Europe India Trip: Day 49–50: Prague — Munich & end of riding west [May 30– 31, 2023]

This is part of my Europe India solo motorbike trip travelogue . Read here for details

Map link . Total distance covered — 7000 kms

As mentioned in my previous post, I had reached Prague & signed up for a free tour with Sandeman. I had pretty much exhausted all my ration so I could not make myself breakfast & just left for the walking tour in the morning.

Some guy who was touring on a cycle was checking out from the hostel in the morning.

Tram to Market Square, start of my walking tour. Since I got fined in Krakow, I decided to buy ticket on pid Lithacka app :)

Some nice building on the way. Prague is one of the completely preserved city as not much World War bombing happened

The Market Square

The astronomical clock in Market Square. It basically depicts sun & moon position with earth in the center. Reading the clock for time is not straight forward though.

Start of our walking tour. That is the tour guide Pavel in the center.

Not sure if it is old architecture but the green windows on the top did look different

View opposite the Prague theater

Some place behind the market square. The church at the square is visible at the center

The walking tour was ok. It was a large group & I could not hear Pavel well. Plus he had a bit of Czech accent which made it difficult. I tried sticking around but at some point, I lost the group & just decided to walk away :). I figured that the group was walking towards the Jewish town so I decided to walk there on my own.

Start of Jewish town. Apparently the Jewish settlement in Prague is the oldest settlement outside Israel/Jerusalem

Jewish cemetery. It required a ticket to enter the place which, as usual, I did not buy :)

A shop at the cemetery entrance area. The puppets actually looked pretty. nice.

I was hungry by then & then looked up on google map for cheap local food. I found Restaurace Apetit & it had single euro mark on it. Reviews said it has some local food too. I reached the place & it was like a buffet but with some fixed menu for the day written in Czech which I was able to translate using Google Translate. I figured there is a chicken dish, so I wrote ‘chicken, mashed potatoes & vegetables’ in Google Translate & showed the Czech version to the lady on the counter. She then showed me two chicken options & I selected one. She did not serve me veggies & I asked for those, which she added to the plate. The total bill was 179 czk == 7 Euros & for that price, the food was pretty good.

Chicken, masked potatoes & veggies for 179 czk at Restaurace Apetit

It was pretty hot & then I looked for cheap beer place & found Sports Bar Pohoda which had beer for 37 czk & I had one.

The place mostly had old local folks hanging around . .pretty much my kind of crowd :D

I still had time in the day so I noticed a castle while looking on the google map & decided to take a tram to the place. It was a bit of climb from the tram drop of point but the views from the castle are worth it.

View of Prague city from the castle

At this point, I realized I do not have my earphones with me anymore. I figured I probably dropped them at the place I had lunch or beer. So I decided to take a tram back to the place. Thankfully, I found it in the restaurant.

My earphones which must have fallen in the restaurant & it was safely stashed with the person at the counter who promptly gave it to me when I asked for it.

I then took the tram back to the hostel. The next day stay was expensive & I was able to find a friend’s friend, Akhil, in Prague. Akhil graciously offered to host me for the night & I then rode my motorbike to his place, which was further out in the north & not too far from the Sir Toby hostel .

I was a bit worried about my motorbike as it was parked at public place, but all was good. I picked the motorbike, parked it in the blue parking area opposite hostel, loaded my luggage & drove off to Akhil’s place. Akhil is a researcher & his research lab was close to the house. By the time I reached Akhil’s place, he was already at home. We contemplated on where to park & finally decided to park in the white parking stripe area as I had done the same last night & it was all good.

Sadly, the next day did not turn out to be great for the bike. In the morning, I found it fallen on the right. It seems like it was pushed by a car (maybe unintentionally). We picked it & the right side handle wind deflector & handle bar extensions were broken. & so the brake lever.

Broken handle bar extension & wind deflector due to bike fallen on the right.

The collected broken parts

I was a bit paranoid now. We had come out for a coffee but after a quick one, we decided to head back & I decided to ride my bike off as someone around the area clearly did not like my motorbike.

Akhil was also pretty new to Prague/Czechia & in the hindsight, it seemed like we should have asked people around for some guidance for parking. But maybe it was sheer bad luck :). I thanked Akhil & drove off at around 10 AM.

Thats Akhil

I had decided to ride to Munich & it was around 400 kms from Prague. I guess it was my longest single day ride so far. I have another friend Ravi in Munich who has insisted on me visiting him during my trip & hence Munich was my major pitstop in the route that I planned initially. Being the longest ride, I decided to ride through motorways & I was fairly convinced that both Czechia & German motorways will be very biker friendly. I wasnt proven wrong as I covered miles fairly quickly.

I felt drowsy just before Regnusberg & decided to look for a cafe. I rode to a nearby village & had coffee & strawberry cake. The cake was pretty delicious. I think, in all, I paid around 7 Euros & they took only cash. Thankfully I had the excess cash which I withdrew for Belarus which never got used.

I reached Ravi’s place in Munich by like 7 PM & I was immediately welcomed. Karima, Ravi’s partner, had cooked nice biriyani & how could I have said no to nice Indian food :).

Thats Biriyani with some Italian cocktail

I decided to take a bit of a break in Munich. The plan for the next day was to try & see if the broken wind deflector can be fixed. I got some generous help from a stranger but also ended up taking a walking tour, which again I ditched mid way. More in the next blog.