Our Rides in Words, Photos & Videos

[Stefan Mikes]

Mikulski Brothers E-Bike Vacation 2021
Table of Contents

Day 1 (Sun Aug 8th, 2021): Incredible Lower Silesia & Sudetes - greatly updated
Day 2 (Mon Aug 9th, 2021): Around the Kłodzko Valley- updated
Day 3 (Tue Aug 10th, 2021): Wielka Sowa (Great Owl Mt) - totally revised
Day 4 (Wed Aug 11th, 2021): Table Mountains PL & CZ - completely newly written ride report (under old post)
Day 5 (Thu Aug 12th, 2021): Along The River Metuje (Broumov Nature Protection Area CZ) - updated with Kofola and "cut beer" stories
Day 6 (Fri Aug 13th, 2021): (Almost on) Sněžka Śnieżka Schneekoppe Snowy White Mt.

I have put higher quality pictures, added more (hopefully) interesting information and stories. I encourage you for revisiting these posts. The "Day 4" underwent the most significant update and is worth looking at.

Mikulski Brothers 2021 vacation heatmap

Jacek Mikulski's personal heatmap. The red line denotes his solo ride.

Within the map of Europe.

 

[Haystacks]

Everyone one a pinchflat/snakebite.
That rim is too wide for rock riding

Nope, your tyre pressure is too low. Your tyre pressure is unique to you and your weight, to get it right use the kerb technique, which involves riding up kerbs to find the correct balance between tyre displacement and cushioning, find the sweet spot and eliminate pinch flats.

 

[kahn]

Creating space for one hundred new homes…

OR should that be ten thousand homes destroyed?​

View attachment 96626

Fernvale, Brisbane Hinterland
Beside the Brisbane Valley Rail Trail​

Last week it was forest; this week it is, well, what you see here. The bulldozed trees are headed for the mulching machines. You might just be able to glimpse the machines of destruction – red, blue-green and yellow shapes obscured by the piles of felled trees.

Ten or twenty thousand dollars worth of garden mulch? Who knows (or cares).

The clearing took our TOP Cycling group by surprise, but it must have been a more severe shock to the marsupials (wallabies, kangaroos, possums), reptiles (a lot of lizards) and birds (yes, thinking of you, magpies!) who once called this home.

View attachment 96642

• Red Line : Brisbane Valley Rail Trail (my ride shown on Ride with GPS).
• Grey Line — top right (NE) to bottom left (SW) : B-Road (important local distributor road).

In the mid-seventies, when Jen and I moved to this part of SE Queensland, the land to the north of the road was farmland. To the south of the road was forest. Now? Much of the farmland has been subdivided into hobby farms or horse properties. There was no alarming environmental issue in that, but few of us foresaw 'the bush' being cleared for outlying dormitory suburbs of Brisbane and Ipswich.

Ever more people; ever more destruction of land for wildlife. It's the way it goes.

Ah, "progress"! Seen the same type of "progress" all around here as the population has about doubled in the 40 or so years I've lived here. Bucolic roads are now collector/distributor roads.

 

[Dallant]

A man has got to know his limitations.

A man has to have a healthy fear of what happens when he goes beyond his limitations in his late 60’s!

 

[kahn]

A man has to have a healthy fear of what happens when he goes beyond his limitations in his late 60’s!

Or beyond the limitations of his titanium hip (or similar replacement parts - more problematic than just replacing a cassette or chain. )

 

[Cowlitz]

Finally. A not as smoky day. I took a short loop ride up to the flats, down to Okanogan and home again. After the first quarter mile of terror--a not so unusual close call with a car in a hurry, and then having to stop in order to get off the road for an ambulance and then push bike up the hill to a driveway where I could get going again, the ride became more pleasant.

Nothing to see here, but I did take some photos of the ever growing fire camp. Seeing it brings back bad memories of standing in lines, achy feet, sleep deprivation, etc. The camp is at the fairgrounds.

 

[Chargeride]

Mikulski Brothers E-Bike Vacation 2021
Table of Contents

Day 1 (Sun Aug 8th, 2021): Incredible Lower Silesia & Sudetes - greatly updated
Day 2 (Mon Aug 9th, 2021): Around the Kłodzko Valley- updated
Day 3 (Tue Aug 10th, 2021): Wielka Sowa (Great Owl Mt) - totally revised
Day 4 (Wed Aug 11th, 2021): Table Mountains PL & CZ - completely newly written ride report (under old post)
Day 5 (Thu Aug 12th, 2021): Along The River Metuje (Broumov Nature Protection Area CZ) - updated with Kofola and "cut beer" stories
Day 6 (Fri Aug 13th, 2021): (Almost on) Sněžka Śnieżka Schneekoppe Snowy White Mt.

I have put higher quality pictures, added more (hopefully) interesting information and stories. I encourage you for revisiting these posts. The "Day 4" underwent the most significant update and is worth looking at.

View attachment 96685
Mikulski Brothers 2021 vacation heatmap

View attachment 96691
Jacek Mikulski's personal heatmap. The red line denotes his solo ride.

View attachment 96686
Within the map of Europe.

As a brit, everytime I look at a map of continental Europe.
Czech is next to Poland?
Austria is next to Hungary!!
Slovakia is there, I thought it was by Albania.

 

[kahn]

As a brit, everytime I look at a map of continental Europe.
Czech is next to Poland?
Austria is next to Hungary!!
Slovakia is there, I thought it was by Albania.

It use to be Czechoslovakia which might help situate it next to, well, Czechia

 

[Stefan Mikes]

It use to be Czechoslovakia which might help situate it next to, well, Czechia

What makes things really confusing, the name of "Czechia" has been recently invented to make a simple word to be used by English speaking people. In fact, there is no "Czechia" but it is the Czech Republic, consisting of Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia. The inhabitants call their own country "Republika" (the Republic), which I am very fond of

 

[kahn]

What makes things really confusing, the name of "Czechia" has been recently invented to make a simple word to be used by English speaking people. In fact, there is no "Czechia" but it is the Czech Republic, consisting of Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia. The inhabitants call their own country "Republika" (the Republic), which I am very fond of

I thought it was the Czech Republic. I grabbed the name above from a map (Apple)

Besides the name sounds too much like: Chechnya

 

[Stefan Mikes]

I'm really fascinated with the Republic. It is as if Poland were a kind of the United States, and the Republic were our Canada. The Czech nation is mostly atheist, and they allowed the pot for the medical (if not recreational) use; not sure about the latter. The relationship between both nations is friendly although the Czech can still remember the 1938 Polish annexation of Zaolzie (which was the most stupid thing our nation ever did); and the 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia (but that was our contribution to the Warsaw Pact actions that could not be avoided).

As I love the easy going Czech nation, their cult of beer, and many other things, the Czech find attractive points about Poland, too. As a land-locked country inhabitants, the Czech travel to the Baltic as their closest sea. They love our perfect new main highways; and they say our food is far better than theirs. For instance, the Czech believe our cheese is superior; and we say the same about the Czech beer. Poles use a lot of salad to their meals, and it is not typical for the Czech; and so on and so on.

Czech language was re-created in the 19th century, and was intentionally made to be very different to Polish (to not lose the national identity); they had to get rid of a lot of germanisms present in their tongue, too. Which makes some Polish words sounding very wrong to the Czech ear. For instance, the Polish "szukać" (to look for) is "to f*ck" in Czech. Or, our "zachód" (the west) means a toilet/lavatory/restroom for them
----------------
My next e-bike travel (starting on Wednesday) will be exploring Polish mountains starting from the East (closely to the Ukrainian and Slovak borders). I intend to visit five mountain ranges (or rather, national parks) with at least 50-mile ride distance and over 3000 ft of elevation gain daily. I might need to enter Slovakia (although I am not particularly fond of that country). I have already registered myself as a fully vaccinated person at the Slovak government website. I only hope it would not be raining!

 

[Art Deco]

I'm really fascinated with the Republic. It is as if Poland were a kind of the United States, and the Republic were our Canada. The Czech nation is mostly atheist, and they allowed the pot for the medical (if not recreational) use; not sure about the latter. The relationship between both nations is friendly although the Czech can still remember the 1938 Polish annexation of Zaolzie (which was the most stupid thing our nation ever did); and the 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia (but that was our contribution to the Warsaw Pact actions that could not be avoided).

As I love the easy going Czech nation, their cult of beer, and many other things, the Czech find attractive points about Poland, too. As a land-locked country, Czech travel to the Baltic as their closest sea. They love our perfect new main highways; and they say our food is far better than theirs. For instance, the Czech believe our cheese is superior; and we say the same about the Czech beer. Poles use a lot of salad to their meals, and it is not typical for the Czech; and so on and so on.

Czech language was re-created in the 19th century, and was intentionally made to be very different to Polish (to not lose the national identity); they had to get rid of a lot of germanisms present in their tongue, too. Which makes some Polish words sounding very wrong to the Czech ear. For instance, the Polish "szukać" (to look for) is "to f*ck" in Czech. Or, our "zachód" (the west) means a toilet/lavatory/restroom for them
----------------
My next e-bike travel (starting on Wednesday) will be exploring Polish mountains starting from the East (closely to the Ukrainian and Slovak borders). I intend to visit five mountain ranges (or rather, national parks) with at least 50-mile ride distance and over 3000 ft of elevation gain daily. I might need to enter Slovakia (although I am not particularly fond of that country). I have already registered myself as a fully vaccinated person at the Slovak government website. I only hope it would not be raining!

View attachment 96811

The architecture in Prague is also very striking. Apparently Hitler was planning to use Prague as a regional capital, so it was never bombed like London. So the old buildings are still standing and well maintained.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

The architecture in Prague is also very striking. Apparently Hitler was planning to use Prague as a regional capital, so it was never bombed like London. So the old buildings are still standing and well maintained.

By the end of the WW2, the people of Prague made a little uprising just after the Germans left the city That way, Praha didn't share the fate of Warsaw. Interestingly, three major East European cities of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire (Cracow, Prague, and Budapest) were intact in WW2. Budapest, as the Hungarian were the ally of Germany, and Cracow, as it is said the Soviet Field Marshall Konev outmanoeuvred the Germans to save the city. All these three cities share Austro-Hungarian similarities, while being different at the same time.

 

[Chargeride]

Rode up Pendle Hill and the area is famous for its 1612 witch trials in which 12 people were accused of witchery and nine were hanged.
One entire family were hung on the evidence of their nine year old daughter.
Its quite a creepy looking hill and theres lot of witch/ black cat tourism around the area.
Its only 50 minutes from me, so I gave it a look.

I started from Nick O Pendle and its a long shallow climb from there along exposed track and then very technical singletrack that follows a stream valley.

After that there is a good run of slate slabs to the top over what looks like would be very boggy ground.

At the top you are rewarded with a great view and an edge with quite an impressivea steep drop into the fields below

As usual the whole trial turned out to be more of a long standing feud between families who practised witchery as an income healing the sick and making potions for good luck.


Its an interesting read into the relationship between church and king and how accusations of dealing with the devil were used to settle scores.

The Pendle Witches, a famous witch trial in Lancashire

The notorious 17th century witch trial of the Pendle Witches

www.historic-uk.com

 

[Art Deco]

Rode up Pendle Hill and the area is famous for its 1612 witch trials in which 12 people were accused of witchery and nine were hanged.
One entire family were hung on the evidence of their nine year old daughter.
Its quite a creepy looking hill and theres lot of witch/ black cat tourism around the area.
Its only 50 minutes from me, so I gave it a look.
View attachment 96829

I started from Nick O Pendle and its a long shallow climb from there along exposed track and then very technical singletrack that follows a stream valley.

View attachment 96825
After that there is a good run of slate slabs to the top over what looks like would be very boggy ground.

At the top you are rewarded with a great view and an edge with quite an impressivea steep drop into the fields below
View attachment 96826
View attachment 96827

As usual the whole trial turned out to be more of a long standing feud between families who practised witchery as an income healing the sick and making potions for good luck.
A nine year old girls testimony got her entire family hanged.

Its an interesting read into the relationship between church and king and how accusations of dealing with the devil were used to settle scores.

The Pendle Witches, a famous witch trial in Lancashire

The notorious 17th century witch trial of the Pendle Witches

www.historic-uk.com

Today that phenomenon is limited to political parties.

 

[reed scott]

Rode up Pendle Hill and the area is famous for its 1612 witch trials in which 12 people were accused of witchery and nine were hanged.
One entire family were hung on the evidence of their nine year old daughter.
Its quite a creepy looking hill and theres lot of witch/ black cat tourism around the area.
Its only 50 minutes from me, so I gave it a look.
View attachment 96829

I started from Nick O Pendle and its a long shallow climb from there along exposed track and then very technical singletrack that follows a stream valley.

View attachment 96825
After that there is a good run of slate slabs to the top over what looks like would be very boggy ground.

At the top you are rewarded with a great view and an edge with quite an impressivea steep drop into the fields below
View attachment 96826
View attachment 96827

As usual the whole trial turned out to be more of a long standing feud between families who practised witchery as an income healing the sick and making potions for good luck.
A nine year old girls testimony got her entire family hanged.

Its an interesting read into the relationship between church and king and how accusations of dealing with the devil were used to settle scores.

The Pendle Witches, a famous witch trial in Lancashire

The notorious 17th century witch trial of the Pendle Witches

www.historic-uk.com

Quite a story. Certainly is good that in our day no such horrible things could happen to regular people just on hearsay evidence.

 

[Chargeride]

En

What makes things really confusing, the name of "Czechia" has been recently invented to make a simple word to be used by English speaking people. In fact, there is no "Czechia" but it is the Czech Republic, consisting of Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia. The inhabitants call their own country "Republika" (the Republic), which I am very fond of

Entire countries can be renamed in the continent or merged together and it doesnt get mentioned over here.
For a country that used to do most of that stuff around the world we have totally lost interest.
Handing back Hong Kong was pretty well a big meh to ordinary people.

 

[reed scott]

En

Entire countries can be renamed in the continent or merged together and it doesnt get mentioned over here.
For a country that used to do most of that stuff around the world we have totally lost interest.
Handing back Hong Kong was pretty well a big meh to ordinary people.

Largely the same here. See: NBA

 

[Dallant]

Quite a story. Certainly is good that in our day no such horrible things could happen to regular people just on hearsay evidence.

Go to Afghanistan!

 

[Art Deco]

Go to Afghanistan!

Unfortunately that is exactly what I thought of. But I think Reed was being sarcastic. There is plenty of hate and intolerance to go around.