Help me plan my next big trip

This is my new bike.

I bought it yesterday at the bazar down the street for 1500Kč. That’s about $100. It needs a few things fixed, but it should be good for what I have in mind.

I’ve had this idea for a while now. To cycle around the Czech Republic visiting all those little places that I’ve heard about, or passed through on buses and train, and have always meant to get back to. I’d like to write about it along the way and hopefully end up with enough material for a book. Or at the very least, a solid series of blog posts.

I’m thinking of starting in Olomouc (because that’s where I live) and heading counter clockwise in a big loop around the country. I want to have time to look at things properly, but I think I can only get away for about a month at a time, so I’ll have to do the trip in stages.

Probably four stages of about one month each; Olomouc-Liberec, Liberec-Plzeň, Plzeň-Znojmo and Znojmo-Olomouc, perhaps. I know some of you regular readers know this country well, so…what do you think? I’ve never done anything like this before so I have no idea how it might turn out.

I do know that I don’t want to travel as quickly as most of the long distance cyclists I’ve met. A cycle trip is a wonderful opportunity to travel slowly through a place with the flexibility to stop and really have a proper look at everything you find interesting. But most people squander it. The majority of these guys (they’re almost always guys) are so intent on covering a certain distance in a certain time that all they see is the road. They might as well take an exercise bike onto a train that runs eight hours late every day. The end result would be the same.

So my rough plan is to choose towns one days’ ride apart, and spend two nights in each of them. There’d be a cycling day, followed by a full day of exploring the city or town, then back on the bike the day after. Some overnight stops will undoubtedly need three nights or more (Hradec Králové, Plzeň etc). Others might afford enough time for sidetripping out to castles, lakes or caves on the sightseeing day.

What I’m trying to work out right now is; which towns should I stop in and pass through, which route should I take? I have some ideas, but I want to do a fair bit of research before I go, so as not to miss too much through ignorance. And so that I can fully appreciate things through knowing how and why they are special.

From Olomouc, there’s a good trail past Bouzov castle, towards Moravská Třebova and I’d like to look around that Litomyšl, Polička, Svitavy triangle some more. I’d especially like to find the factory that Oscar Schindler brought his workers to at the end of WWII. Litomyšl’s an obvious place to spend a couple of nights, because there’s so much to see and do there.

Then Vysoké Myto, Hradec Králové, Nové Město nad metují, the Adršpach-Teplice rocks, Grandmother’s valley, the Bohemian Paradise and Liberec would all have to be on the list for the first stage. Have I made any glaring omissions though? If it were you, which way would you go? What would you want to see along the way? Or what would you be curious to read about someone else seeing?

The other thing I thought of was requesting interviews with interesting people. Karlova Studanka (a spa town at the base of Moravia’s highest mountain) is apparently Václav Havel’s favourite weekend escape. Now I’m no journalist (as critics of this blog have pointed out) and the most respected person in the republic might be aiming a bit high, but people of that calibre are accustomed to granting interviews, and it might be refreshing for them to talk about their favourite hiking trails or village pubs for a change. What do you think?

Other people I’d love to meet/talk to/interview are Martin Šmaus, who won the 2004 Book Club prize for his novel “Stoke the fire, Girl”, the ‘King of Wallachia’ Boleslav Polívka, Singer/actress Iva Bittova and any one, or all, of the guys from Gipsy.cz. None of you regular readers happen to have any contact with any of those people do you?

In any case, at the end of it, I hope to have written enough for a book. 80,000 words could be forty chapters of about 2000 words each. Or 80 blog posts the length of this one. It might take me 80 weeks, but I think I can do it.

I believe it’s pretty tough for new writers to find a publisher, but there’s now the self-publishing route via the internet and even if I end up giving it away as an ebook, I’ll have proven to myself that I’m capable of writing a book and cycling around a country (albeit a relatively small one).

I don’t ask for things very often, but if you could have a think about what I want to do and let me know if you have any suggestions, advice, contacts that might be useful, or requests for things you’d like to read about, I’ll be grateful.

Thanks in advance, Captain Oddsocks.

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