It finally started...

...because anything else would have made us slowly but surely go crazy! You can't believe how complex the preparations for this trip could become and what details you got lost in. The night before departure, Sonja was still sitting on the floor of the bathroom at around 5 a.m. at the laptop to back up data... When we then on March 12th we finally sat on our loaded bikes in the morning, a huge burden fell off our shoulders despite all the uncertainty about what was to come. Once you're on the road, many little things suddenly don't seem so relevant anymore! At the start from Staudach-Egerndach via Bergen to Lake Chiemsee, we were actively accompanied by Sonja's family - a very nice gesture, which certainly made saying goodbye a little bit easier! The weather also played along, even so good that we got a bit of sunburn on our faces on the first day. From the northern end of Lake Chiemsee, we cycled along the Alz Cycle Path on route to the river Inn. This cycle route was consistently very easy to ride, especially the natural section between Trostberg and Förgenthal and later in the Holzfelder Forst really appealed to us! The first stage of our journey was Marktl, where the Alz flows into the Inn. On the much larger Inn, the sunny weather stays with us, which, however, also brings a cool easterly wind with it, which slows us down a bit. Up to Schärding, the Inn cycle path often runs on long dyke paths, which can become a bit boring, especially when there is a headwind. On the other hand, people often complain about river bike paths that don't run along the river, so we shouldn't complain. A highlight on this route before Passau was the breakthrough of the Inn between Vornbach and Neuburg am Inn (Vornbacher Enge): in a river valley cut into it, it goes on an exciting path through a rocky landscape - very beautiful!

If you want to go down a hill, you have to go up first...

From Passau we first followed the Danube about 50 kilometers (31 miles) downstream into Austria. In order to get to the Moldau, which runs north, you have to leave the Danube valley and drive through the Mühlviertel into the Bohemian Forest. To do this, we had decided on the route from Obermühl on the Danube, described on www.radreise-wiki.de under “Moldau - Danube”, via Hühnergeschrei (a place called “screeching chickens”), Rohrbach and Aigen to the Moldau reservoir (Lipno I reservoir). Unfortunately, the ferry at Obermühl only runs from April (not usable for half the year, a pity), which is why we had to rely on the Danube bridge at Aschach to get to the left bank of the Danube. From there we finally headed north on the L1507. (In retrospect, however, we must strongly advise against riding on touring bikes on the L1507 - a road like a dental treatment with decreasing anesthetic, although it is actually a side route: countless articulated trucks struggle up steep climbs, in between cars somehow pass in order to get through... ) In Sankt Martin we were exhausted and weary and couldn't find any accommodation at first, but fortunately the local Bakery Wöhrer saved us from our misery with a mat lodging. At Aigen, the ascent into the Bohemian Forest followed - not a long climb at all, but consistently steep. At the top we reached the Czech Republic. The landscape suddenly changes here. Suddenly there was still snow everywhere, instead of fields and pastures, dense coniferous forests dominated and the roads were almost empty, which of course was much more pleasant for cycling! This natural environment on the Czech side can certainly be explained by the fact that the southern shore of the Vltava reservoir was a restricted area until the end of the Iron Curtain.

Hilly further to Prague

The upper part of the Vltava Cycle Path from the Lipno barrage to Český Krumlov via Vyšší Brod was a cycling highlight! Closely along the initially still small river on a forest path, later on a lonely small country road on the further upper course (and so we deviated from the actual route of the Vltava cycle path, which is guided here over forest roads with steep climbs). On the way there were numerous castles and palaces near the river, which always made for beautiful photo opportunities. Over small climbs, fields and villages we continued to Budweis. There - as a university town - a real small bicycle culture could be observed, which clearly differentiates the city from its surroundings. The Vltava cycle path between Budweis and Prague only very rarely actually went along the river. The very numerous meters of altitude (never long climbs, but overall they are draining...) on partly questionable forest paths encouraged us several times to leave the route profile in the lurch a bit by switching to smaller country roads. In Prague, on the other hand, we were greeted by a real premium cycle path directly on the right bank of the Vltava, which led us directly to the city center. As on the previous evenings, we then enjoyed the rich Czech cuisine (you can lose weight later) and gathered strength for the next journey!

Some information about the route along the Vltava

Markings: the Vltava cycle route is currently (March 2022) largely consistently signposted as route no. 7 (yellow signs). In the greater Prague area, the marking “A2” is used. Only south of Prague to Klučenice, there is no consistent numbering, instead the Vltava route follows different local cycle routes and can be recognized by blue or white triangles on the respective yellow signs. From time to time there are gaps in the signposting, which is why additional navigation using maps or GPS makes sense.

Alternative routes: the official Vltava cycle route is laid out very cautiously as far as roads with car traffic are concerned, which will certainly appeal to many cyclists. However, the official route entails a lot of "unnecessary" meters in altitude, which are also partly distributed on forest roads with questionable passability - not really recommendable with fully loaded touring bikes, and actually we are not particularly picky about them... Therefore we have the following "smoothing" of the route profile selected:

Between Vyšší Brod and Český Krumlov: on the country roads no. 163 and 160 - beautiful roads right by the river, hardly any meters in altitude, hardly any traffic worth mentioning (weekdays, March). We can only assume that there must be a lot more traffic here in summer, otherwise it is unclear to us why these roads have not become part of the official cycle route 7.

Between Krásná Hora nad Vltavou and Prague: on different country roads, see “Stage 7” in our Komoot profile. Unfortunately, the route of the Vltava route does not seem to have been carefully thought out in this area, at least not with regard to loaded touring bikes. So we bit the bullet and drove from Krásná Hora nad Vltavou to Prague mostly on smaller country roads, which didn't have too much traffic (weekdays, March). But of course it wasn’t really “pleasure cycling” either.