Travel sketchbook - Czech bike trip #1 of 3 posts

10/12/2025

We had a wonderful holiday with our friends Laurianne and Chris which included biking in Czech Republic. We met in Prague after a couple of days of sight seeing to get rid of the jet lag and time difference, at George's Transphere Bike Rentals. Gord and I rented from George last year and had exceptional service. We were fitted for our bikes, added our phone holders, accessories and switched our clothes from our suitcases into panniers. We biked to the train station and figured out how and where to put our loaded bikes onto the train and headed to Cheb.
This time I decided to bring a sketchbook that was still in individual pages so I could add pages of writing, receipts, maps and anything else that would spark memories. I already had water colour paper cut down to 4" x 6" so decided to take that. I also cut copier paper the same size for the gluing and writing. It actually worked really well to set aside the finished paintings in a plastic bag in my pannier and keep adding to it.
With travelling and biking, I did not work on the pages during the day but added to it from photos and memorabilia at the end of the day. Sometimes I would have 2 or 3 to paint that I had previously sketched in. I would certainly make a travel sketchbook like this again but make it at least 5" x 7" or 8" x 10" as I found 4" x 6" a little cramped.