The river runs through it - paddling and cycling on the Vltava

The most vibrant European cities we have visited on this trip, including fairy tale Prague, have at least three common characteristics that make them eminently liveable. First, all have interconnected networks of cycle paths into, out of, and around the core. Prague has included bike lanes in the design of its newer bridges

and has come up with an innovative way of making busy roads safe for cyclists. Normally a parked car is a cyclist's greatest foe due to the threat from carelessly opened doors. Instead, Prague traffic planners have effectively removed the threat of dooring by providing greater visibility for both cyclists and drivers, and has made the parked cars actually serve to protect cyclists from busy traffic. A win-win situation - no more need to fight over whether to have parking or bike lanes!! 

Secondly, the excellent public transit systems in these great cities enhance the efficiency and beauty of the urban areas they serve. Prague has an extensive network of trams, old and new,

and buses that we made great use of - giving the bikes a break for a couple of days since riding in the centre on cobblestone through crowds of people was difficult - but our favourite was the subway. 

Each station that we saw was decorated in a common style 

but with different metallic-tinged colours. 

The escalators were sky high.

Paul and I both have a mild aversion to heights so held on tight and avoided looking down.

Finally, the cities on our route all make maximum use of their waterfronts. Unlike Toronto's condos and expressways which block public access to our own beautiful lake, European cities celebrate their rivers and fill the waterside space with parks, promenades and cafes. Prague was no exception, and after first enjoying the Vltava river (known as the Moldau in English) by cycling on its banks, we were able to tent alongside it. The campsite was next to a whitewater kayaking school that had partitioned part of the river into a series of rapids the kids watched with rapt interest. Despite the quietness of the site it was a short walk from a tram that took us into the centre for dinner at a great restaurant serving delicious Czech food.

Visitors and residents alike cruised the river on various pleasure craft, stopping at tiny stalls providing beer and coolers for thirsty boaters. As I mentioned in my last post, Marty, Sam and Ben met us in Prague, sharing an apartment with us for three nights to the great delight of the kids. One sunny afternoon the eight of us rented paddleboats and picnicked in them while sightseeing in the harbour. We indulged Tom and got a classic car for our expedition, 

while Jacob joined Marty's crew in the standard model. 

It was a gorgeous sunny afternoon and so lovely to wile away the hour on the water, while getting another perspective on Prague's beautiful buildings.

Prague fully lived up to its reputation as a breathtaking city, but crowded with tourists. Paul and I woke up early one morning to wander the streets before everyone else woke up,

and watched the shadows on the buildings melt away as the sun rose higher in the sky.

Though during the main part of the day the inner streets were crowded with people like us snapping photos,

it was easy to find some space outside of the central square. We marvelled at the towering white arches of St. Vitus cathedral, 

wandered around the castles, up to the mini tour eiffel built for some reason on the top of Prague, and escaped the crowds by venturing to farmer's markets and parks. 

Being with Marty, Ben and Sam was the biggest highlight of all. 

Kyra loved carrying Sam through the city 

and along the river,

while Tom found Sam was morphing from a cute little baby 

to a companion in exploration 

and a worthwhile adversary in soccer. Our final night the kids went on their own (escorted to and picked up by Marty and co) to the cinema around the corner to see Minions, which they talked about for days, while Paul and I went to the riverside for another outdoor film festival, this one showing the tense sci-fi flick Ex Machina as the full moon shone on a church on the hill and glinted off the black water. The Czech teenagers behind us gave us their blanket to sit on, asked us afterwards how we enjoyed the movie and apologized for the loud drunken commentary of the patrons next to us, saying "well we don't know them, but that's Prague!".

Leaving a great apartment and a wonderful city behind is always a little hard, but it was made much easier by the fact that Marty and family were joining us on for two days on their rental bikes.

In the morning we cycled off along the Vltava and north to Melnik, for what turned out to be the portaging section of our trip. To avoid a steep highway detour we chose to follow the unfinished path along the river, which became narrower and narrower until it was a mere dirt track through the bushes. 

It ended at a railway bridge which we had to carry our bikes up to before crossing to the other side of the river, which we hoped would be smoother. Unfortunately while the track was wider it was also completely sandy, easy for the many dirt bikers who sped past us but very difficult with fully loaded bikes, especially the tandem. Paul, Tom and I walked most of that stretch of 2 km (sounds like not much but felt like a lot!) until we hit more solid ground. After that the path was dreamy - completely paved and solely for bikes.

We crossed the Vltava on tiny ferries 

and passed by fields of hops soon to be made into Czech's famous brews.

We ended up in the town of Melnik, having pizza at the campground restaurant together before retiring to sleep in our tent (us) and barrel (Marty, Ben and Sam).

We savoured a few more precious moments together on a walk through Melnik the next morning,

looking out over the confluence of the Vltava and the Elbe rivers,

before having one last cycle and a picnic lunch together.

A final fierce hug for Sam,

and a photo for the adults in a rare moment without kids,

and we said good-bye as Marty, Ben and Sam headed back to Melnik and the rest of us headed off on the Elbe for more riverside adventures!

A Tale of Two Cities: the fruitful journey between Vienna and Prague

Before going to Vienna I had a picture of it in my mind - a city of elegance and classical music. We saw the elegance in the castles and monuments,

and baroque buildings,

and experienced the classical music, at an organ concert at St. Peter's church, and a violin piano duo in the atrium of the House of Music,

but what I hadn't imagined was that Vienna was also a giant beach party town. As soon as we reached the city's outskirts the parks started.

The Danube Insel (island) stretches for miles down the middle of the Danube and from our path along it we could see people swimming across the Danube to the banks on either side. After spotting one particularly active beach we crossed the bridge to stop and jump in the famous river. The heatwave we have been experiencing in Europe means we take every chance we can to have a dip to cool off. Continuing along the path into Vienna proper we passed countless picnics, nightclubs and cafes,

and stopped to watch waterskiiers jump off ramps,

while wakeboarders nearby were attached to automated lines that zigzagged them across the water at high speed.

We stayed our first night at an extremely busy campground where partigoers put on makeup and miniskirts before venturing into town for the nightlife. In the morning we cycled through a cool tunnel bridge 

to our rental apartment, two minutes away from Belvedere Palace.

A short cycle ride away was Schonbrunn palace, whose magnificent interior we glimpsed through the windows but skipped touring due to the 90 minute wait. 

We opted instead to see the garden and navigate the mazes built for the amusement of the Hapsburg royalty and their guests.

In between bouts of sightseeing the kids cooled off in one of the city's many fountains.

For our evening entertainment we looked up outdoor movie listings and found that Guardians of the Galaxy was playing at a rooftop cinema. We figured it would be in English since it was part of a summer film festival that screened movies in their original versions. We went early to the venue to make sure we could get seats and discovered a bar and a charming little restaurant, where Paul and I quaffed beer and kir royale and we dined on schnitzel, quinoa salad and gnocchi.

Instead of a fourth wall the building had a set of steps all the way down to the street below, 

so from our table we could watch as patrons materialized head first on their climb up to the roof.

The film turned out to be dubbed in German to the initial chagrin of the kids, but we decided to stay and watch anyways. Fortunately a Marvel superhero movie needs no translation - the action said it all - and we all had a terrific time -the staff even brought us free popcorn. The kids quoted their favourite lines in German ("Ich bin Groot") for the next few days. Paul and I ventured out on our own the next night (the kids stayed home in Jacob's charge - he emailed us from the ipad to keep in touch) to catch a few minutes of another outdoor festival - this one a Frank Sinatra film shown on a giant screen at the Rathaus, with hundreds of people in attendance - and then sampled Sachertorte on a nearby patio. Cycling home we passed through the courtyard of the Museum Quartier where hipsters played bocce ball and lounged on some dual purpose sculptures/street furniture. Such a great scene, and no money required!

We were able to extend our time in the city by an additional night thanks to an offer from Tim, a friend of Hajar and Michael's (the warmshowers hosts who we had stayed with in Wasserburg). Tim, who had previously travelled by bike from Turkey to Vienna with zero money in his pocket (his choice, with only a credit card for emergencies), took us on an amazing cycle tour around the city. He met us at the Prater amusement park, where we had gone for a spin on the hundred year old ferris wheel, 

then took us through the rest of the beautiful green Prater park. Vienna seems to be a highly liveable city, packed with parks, playgrounds, and beautiful pools. There is even a "badenschiff" - a boat with a swimming pool and a bar on board - which we passed during our tour, along with countless cafes, a giant old bunker (one of several in the city from WWII that had been kept as a historical monument), and riverside scenery, both urban

and natural. Jacob scared me with his foray right to the edge

(I yelled at him right after I took this photo).

Tim finished off our Vienna experience by cooking us delectable marillonknodels - a kind of sweet dumpling - that his girlfriend had made from scratch using apricots she had picked a few days earlier, then gave us the keys to his apartment for the night while he stayed at his girlfriend's house. Another example of the wonderful hospitality people have shown us.

It was hard not to fall in love with the amazing contrasts of Vienna - the great public life, the classical beauty, the graffiti that transformed concrete underpinnings into works of graphic art (every pillar had a different massive painting on it), 

the playful design touches,

and the terrific bicycle paths. We had our own freeway bridge taking us reluctantly out of town the next morning, 

away from the vibrant city and straight into quiet countryside.

The next part of our route followed the Czech Greenway, an official cycle route that we knew almost nothing about, save that it went from Vienna to Prague. 

Armed with a map and one page of difficult to pronounce Czech phrases, we headed off, and discovered that cycling in the Czech Republic was quite different than our prior easy trails.  

For one thing, there were actual hills - up until that point we had mostly been cycling through flat terrain and river valleys, but on our second day in Czech we had some serious climbs, up dirth path and rocky terrain that forced us to walk our bikes. 

The ups and downs continued for the next several days, though the thrilling descents made up for the punishing ascents.

Our first two days through gorgeous fields of wheat 

and sunflowers

were accompanied by the last of the July heatwave with hot heavy weather, sometimes blazing sun and sometimes humid and cloudy,

so still that at times the ubiquitous windmills had completely stopped. I took a picture to show it then realized that windmills are always stopped in pictures, doh! 

After that the weather changed, and we were forced to contend with some headwinds along with the hills, particularly challenging for Kyra, 

but also a trial for Paul, whose imprecations to Tom to please pedal to lessen the burden of the tandem bike fell on deaf ears much of the time. 

Unlike the super busy Danube trail, there were very few touring cyclists on the route. Those that we did see were generally racing cyclists or people out for a short ride just outside of the small towns. We were often alone on the roads, whose surfaces ran the gamut from cobblestone and heavily degraded farm tracks (more pothole than road), 

to somewhat

or barely maintained dirt track,

to completely smooth highways where we travelled with very few cars.

The Czech Republic must be undertaking a serious infrastructure program, because besides excellently paved but little used roads we regularly came across sections of road that were closed for improvements, unfortunately at key points in our path. We stopped paying attention to the closures and just rode on through, 

only once confronting actual steamrollers at work (not these ones though, they were sitting vacant),

who we bypassed by cutting through the field next to the road. The kids were appalled at our lawlessness but most of the closures were for small sections of track, with detours, if they were posted at all, that would have required backtracking and too many additional unwanted kilometres. 

We had been told that signage in the country left much to be desired, but were pleasantly surprised by how good it actually was, directing us easily between 

and through towns.

More information was provided by loud broadcasts over the speakers set in many of the villages,

of what sort or importance we have no idea - all we knew was that it was loud and fervent - possibly warning villagers to avoid the crazy Canadian cyclists?

Camping in the Czech republic was another new experience. People in the small towns knew very little English (though more than we knew Czech) so we communicated in our laughable German. We had trouble finding campsites, ending up at a soccer field one night in Sedlec-Prcice. An ancient looking sign for a sports field also had a tent symbol on it, but when we ventured to the site there was no sign of campers, just a football match. The owner grudgingly gave us permission to camp there (for free), and when I bought him a beer from the little stall for spectators (no matter how small the field or few the spectators there are always drinks to be had) he cheered up and told us he'd leave the bar bathrooms open for us all night. Once the match was over we had the field to ourselves 

though not the main soccer pitch, which like other soccer pitches we came across was lovingly tended and bright green.

Another night we travelled along a tiny path to a spot where our map promised a campground,

but it failed to materialize. We set off again without knowing exactly where we'd go next, 

and were stopped by a man in a truck who asked us where we were going and where we were from. He ended up giving us directions to a campground a few km away, then invited us into his wine cellar just down our path. 

After a couple of glasses of wine and a tour of his cellar - behind the wooden doors - we went on our way with a bottle of white he insisted on giving us for the road. 

Most of the campgrounds we had to ourselves,

but that solitude was entirely absent at in Vlanasky Plaz, a lakeside resort campground crammed in all directions with tents and camper vans, as well as restaurants, bars and mini food stalls.

Our neighbours were a bunch of partiers with their own beer fridge, though they politely turned the music down at around midnight. It wasn't our favourite campground, but we had fun following the steps of the dance leader at the afternoon beach party (play Where's Waldo but with Tom).

We loved the beautiful Czech countryside, 

the hayfields,

the castles up close 

and spotted from afar,

the small villages with houses in various stages of decrepitude, 

and larger towns like Jindrichuv Hradec

and Tabor, with a 24 hour clock 

(google liked my photo and decided to stylize it for me). We did our food shopping in the larger towns, after discovering that small places had either nothing open (the stores in one town opened at 5 am and closed at 2) or just a tiny coop store with a few battered tomatoes and not much else, making for pretty poor picnics.

We travelled through many forests, one in a national park with scenic views and a long bridge that I crossed separately reading an ominous warning about the maximum capacity of the bridge that with our luggage I felt sure we were exceeding.

We were astounded at the fruit trees that were planted along almost every road and highway. We couldn't find good fruit in the stores, but there were apples and delicious ripe plums everywhere, 

and though most of the cherry trees were finished for the season, we came across one full of lusciously ripe red cherries 

that I stayed behind to pick and would probably still be there now if an extremely territorial wasp hadn't come out to send me on my way. One day's cycle even had a Canadian feel to it, through woods thick with blueberry bushes (no bears though!) that we picked with delight.

As in the rest of Europe we didn't see much wildlife (since there isn't much), but were initially attracted then slightly repulsed by a family of mammalian river creatures at one of our campsites, who we nicknamed the beaver rat 

because of its cute beaverlike face and body but ratlike tail which we spotted when it turned around. We googled it and found out it was a nutria, an invasive species that is native to South America (explaining its resemblance to the capybara) but is a scourge of wetlands in Europe and North America where it was introduced years ago and has since become a rampant pest.

Our approach to Prague was remarkable - we'd been dreading cycling with the traffic we assumed would come as we got closer to the city. Instead, once we were about 30 km away the greenway signs directed us to completely separated bicycle paths that went through the outskirts and into the forest. 

When we emerged, passing first through a hillside tunnel,

it was into the full glory of Prague's beauty, along the Vltava (Moldau) river. 

Even the kids, who normally aren't as enthusiastic as we are on arriving in a new city, were awestruck and charmed, uncomplaining despite the long journey and bumpy cobblestone path underfoot,

though what they were most excited about was seeing Marty, Ben and Sam, who arrived just in time for dinner.