It was a lovely day, a perfect summer day, nice and cloudy and cool, just the way I like it. So, we went for a bike ride.
The kids were not terribly enthusiastic about it, but off we went. There’s a borrow-a-bike program in Prague, so I pick one up at the stand in front of the Metro Station. Helena and the kids have their own. I love this neighborhood. That’s such a cool thing to have.
Anyway, from there it’s straight into the wild, the narrow path in the tall grass. Then around the putting green, under Libensky Most, past the used car lots, past that weird yard with the sports statues, past the boat club and the garden allotments, and there, on the right, were some luxury apartments going up I’d never seen yet but just haven’t been that way in 3 or 4 months maybe but there they are, built up to the top floor, not surfaced yet but a couple months and they’ll be for sale, across the dam, left and straight on, with the river on the left now, past the playground, and Sam was keeping the lead and Isabel being very competitive, but he kept surging ahead.
We stopped for a hot-dog up where they were having a kayaking competition, we arrived just as it was ending and just as well, it was so thick with people it was hard to get through with bikes.
Last summer, that’s about as far as we got before we turned back for home, but the kids both still seemed good to go. We continued on, past Troy Castle and along the lower end of the zoo, that’s a way you don’t usually see it, and then…that’s about where the kids started to get whiny, they didn’t seem to grasp this concept of just going without a direct object. “Where are we going, where are we going?”
For my part, it was beautiful. At that point, you are out of the city, although you might technically still be in Prague. You don’t exactly have the path to yourself, there’s still a steady stream of bicyclist and skaters, but traffic is considerably lower, and you can proceed at a free and easy pace. Across the wide, slow moving river there are bluffs. On our right, trees, mostly, with an occasional cafe. After a couple kilometers, we relented, stopped for some ice cream and then came home.
Helena suggested we leave the kids home next time and take it a bit further. I like that idea.
In the end, I’m impressed that the kids made it as far as we did, even with the whining, which happens anyway, even if they get what they didn’t want for dinner.
My legs were sore, and they have smaller legs, and smaller bikes.
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