Why is cycling in the Czech Republic so good?
Cycling in the Czech Republic on EuroVelo 9.
It’s a little-known fact, but the Czech Republic is a utopian destination for cycle touring, with great infrastructure, beautiful landscapes and cheap living. Yes, there are lots of hills, but not everywhere. Choose the right route and you can find a comfortable tour to suit every taste.
I was reminded of this recently as my girlfriend took it upon herself to cycle the EuroVelo 9 this summer and I decided to join her for the part across the Czech Republic. Together we set off from Wroclaw (Breslau in German) and spent 4 days making our way to the Austrian border just outside of Vienna.
The Great Roads and Landscape of the Czech Republic
As we crossed the border from Poland into the Czech Republic, the improvement in road quality was instantaneous and enduring. Czech country roads are as universally well maintained as Polish ones are potholed and neglected. What’s more, many of these smooth ribbons of tarmac are deserted. You could count on your hands the number of cars we passed between the border and lunch at Jesenik (50km in).
The political border is also reflected in the landscape. Southern Poland is very flat and the Czech Republic begins with the first climbs. Largely empty, pine-forested rolling hills and low mountains make up the bulk of Czechia. These high ranges are punctuated by a couple of rivers and river-plains (the Elbe and the Vltava + tributaries), that tend to be more populated and have more sights of interest/towns and cities.
Why are the roads in Czechia so good?
Much time was spent speculating why Czech roads were so much better. What led to this success? Is it a proud culture of motoring, perhaps inspired by the famous Skoda brand? Is it to do with the difficulties of navigating such a precipitous landscape? Or is it just about better functioning administrative structure? (Apparently in Poland the road system is maintained by local authorities who will often provide good roads only to the edge of their administrative jurisdiction. In Poland, small towns with good roads can sometimes only be reached along gravel tracks).
Cycling in the Czech Republic
The quality of the cycling infrastructure does not stop at smooth roads. Czechia also has a great network of cycling routes and signage. Little yellow signs reliably guide the cyclist through the country on 44 different long-distance routes, with hundreds of shorter local routes along the way too. (There is a codex to the numbering of these routes which I wish I had known about before I started!).
In addition, there are many kilometres of cycle-only tarmac paths laid down through some of the more popular routes. The Elbe Radweg being the prime example. Apparently, Czechia has spent over 500 million € on cycling infrastructure in the last twenty years, and it shows.
Cycling in the Javorový vrch national park
After Jesenik we immediately cut into a big climb through the Javorový vrch national park, up and over Czech’s second highest mountain range. Once again, a continuous mix of traffic-free smooth roads and dedicated cycle paths took us there. Like in all Czech ascents, we never made it over the treeline, but the calm pleasure of making our way through sun-dappled pine forests was a joy. The temperature just right for a long climb, though perhaps a tad chilly on the way down. With 150km horizontal and nearly 2000 up and down, it was a weary pair that rolled into the pretty but sleepy city of Olomuc that night.
Brno. Czech’s second city.
Brno is Czech’s second city with a population of over 300K and over 700 in the wider metropolitan area. It was our stop at the end of day 3 and we found it to be like a younger, poorer, less touristy and — of course — cheaper Prague: A nice mix of architectural styles across the ages, surrounded by gaily painted apartment blocks on the surrounding hills, a beautiful town centre and lively bars.
Our warm shower hosts, Paula and Villiam told us that the city was a lot poorer and known for being full of Roma peoples (even more so now as many had recently arrived from Ukraine). They were both from Slovakia and regretted their countries split which they said came more from political factionalism than long-held desires for separatism.
Cycling with warm showers
It was my first warm showers experience and a very pleasant one. Villiam cooked us dinner in the very impressively decorated attic apartment (Paula is an interior designer) and, after we’d settled round the dinning table, conversation was easy and engaging. Of course, the downside versus a hotel is the lack of control. At first I thought I’d rather spend the evening seeing the city we’d just arrived in, but politeness stopped me insisting. In the end it was a pleasant choice to spend the evening in their flat, learning a bit more about the town and country we were visiting; plus, as we had the next morning to look round town, we lost little by way of sightseeing.
Villiam was also a keen cyclist and delighted to hear that our route into town had taken us down the long and winding Macocha Gorge. A spectacular phenomena of caves and Karst that opens up into a stunning river valley as it nears town; all of it served by a pristine ribbon of cycle-path tarmac.
Why are the cycle paths in Czechia so good?
I asked Villiam why the cycle paths in the Czech Republic were so good and he expressed astonishment at my observation. Sidestepping the question, he talked about the poor quality of Brno city’s cycle infrastructure and the administration’s ongoing failure to do anything about it. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder — he hadn’t spent the last week bouncing painfully through Poland!
What did people do in the Czech Republic before the invention of bicycles?
Man has been cycling for about 150 years, riding horses for a few thousand and running around a lot for about 60,000. That’s the rough date when the latest — 2.0 — version of homo-sapien emerged to finally overtake the heavier footed homo-erectus (some archaeologists think homo-erectus was too heavily constructed to be a good runner). We learnt this at the very fine little archaeological museum in Pavlov, about 50km South of Brno. It was put there to house finds from the many successful excavations in the area. Homo-sapien was the first humanoid nimble, smart and — crucially — cooperative enough to take on the woolly Mammoth and win. What’s more he was pleased enough with himself to express his euphoria artistically, carving outlines and early maps on the ivory tusks of his victims and — with his blood up after the hunt — even carving out little representations of the female form: the venuses of Pavlov. (The fridge magnet version of which, in the gift shop, was very reasonably priced I thought)
We camped across the road on the shore of the big — nature rich — Věstonická lake and imagined our forefathers huddling round their fire in the same spot thousands of years before.
It’s easy to make like Jean-Jacques Rousseau and romanticise these early hunter-gather societies, but as I sprinted back to Brno the next morning averaging a steady 25km on my alu-carbon Canyon Inflite cross bike, my favourite Stereolab playlist pulsing through my earphones, and thought about the rich Czech lunch and fine dark beer that awaited me in town, I was pretty sure that modern life is better.
