Jeff 
THEY FUCKING FOUND OUR BIKES!!
The Prague police found our bikes. On the other side of the city. Arrested the thieves. We hope to get them back tomorrow (our amazing policewoman liaison is speeding everything through as we're tourists), so we will only lose a day of our holiday, and can still have summer cycling in France after all.
1/
#pedaling2Prague #cycling #BloodyLovePraguePolice
We haven't seen them yet and don't know their state. I expect there will be stuff that needs repair (hopefully the batteries are still on the bike as they will be VERY hard to replace at short notice) but those are just details.
Jeezus what a ruler coaster day!
2/
#pedaling2Prague #cycling #BloodyLovePraguePolice
Jeezus what a ruler coaster day!
2/
#pedaling2Prague #cycling #BloodyLovePraguePolice
I mean, what are the chances of THAT???
#pedaling2Prague #cycling #BloodyLovePraguePolice
#Off2BuyaLottoTicket
#pedaling2Prague #cycling #BloodyLovePraguePolice
#Off2BuyaLottoTicket
UPDATE 20.50
Just got called down to reception for a progress report from the hotel manager. The police will be bringing our bikes TONIGHT. possibly at 10pm, or 11pm, or even midnight. But definitely tonight.
Also we have an appointment at the police station at 12.50 tomorrow, where a judge (yes, a bloody judge!) will take our statements and formally sign the bikes back over to us.
Cue exploding heads in room 24
#pedaling2Prague #cycling #BloodyLovePraguePolice
#HotelAnette
Morning update for those of you who are following this crazy journey.
The bikes weren't delivered back to us last night. The manager says we will get them when we visit the police station at 1pm for our statements to the judge.
Which means, among other things, i needed to find a clean shirt lol
#pedaling2Prague #cycling #BloodyLovePraguePolice
#HotelAnette
Did i mention our hotel (hotel Anette) has a grand piano in the corner of the breakfast room?
Plan update (or otherwise)
We were scheduled to catch a train to the French border today, & three days of cycling along a canal would follow.
Obv that can't happen while our bikes are in limbo, so the new best case scenario is a train tomorrow + two days of canal. Beginning to suspect even that might be over optimistic.
Mere trifles compared to the amazingness of our bikes being recovered tbh
#pedaling2Prague #cycling #BloodyLovePraguePolice
#HotelAnette
We were scheduled to catch a train to the French border today, & three days of cycling along a canal would follow.
Obv that can't happen while our bikes are in limbo, so the new best case scenario is a train tomorrow + two days of canal. Beginning to suspect even that might be over optimistic.
Mere trifles compared to the amazingness of our bikes being recovered tbh
#pedaling2Prague #cycling #BloodyLovePraguePolice
#HotelAnette
Some top shelf busking going on at Charles Bridge this morning.
#pedaling2Prague #cycling #BloodyLovePrague
#HotelAnette
#pedaling2Prague #cycling #BloodyLovePrague
#HotelAnette
Prague is surely the world's tram-iest city.
And a bloody pleasure to ride these beauties through the almost impossibly photogenic streets of Smichov.
#pedaling2Prague #cycling #BloodyLovePrague
#HotelAnette #TramLife
And a bloody pleasure to ride these beauties through the almost impossibly photogenic streets of Smichov.
#pedaling2Prague #cycling #BloodyLovePrague
#HotelAnette #TramLife
We're at this pivovar having dinner, and apparently putting collagen in your beer is a thing.
#pedaling2Prague #cycling #BloodyLovePrague
STOLEN BIKES UPDATE
Our beloved Surlys are back in our possession. After 90 minutes of paperwork at the Smichov police station in the presence of an interpreter.... and actual judge, we got them back. And they're 95% ok. A few new scratches, a broken rear carrier on Callie's, and a missing rear light on mine. I have them a good clean in preparation for their train ride across Germany tomorrow. 1/
#pedaling2Prague #cycling #BloodyLovePraguePolice
Our beloved Surlys are back in our possession. After 90 minutes of paperwork at the Smichov police station in the presence of an interpreter.... and actual judge, we got them back. And they're 95% ok. A few new scratches, a broken rear carrier on Callie's, and a missing rear light on mine. I have them a good clean in preparation for their train ride across Germany tomorrow. 1/
#pedaling2Prague #cycling #BloodyLovePraguePolice
cont...We're leaving at 8.45am & will be getting in to Karlsruhe around 6.30pm. Still haven't worked out where we'll actually be cycling over the following 2 days. We can figure that all on the train tomorrow.
Stolen bikes update:
One souvenir from the bikes saga is all the police paperwork. We only got 4 documents - whereas the file on the lead cop's desk must have been at least 50 pages. Prob more.
#pedaling2Prague #cycling #BloodyLovePraguePolice #StolenBikes #HappyEnding
If you've hooked into this thread and are wondering 'what on earth are these two up to?' you might be interested in looking at our ride on Komoot. Here's the link.
https://www.komoot.com/collection/2159998/-cph-prg-2023
Training our way across Germany today, with the functions between Prague and Karlsruhe. Got bumped off or serving train coz no bike space. Managed to get in the next one - only lost an hour. Now furiously re-plotting and hoping the train staff let us reschedule without penalty.
Anyone out there familiar with the terms of the DB Normalpreis Europa ticket?
#pedaling2Prague #cycling #cycletouring
Anyone out there familiar with the terms of the DB Normalpreis Europa ticket?
#pedaling2Prague #cycling #cycletouring
Bumped off one train. Now another cancelled at short notice. DB's a goddamn shambles (apparently thanks to huge take up of the 49E 'Deutschland' unlimited travel ticket. Grrr
#pedaling2Prague #cycling #cycletouring
#pedaling2Prague #cycling #cycletouring
We're in France! Our 5th country in... counts fingers...27 days! Rode across today from Germany in our bikes. That's pretty cool. The first thing we did was visit a boulangerie and buy a tartelette au fraises and a mille feuille, which we wolfed down on the pavement. It turned out to be a pretty big day today: three German train rides (2 of which were horrendously overcrowded) and 70km on the bikes.
#pedaling2Prague #cycling #cyetouring
#pedaling2Prague #cycling #cyetouring
Hot too. Must've been high 20s. Tomorrow's more of the same. A couple of hopefully uncrowded French trains, and about 60 kilometers of cycling. Each day we get closer to Paris. Saturday we'll do another 40km and train the rest of the way in..
What a difference a day makes! Our first French train - a TER from Sarrebourg to Nancy - is on time and uncrowded. Just 50km of cycling for us today on our bike-train-bike-train glide across eastern France to Paris. Riding from Bar le Duc to Vitry le François along a (hopefully) beautiful serene & isolated stretch of the canal Marne à Rhine. Sunny, 29c predicted. Allons y!
#pedaling2Prague #cycling #cyetouring #France
#pedaling2Prague #cycling #cyetouring #France
Great pâtisseries. Terrible pic. Will try harder.
#pedaling2Prague #cycling #cyetouring #France #Boulangeries
#pedaling2Prague #cycling #cyetouring #France #Boulangeries
Leo@JeffHowell Any train of same or lower speed (ICE being the king, then IC/EC, below it all the regional trains) during validity towards destination is good. This info may only be valid for German part of journey. Bikes are special though, I tend to ask the train staff if they can come along, when I have no reservation.
@lk that's good news.
Thanks for the insight. Gonna be a long day, i think.
Thanks for the insight. Gonna be a long day, i think.
@JeffHowell Hope the train network works well for you today and that you can still have a good few days cycling in France 😊
@lk we can still make it work if we can get to karlsruhe tonight. So we should be fine. This trip's been wall-to-wall adventure so why stop now, right?
Mac Henni@JeffHowell who the ducking shot would do that?!??
shits
shits
@machenni i asked the cop today and he said the perps were stopped by a patrol in Prague 6 (on the other side of the city) for drug related behaviour and had the bikes in their possession. The cops joined the dots & arrested them. As a sidebar we found a used needle in the place where the bikes were stolen.
Phil Davis@JeffHowell Holy crap. This is the happy ending I was hoping against all hope for. Got a deep, visceral reaction. So damned glad you get the chance to be bumped off crowded trains in Germany. Wish I could do more than send good thoughts.
@rekiwi thanks Phil.
EmPenTen@JeffHowell
Beautiful, I see it's plonked in the Don't You Dare position.
Beautiful, I see it's plonked in the Don't You Dare position.
TrevorN@JeffHowell I hope that doesn't mean they had to get mechanics in this morning to make the bikes look whole again
Good luck!
Good luck!
@tcnicholls nah, think it was probably just a mistranslation. Another sightly bizarre element to this saga is the police station is literally across the road from the hotel - we look at it through our window (drizzly morning here in PRG)
anthony@JeffHowell hi, Im from Prague..
stamina
stamina
Thomas Beagle@JeffHowell Wow, that's the luckiest unlucky thing ever!
@thomasbeagle we're just floating along in our own fairytale, Thomas.