I’ve had a pretty darn good day here in Plzen. I had a bit of a fitful sleep thanks to the time difference and my rather overly warm room (the wet clothes dried though!). Nothing too startling happened today really – just a regular day I suppose.

After a good breakfast here at the hotel (why can’t American and Canadian hotels provide breakfasts as good as those in Europe?), I headed out for my ride. After a bit of research last night thanks to Google and discussion with Marc, I decided to drive over to the race course site. I remembered a set of bicycle paths and trails starting from this area. Well this was an excellent choice. I ended up following trail/path #3 – it took me through the countryside, up, down, up some more, out on to some quiet roads, and up some more. Did I mention that it is hilly here? Well, it is rather hilly!

But these hills were perfect for my ride today. I don’t have my SRM with me so the hills helped me hit the effort levels I needed for today’s ride. My legs felt pretty good considering the travel and restless sleep. I lucked out with a relatively sunny day and most importantly dry day.

I ended up “talking” to two people on my ride today – one was a motorist who slowed down to talk with me – I thought he was going to yell at me but he was smiling and laughing, the conversation quickly ended when I said “Canada, Canada. English, English”; the other conversation was with a man walking in the park – he stopped me and said something of which I understood “World Cup” – to which I smiled, pointed at the my name on my bike and the Canadian flag.

I did manage to snap a few pictures during my ride (apologies since these were taken with my iPhone…):
View from the bicycle paths:


Some houses on my route:


Building in an industrial park with a cool paint job:

Sign from the park where I started my ride. This park seems to be a nature reserve with lots of signs identifying the animals and plants. The river has swans and Canadian geese. I think this sign is showing the cycling paths:

Gratuitous shot of me out on my bike (pardon the smirk):

My car and the trusty steed:

In case you’re wondering what I had for supper (beef goulash and salmon with spicy vegetables and corn cakes):

So that’s the kind of day it’s been. I did get my other bike built and I’ll take it out for ride tomorrow. Other than riding today I’ve been doing some work and chilling out a bit. I hit up the nearby mall to see what the supper options were over there – well, three good looking restaurants but they were all very smokey so I elected to eat at the hotel.

Tomorrow a crew of people arrive. My mechanic Ignace arrives as do Gabby and Gregg and I think Nikoline might have arrived today. Looking forward to talking to people and catching up with my pals.