Bike Trips 
==========

This summer we had  2 less or more planned bike  trips. Or rather trips
with bikes a  we usually arrive by  train, bike to the  hotel, and then
have some trekking and some biking from the hotel.

Nothing exactly special.  There was a short visit to  Graz (in Austrie)
with the Moulton [1] TSR9 bikes.  These machines can be divided in half
and stored in relatively small  (about 1.5x1.0x0.3n) bags but we (we=me
and my  wife) decided to use  them as a  "big" bikes. So we  selected a
train with  bike space the  Polish trains  (which usually are  there on
their  Poland->Czechia->Austria line)  don't  have well-designed   bike
holders (their lower part interferes with derraileurs of our 20" bikes)
so I worked out a solution - I  carry a silicon strap to attach the rim
to the  outermost part of the  stand. It usually works.  I noticed that
people with large wheels on their bikes  are OK at bottom part but have
issues at top park of the holder vecause of limited space.

Och, the WiFi is advertised but usually  does not work in Czech part of
the route (I don't know if it works in Poland but this cannot help me).
I of course don't expect that WiFi  in Polish or Czech trains will ever
work in Austria.

The last  problem is more  funny. Their reservation system  will gladly
assign you bike stands (coupled with  seats) numbered 11 and 15 (or 13,
I don't  sure). There  is no  option to  choose, by  the way.  There is
absolutely no issues except the fact  that there don't exist. They know
about the problem for long (several  months at least) and... ignore the
problem. The  Czech Railways  even issued an  internal document  how to
deal with  customers who have these  seats (there are stands  and seats
with high numbers which do not appear in reservation system so they are
never reserved -  the problem is that  seat re in the  opposite side of
the carriage  so you  don't have any  ability to see  your bikes  - and
don't forged that CUSTOMER, not  the railways, IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THEIR
BIKE). OK, and air conditioning is  not working from time to time (it's
summer so temperatures can be high).

OK, we survived the train ride. Hotel was nice, had great bike storage.
It's about  300 m from  train station but  the available bike  route is
about 1.8m. But it's Graz, the Austrian most bike-friendly city so that
wasn't a problem.

We decided for a short and easy  trip for easily reachable target - the
Stift Rein (the  Rein monastery - the oldest  still operated cistercian
monastery, it has some 900 years of continuous operation).

It was easy. Too easy. So we  decided to go uphill a little. The target
was the nearby Plesch Kogel with the Pleschwirt (a mountain pub). There
is an excellent road to that place.  OK< the TSR9 has 9 speeds with the
lowest about 30"  (in English measurements). Not the best  for Alps. So
it was  more walking  and pulling  than biking. But  it was  quite nice
(temperature just under 30C).

The pub was  closed, of course. I suspected that  (it was Wednesday and
such things  usually works from  Thursday or  Friday) and they  were on
holidays anyway...

OK, except pulling to one smaller  hill the rest was manageable (I have
to  find better  brake  pads as  our  rims were  quite  hot in  several
phases). We ran out of water in last 20 kilometers but these parts were
downhill so it was OK. Some 60 km in total.

After a few days we returner by a direct train. It departed at 5:30 (or
so), the  Wifi started  to work  in Czechia  and even  air conditioning
started to work  from some point (after the train  crew managed to turn
it on). Nothing special to report here.


Then we decided to visit the eastern  Czech Lands (we live more on east
- in Czech part  of Silesia so "eastern" means "going  to west" in this
case). Train there was OK (some  chaos caused by other bike owners), we
get off in Usti and Orlici and  biked to the destination. We have found
a great pension just by the cycleway 8 (near the Brandys nad Orlici). A
great place if you  like trains (the cycleway 8 is  parallel with one of
the most frequented Czech train line). I like them.

We did several cycling trips here (the cycleway 8 is parallel also with
the Orlice  river so there  are no hills except  you wish to  leave the
valley,  of course).  Here, they  have  great local  beer here  (called
"Splavek"), even in alcohol-free version  (they understand that many of
customers are cyclists).  I normally don't like (and  don't drink) beer
but this was great.

There are many  interesting places but I was surprised  how many houses
and shops are in  bad shape or abandoned at all.  Still, there are nice
smaller sities which I usually know only by look of their rail stations
(which I usually only see when train passes them at full speed...).

We  had  Brompton  folding  bikes  here  (they  can  be  put  into  the
transparent IKEA bag so there is  no need to dedicated "bike storage").
As we didn't left the valley on  the bikes (we only climbed by foot and
just one day) they were more than adequate. Even teh teperatures (~35C)
werent a big issue  here. The fact that the cycleway  goes close ti the
river and ofter under trees of course helped a lot.

I never  was here before  and the are is  much more interesting  that I
thought.



Well, there was no computing during that time.



References:

[1] http://moultonnbuzz.com