There were spots of sun and no rain this morning, so we decided to dress in bike garb and get out of town and enjoy light Sunday traffic. A lot of stuff is closed on Sunday anyway. Pauline is also tired of walking. She hates walking and finds it too slow and painful. We rode north the usual way to the river and took a right on the bike path. We had seen this path before winding along into the tress. Looked good. We passed two canoe/kayak race courses, which were in use by a dozen hardy Czech paddlers. Why don't we have one of those here? We followed the A2 bike path from the north side of town to the east/north along the curve of the river towards Troja. The A2 path gets tangled up with a construction site, and we ended up on the roads. Use the river for a landmark and remember it's shape. We kept taking lefts until we ended up back at the river and path. Czech bike routes are a lot like Boston's. The signs are small, often posted really high, and you can't count on them at every turn. There's a lot of winging it. If nothing else, the free bike path map has the numbers of the paths, which you can hope to match up with the signs you may find. Sunday traffic was very light.
We opted not to go into the Troja Palace. The building itself is on the modern side for our interests -- and it was a nice day. We found out later that it has an excellent art collection.
The grounds are free and worth a roam. Somebody had a sense of humor when they designed this archway for the stables:
From the Palace we spotted an intriguing tiny chapel on a hill covered with vineyards. Naturally we had to ride up there and take a look. This chapel was thought to be haunted. The bell used to ring on its own. It turned out that a small monkey, which had escaped from the nearby zoo, had taken up residence in the bell tower and rang the bell by swinging on the ropes. 
Go up the hill from the zoo/palace entrance and bear right. You'll find the outdoor botanical garden with a great view and walking paths. Follow the garden driveway further along to the chapel and a fun bumpy road down.
Go up the hill from the zoo/palace entrance and bear right. You'll find the outdoor botanical garden with a great view and walking paths. Follow the garden driveway further along to the chapel and a fun bumpy road down.
Also on this hillside is something else really neat, The Fata Morgana greenhouse, which opened in 2004. We didn't come to Prague for a greenhouse, but happened to stumble across it, and it is one of the best in the world. There are several sections, each with a fairly complete tropical ecosystem. You follow a meandering path up and down and even through an
underwater tunnel with windows into an aquarium/pond. Unfortunately the bird sounds aren't real, but there are huge butterflies. We didn't take any photos inside. It would have been hard to capture, and humidity is tough on cameras (especially the one we saw at the bottom of the pond). Back on the bikes and back to town over a lovely long span of footbridge over the river. Why don't we have one of those here? We headed towards Prague Castle through a park where the locals do most of their mountain biking (usually in jeans). South of the park we followed a well-signed bike route on streets to the Letenske park, and then picked up our usual route to the castle complex. The Royal Gardens were closed (and probably never allow bikes) and the street north of the castle is very busy and narrow. You could ride on the sidewalk or between the tram tracks (but watch out!). You're not supposed to ride in the castle comples, but we got away with walking them -- and a little riding, but it's November. Every source warned us that the Czech Republic is not a very warm fuzzy place, but in my opinion it compared favorably to Boston and New York City. Maybe it's because Pauline took the time to learn a few lines and work on the pronovnciationczs. Every once in a while somebody goes out of their way to mess with you, and that gets noticed.
Pauline: Someone stole the bungee cord off my bike rack. I hadn't bothered to "strip" that off of my bike because I thought it was a pathetic thing to steal. But someone took it!
Ulandt: We locked our bikes to the only bike-locking pole anywhere near the road to the castle. The guard in the shack waited until we had everything locked up (2 locks per bike, lights and bags off, helmets stashed), and then he yells at us to move them. Same pole the other day we had no trouble and even rode up to the main gate and inside the courtyards. Hah! We had time to see St Vitus cathedral, which isn't as big as Notre Dame, but has some much better gargoyles. The rest of the buildings were closed. Pile of photos, then I'm done:
Pauline: Someone stole the bungee cord off my bike rack. I hadn't bothered to "strip" that off of my bike because I thought it was a pathetic thing to steal. But someone took it!
Ulandt: We locked our bikes to the only bike-locking pole anywhere near the road to the castle. The guard in the shack waited until we had everything locked up (2 locks per bike, lights and bags off, helmets stashed), and then he yells at us to move them. Same pole the other day we had no trouble and even rode up to the main gate and inside the courtyards. Hah! We had time to see St Vitus cathedral, which isn't as big as Notre Dame, but has some much better gargoyles. The rest of the buildings were closed. Pile of photos, then I'm done:
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