP for which I reminded myself - no expectations. The path in parts was first class with wide, perhaps 3 to 4 m, sealed and smooth pavement and lots of signs so only a few minor deviations. In other parts not quite a Pan European path. Some sections were rough gravel or single file dirt tracks and circuitous. This path is in high-status red on the adfc map.

Sulzbach-Rosenberg a larger town during the day and was on a distinct berg. Otherwise I became increasingly surrounded by them. It is now hilly Bavaria, the small towns well kept but virtually life-less as I passed through.

When I first looked for routes to Prague the most recognised seemed to be from Vienna or Regensburg; both I thought too far south and more circuitous than I wanted. The premier German cycling body the "adfc" had shown a route from Bamberg via Bayreuth but the connecting route in the Czech Republic did not look well defined. And so the Paneuropa Paris Prague ( or Paneuropa Radweg, or PAN) was chosen at it had the apparent credentials and seemingly a defined path. It is now clear the PPP is a work in progress. (photo). Like the London Cartographers of old who laid out national boundaries and town streets without touching foot in the places, so the route today seemed to have the same genesis. As the day unfolded and the average speed low with time ticking away, I left the recognised route and selected my own direct one along minor roads, or so I thought. But there it was within a few hundred metres, not a PPP but just another local bike path beside my chosen road directly to this hotel. So rather than meandering around the place at 15 or 20 km on unsealed tracks I was rocking along down this new path at 30 to 40 km/hr. Someone should tell them.

Arriving about 3.40 just as the sun briefly broke through the clouds - it had been struggling all day to do this and warm me up a bit. All in all, not a bad ride. And not for the first time I had noticed that on glass doors and windows that people might accidently crash into (whilst walking), the Germans place stickers of blackbirds rather than the more familiar to me non-descript graphic. They do lift the tone

The hotel manager gave some clues to the route and hotels ahead. The next few days could be the most exploratory of the entire trip and with an unfamiliar language as well. It should come as no surprise that the bicycle touring crowd I have seeing constantly until now are now gone. I was virtually the only touring rider all day except for a few small groups coming the other way in the afternoon.

Germanisches Museum

A photo album should unfold if you click the photo, I hope.

110918GMsm

Germanic National Museum

Mid 1800s somebody established this most important respository to record the life and culture of the 40 German speaking nations that became the unified German Nation about that time, being much larger than the current one.

It was given an underutilised double cloistered monastery, that was severely destroyed in the 2nd WW and rebuilt with quite appealing additions in the Bauhaus style. All artifacts were saved in WW2 in beer cellars etc.

Again Camino appears - I have only been here about 11 days and this is the third time.

There is a collection on Bourgeois Culture - The centre piece is a bicycle (the backdrop not well seen is a huge 8m x 5m painting) and the keen observer will notice the handbrake handle is missing.

A famous wood carving

Musical instruments in large numbers and variety.

Many works by Germany's most celebrated
painter

And the world's oldest globe, and it omits the Americas with a single ocean between Europe and Asia.

Deutsche Bahn Museum

Deutsche Bahn

Bahn means railway or rail track. Autobahn is a rail track but for cars hence motorway

Steam locomotives main driving wheels were about 2 m diameter and required their steel tyres to be replaced. These were heavy. The smaller non-driving wheels also needed tyres.

The museum had a large section on stations and station shops. Rail travel was a complete experience for all classes of society and for all purposes.

Just a sample to indicate that for the Germans, bicycles, trains and cars are all fundamental parts of life.