Zandi Troban to Kozel
Thunder and rain came around 6:30 this morning but that didn't really affect our plans since we haven't been getting an early start most days anyway. The rain didn't last too long, but we slept in until 8:30. It still looked a little iffy as we started to roll and at one point it did rain on us hard enough to warrant seeking shelter in one of the randomly placed bus shelters. We could see that we were on the edge of a clearing line and heading away from the clouds, so on went the sunblock. It is a good thing we didn't get an earlier start because the roads were wet and a cyclist going the other way warned us of heavy rain ahead. At least that is what we were told by the English speaking cyclist that was passing us up.
The scenery remained much the same with farming and forestry mixing together. We stopped in Horovice to pick up some lunch supplies and then rode on to Komarov to eat. By this time we were looking for some shade but some tables in the sun had to do. Our plan was to camp in Mirosov but when we got there and asked where it was, we were told there isn't any but that there was camping at our alternate destination. We stopped for an ice cream with about 3 km's to go and then had to ask 3 different groups of people to find the camping in Kozel. They don't make it easy to find. Again we could hear thunder and see the building clouds but no rain came of it. Marie was feeling a bit cold after a nice dinner in the restaraunt so she put on her fleece jacket and found the ATM card that John thought he left in a machine. Hmmmmm, maybe she gets to haul BOB around tomorrow. Anyways, it should be much quieter than last night seing as there is only one other couple camping in a caravan here.!
Kms 66.01
Time 4:11:59
Avg 15.7
Max 45.8
Total 1526.7
Thursday, July 5, 2007
9 June 2007
The day that 80 turned into 35 which became 50
Prague to Zadni Treban
After carrying all of our gear down the 3 flights of stairs in Monika's building, we hit the road by 7:45 with the hope of beating some of the weekend traffic. John had been studying his many maps of the area for days trying to find the best route out of the city which is not an easy task. We did well going through the heart of the tourist district since we were familiar with it. There was a man, however, on the St. Charles bridge that was having a good time yelling at us. There were hardly any people on the bridge compared to yesterday's crowd, but he yelled in Czech that we must walk our bikes across. Then he yelled again when Marie leaned her bike on the bridge to stop for a photo. We guess they are just doing their best to preserve this 600 year old bridge that is seeing a lot of foot traffic.
We were going along well until we were suddenly on the freeway, a place we were sure we shouldn't have been riding but we were passed by a police car and they didn't stop us. We pulled over at a bus stop and developed plan B involving crossing the freeway in order to get off of it. Plan B then took us through the western suburbs of Prague which was not really the direction we wanted to be going. The map John was doing his best to navigate by only showed the main streets in these suburbs and the going was very slow because of a lot of uncertainty.
After many hours and even more route plan changes, we finally got to the road we were originally aiming for. As we ate lunch at a grocery store in Radotin, we decided that there was no way we were going to make it to our original destination which was 80 kms from Prague. Afterall, it had taken us 3 hours to go the first 25 kms! So we chose a town with camping that was only 11 kms down the road.
Shortly after that came the detour. What we thought would just be a short jog around some road construction began instead with a 2.5 mile climb up a hill in the burning sun followed by a route that we couldn't believe was the shortest and most efficient for a detour. We were doing a big circle and felt like we couldn't get out of the gravitational pull of Prague. It's only redeeming factor was a section of the road that was lined by cherry trees. Cars and cyclists alike were pulling over for a quick pick.
After going about 8 kms out of the way, John came up with a better way than following the ridiculous detour to get to our destination for the day. We ended up on a quiet, forested road lined with weekend cottages that was a gradual downhill for about 7 kms. It was the best part of the day! We made it to the town of Revnice which showed a campground but there were no signs anywhere. Some cyclists came by. We asked them and they asked some locals and then led us to the campground in the next town about 2 km's away. We didn't have much food and the stores are closed tomorrow, so John rode back to find a store to stock up. Miraculously he came back without having taken a spill. The campground sits on the Berounka river and is packed with weekenders. A cabin would have been $10 but there were none left, so we settled for the $5 camping. As we were waiting for 5:00 to roll around for the hot water to be turned on, a couple from Holland showed up who are crossing Europe from wes!
t to east by bike ending in the Ukraine. We ate dinner with them at the campground bar which was featuring country music night. A heavy but short rain shower came through as we were waiting for our food.
Kms 47.55
Time 3:31:06
Avg 13.5
Max 38.7
Total 1460.7
Prague to Zadni Treban
After carrying all of our gear down the 3 flights of stairs in Monika's building, we hit the road by 7:45 with the hope of beating some of the weekend traffic. John had been studying his many maps of the area for days trying to find the best route out of the city which is not an easy task. We did well going through the heart of the tourist district since we were familiar with it. There was a man, however, on the St. Charles bridge that was having a good time yelling at us. There were hardly any people on the bridge compared to yesterday's crowd, but he yelled in Czech that we must walk our bikes across. Then he yelled again when Marie leaned her bike on the bridge to stop for a photo. We guess they are just doing their best to preserve this 600 year old bridge that is seeing a lot of foot traffic.
We were going along well until we were suddenly on the freeway, a place we were sure we shouldn't have been riding but we were passed by a police car and they didn't stop us. We pulled over at a bus stop and developed plan B involving crossing the freeway in order to get off of it. Plan B then took us through the western suburbs of Prague which was not really the direction we wanted to be going. The map John was doing his best to navigate by only showed the main streets in these suburbs and the going was very slow because of a lot of uncertainty.
After many hours and even more route plan changes, we finally got to the road we were originally aiming for. As we ate lunch at a grocery store in Radotin, we decided that there was no way we were going to make it to our original destination which was 80 kms from Prague. Afterall, it had taken us 3 hours to go the first 25 kms! So we chose a town with camping that was only 11 kms down the road.
Shortly after that came the detour. What we thought would just be a short jog around some road construction began instead with a 2.5 mile climb up a hill in the burning sun followed by a route that we couldn't believe was the shortest and most efficient for a detour. We were doing a big circle and felt like we couldn't get out of the gravitational pull of Prague. It's only redeeming factor was a section of the road that was lined by cherry trees. Cars and cyclists alike were pulling over for a quick pick.
After going about 8 kms out of the way, John came up with a better way than following the ridiculous detour to get to our destination for the day. We ended up on a quiet, forested road lined with weekend cottages that was a gradual downhill for about 7 kms. It was the best part of the day! We made it to the town of Revnice which showed a campground but there were no signs anywhere. Some cyclists came by. We asked them and they asked some locals and then led us to the campground in the next town about 2 km's away. We didn't have much food and the stores are closed tomorrow, so John rode back to find a store to stock up. Miraculously he came back without having taken a spill. The campground sits on the Berounka river and is packed with weekenders. A cabin would have been $10 but there were none left, so we settled for the $5 camping. As we were waiting for 5:00 to roll around for the hot water to be turned on, a couple from Holland showed up who are crossing Europe from wes!
t to east by bike ending in the Ukraine. We ate dinner with them at the campground bar which was featuring country music night. A heavy but short rain shower came through as we were waiting for our food.
Kms 47.55
Time 3:31:06
Avg 13.5
Max 38.7
Total 1460.7
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
8 June 2007
Another day off in Prague
Today we ate breakfast at the flat and then ventured onto the subway to go to the castle. Monika briefed us on which trains to take and we pulled it off quite flawlessly with a little help from the locals. As we climbed up to the castle from the metro station we noticed that the crowds of tourists were incredible. Yesterday when we were there we didn't notice that there we that many people around, but today the line to get into the church wrapped half way around the big building. There were tour groups everywhere. We walked through the castle gardens which were quite small and decided to get away from these crowds and join the crowds back on the other side of the river.
We were hungry and decided to have lunch in a restaurant. Now, everything in this touristy big city is expensive, but we seemed to find one of the fancier, pricier places in the area. The lunch special they served was tasty but fairly small. We still aren't used to some of the things that go on in restaurants. For example, before bringing our salads they brought a basket of 4 rolls, so we scarfed them down. Later we discovered that we were charge separately for the bread because we ate it. If we had left it sitting there, we would not have been charged. That's unusual for us Americans.
We walked across the pedestrian-only St. Charles bridge which was just packed with tourists and vendors selling all kinds of junk. It was like a scene from the stockyards.
We headed to the south end of the old town area and suddenly the crowds disappeared. There were some really nice churches in this area. We toured through an small monastery and happened upon an old church and graveyard surrounded by a large park area. John found some Frisbee freestylers there. He showed them his one move (which he hit, by the way) and then spent some time talking with them. They are going to the big freestyle championships coming up in a few weeks in Amsterdam that our friends Bethany, Rodney, Dave and Heather are going to.
We walked part of the way back, stopping at a bookstore that we were told might have the cycling route maps of the Czech Republic that our Aussie friends had (no luck) and at the grocery store for a bottle of wine for dinner tonight. From there we took the subway back and enjoyed a nice dinner and dessert that Monika made for us.
Today we ate breakfast at the flat and then ventured onto the subway to go to the castle. Monika briefed us on which trains to take and we pulled it off quite flawlessly with a little help from the locals. As we climbed up to the castle from the metro station we noticed that the crowds of tourists were incredible. Yesterday when we were there we didn't notice that there we that many people around, but today the line to get into the church wrapped half way around the big building. There were tour groups everywhere. We walked through the castle gardens which were quite small and decided to get away from these crowds and join the crowds back on the other side of the river.
We were hungry and decided to have lunch in a restaurant. Now, everything in this touristy big city is expensive, but we seemed to find one of the fancier, pricier places in the area. The lunch special they served was tasty but fairly small. We still aren't used to some of the things that go on in restaurants. For example, before bringing our salads they brought a basket of 4 rolls, so we scarfed them down. Later we discovered that we were charge separately for the bread because we ate it. If we had left it sitting there, we would not have been charged. That's unusual for us Americans.
We walked across the pedestrian-only St. Charles bridge which was just packed with tourists and vendors selling all kinds of junk. It was like a scene from the stockyards.
We headed to the south end of the old town area and suddenly the crowds disappeared. There were some really nice churches in this area. We toured through an small monastery and happened upon an old church and graveyard surrounded by a large park area. John found some Frisbee freestylers there. He showed them his one move (which he hit, by the way) and then spent some time talking with them. They are going to the big freestyle championships coming up in a few weeks in Amsterdam that our friends Bethany, Rodney, Dave and Heather are going to.
We walked part of the way back, stopping at a bookstore that we were told might have the cycling route maps of the Czech Republic that our Aussie friends had (no luck) and at the grocery store for a bottle of wine for dinner tonight. From there we took the subway back and enjoyed a nice dinner and dessert that Monika made for us.
7 June 2007
A day off in Prague
Just down the street from Monika's flat we found a cafe that served breakfast. The menu contained mostly American-like breakfast items which was nice for a change. We walked into the main tourist area of town, got a tourist map that listed all of the must-see sights and began walking around to find them. We signed up for a 2:15 3 1/2 hour sightseeing tour and found a few of the sights on our own until then. The tour was about half bus and half walking with a live tour guide. It was informative and we hit most of the major sites. St. Vitus cathedral, which is across the river in the Prague Castle area, was very impressive but we were sort of rushed through it because it was closing time. At the end of the tour we got to go up the old town hall tower in the old town square and saw a fantastic view of the city. Since it was 5:50 we decided to stick around for the 6:00 dinging of the astronomical clock on the tower. It was supposed to be pretty cool and quite a large cr!
owd was gathering. It was interesting with a few moving figures and all but only lasted a few seconds.
The two tired puppies walked their tails back to the house and then took Monika, our hostess, and her son, Vatek, out to dinner at their favorite Italian restaurant just a few blocks from their flat.
Just down the street from Monika's flat we found a cafe that served breakfast. The menu contained mostly American-like breakfast items which was nice for a change. We walked into the main tourist area of town, got a tourist map that listed all of the must-see sights and began walking around to find them. We signed up for a 2:15 3 1/2 hour sightseeing tour and found a few of the sights on our own until then. The tour was about half bus and half walking with a live tour guide. It was informative and we hit most of the major sites. St. Vitus cathedral, which is across the river in the Prague Castle area, was very impressive but we were sort of rushed through it because it was closing time. At the end of the tour we got to go up the old town hall tower in the old town square and saw a fantastic view of the city. Since it was 5:50 we decided to stick around for the 6:00 dinging of the astronomical clock on the tower. It was supposed to be pretty cool and quite a large cr!
owd was gathering. It was interesting with a few moving figures and all but only lasted a few seconds.
The two tired puppies walked their tails back to the house and then took Monika, our hostess, and her son, Vatek, out to dinner at their favorite Italian restaurant just a few blocks from their flat.
Saturday, June 23, 2007
5 June 2007
Cesky Krumlov to Milevsko
It seems we are just missing some pretty good rains. This morning was foggy and cool as we tried to navigate our way past town. We ran into a detour that we know would have taken us way out of our way, so we backtracked and made it through though we weren't sure we were on the correct road until we had gone 8 km's. Our route started out fairly flat but then the hills kicked in. Forty km's into the day we stopped in Netolice for a snack. Everybody seemed to be coming out this one small shop with ice cream, so we went in and found they had some nice bakery, too. Well, we had to try a couple of items and they didn't disappoint us. Just around the corner from the sweet shop we decided to get more cash and that's when John discovered that he must not have taken his card out of the last cash machine. We discussed how to handle the situation (Marie is carrying a different card) and continued on another 15km's or so and stopped in Driten for more fuel for the body. While eating an !
elderly man was intrigued by John's bike and trailer, so John had to show him how it all connected. Though he spoke no English and we speak no Czech, we managed to communicate quite a bit. As we continued on we rode through a nice area of small lakes and could see what looked like nuclear reactor towers off in the distance. It turns out that our route took us within a 100 meters of the 4 of them. Pretty impressive structures up close. The only thing separating us from them were a few rows of razor wire fencing.
The plan was to get to the campground in Veselicko and see how we felt. If we still had a few kms in us, we would go on into Melevsko and get a room to make tomorrow's long day into Prague a bit shorter. We went past the campground with just enough energy to get us the 8 more kms into Milevsko. Just our luck, however, there weren't any signs for any rooms anywhere on the main road. We wandered up a few side streets and saw nothing. We were amazed because it seems that even in the smallest of villages there was usually a room to be found. We asked a few people on the street and none seemed too sure, but a couple of them told us to go to the Sport Hotel. We managed to find it with some more help, but it was pretty run down and nobody was there. On the way we had passed a street sign that said "privat" and had a stick figure of a bed on it, so we stopped to check the price. It seemed a bit high so that's why we went on to check out the hotel. Well, eventually we sett!
led on that room and then walked and rode our bikes to two nearby grocery stores to get some dinner food. When we don't camp, we seem to become two very indecisive people.
Anyway, the room was very nice and had this bizarre staircase going up to it. It was metal and the steps were only about 6 inches deep. And where it made the turn they were only about 4 inches deep. It's a good thing there was a railing to hang onto!
Kms 98.76
Time 6:03:28
Avg 16.2
Max 50.9
Total 1325.3
It seems we are just missing some pretty good rains. This morning was foggy and cool as we tried to navigate our way past town. We ran into a detour that we know would have taken us way out of our way, so we backtracked and made it through though we weren't sure we were on the correct road until we had gone 8 km's. Our route started out fairly flat but then the hills kicked in. Forty km's into the day we stopped in Netolice for a snack. Everybody seemed to be coming out this one small shop with ice cream, so we went in and found they had some nice bakery, too. Well, we had to try a couple of items and they didn't disappoint us. Just around the corner from the sweet shop we decided to get more cash and that's when John discovered that he must not have taken his card out of the last cash machine. We discussed how to handle the situation (Marie is carrying a different card) and continued on another 15km's or so and stopped in Driten for more fuel for the body. While eating an !
elderly man was intrigued by John's bike and trailer, so John had to show him how it all connected. Though he spoke no English and we speak no Czech, we managed to communicate quite a bit. As we continued on we rode through a nice area of small lakes and could see what looked like nuclear reactor towers off in the distance. It turns out that our route took us within a 100 meters of the 4 of them. Pretty impressive structures up close. The only thing separating us from them were a few rows of razor wire fencing.
The plan was to get to the campground in Veselicko and see how we felt. If we still had a few kms in us, we would go on into Melevsko and get a room to make tomorrow's long day into Prague a bit shorter. We went past the campground with just enough energy to get us the 8 more kms into Milevsko. Just our luck, however, there weren't any signs for any rooms anywhere on the main road. We wandered up a few side streets and saw nothing. We were amazed because it seems that even in the smallest of villages there was usually a room to be found. We asked a few people on the street and none seemed too sure, but a couple of them told us to go to the Sport Hotel. We managed to find it with some more help, but it was pretty run down and nobody was there. On the way we had passed a street sign that said "privat" and had a stick figure of a bed on it, so we stopped to check the price. It seemed a bit high so that's why we went on to check out the hotel. Well, eventually we sett!
led on that room and then walked and rode our bikes to two nearby grocery stores to get some dinner food. When we don't camp, we seem to become two very indecisive people.
Anyway, the room was very nice and had this bizarre staircase going up to it. It was metal and the steps were only about 6 inches deep. And where it made the turn they were only about 4 inches deep. It's a good thing there was a railing to hang onto!
Kms 98.76
Time 6:03:28
Avg 16.2
Max 50.9
Total 1325.3
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
4 June 2007
Haslach, Austria to Cesky Krumlov, Czech Republic
The sun was out this morning as we woke up in the luxury of the indoors. The hotel manager had a nice "help yourself style" breakfast laid out for us and he made us each an egg. We've learned that if you order an egg and don't say how you want it cooked, it will come soft boiled which is really quite tasty.
John successfully navigated us out of town and directly to a 5 km climb to start the day. We climbed and descended the Austrian hills just like yesterday as the sun came and went. After 15 very slow kms we made it to the border of the Czech Republic and were let in with no questions asked.
The terrain seemed to change right away. We commented on how your brains immediately feel a difference once we've crossed a border. It just feels different even though you could be just one km from the previous country. Anyway, the countryside was forested with some open fields but not much agriculture. The hills became shorter, steeper and more rolling. At one point we stopped to look at an animal that we think was a fox but weren't sure even after looking with the binoculars. And while looking at it a deer came walking up right behind it. What a banner wildlife spotting day!
We had a forced lunch stop at the shore of the Noldaustausee (a lake) where we had to wait 45 minutes for a ferry. The sky was now cloudy and threatening and it was quite cool. We were joined by a group of 5 from Austria on bikes taking a short ride who were very intrigued by John's trailer, so he gave them the demonstration on how it attatches to his bike.
After the 2 minute boat ride we were in Frymburk where we went to a Bankomat (ATM) and got our first Krone and spent a few right away at the grocery store. We sat and ate part two of our lunch while the sun came out. Off we went for the remaining 23 kms into Ceske Krumlov, our destination for the day. On the way we went down quite a few amazingly steep and fairly long hills that would have been real buggers had we been going the other way.
Once in Ceske Krumlov we did our best to find the Centrum (city center) and the tourist info office where our Aussie friends told us to stop to get bike route maps. Then we went to the internet cafe to find where our new friends in Prague live. We found them on the warm showers list (a place for cyclists to find other cyclists who are willing to let you stay with them while touring in their area).
Next it was on to some sightseeing. This town is best described as sort of a fairytale land. Being here is like stepping back into the time of castles and knights and all that stuff. It's touristy as the narrow, cobblestone streets are lined with shops, restaurants and pensions, but it was enjoyable to stroll around. We had an interesting treat (didn't get the name). It was sweet bread rolled in either nuts or cinammon and shaped like a 4 inch long bracelet. Very tasty.
After seeing the sights we enjoyed a nice dinner and marveled at the low price compared to everything in Austria. Even in this touristy area the prices were quite reasonable.
At 7:00 we rode back 2.5 kms to the campground we had passed on the way in. There was a large group of middle and high school aged kids camped there and it looked like a tent city. This probably won't be a very quiet night, but we're pretty pooped so hopefully it won't matter. If you get bored with our website you can visit wwww.where2pedalto.com and check out our friends from Perth, Australia who have just started riding from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska.
Kms 47.83
Time 3:35:44
Avg 13.2
Max ?
Totl 1226.6
The sun was out this morning as we woke up in the luxury of the indoors. The hotel manager had a nice "help yourself style" breakfast laid out for us and he made us each an egg. We've learned that if you order an egg and don't say how you want it cooked, it will come soft boiled which is really quite tasty.
John successfully navigated us out of town and directly to a 5 km climb to start the day. We climbed and descended the Austrian hills just like yesterday as the sun came and went. After 15 very slow kms we made it to the border of the Czech Republic and were let in with no questions asked.
The terrain seemed to change right away. We commented on how your brains immediately feel a difference once we've crossed a border. It just feels different even though you could be just one km from the previous country. Anyway, the countryside was forested with some open fields but not much agriculture. The hills became shorter, steeper and more rolling. At one point we stopped to look at an animal that we think was a fox but weren't sure even after looking with the binoculars. And while looking at it a deer came walking up right behind it. What a banner wildlife spotting day!
We had a forced lunch stop at the shore of the Noldaustausee (a lake) where we had to wait 45 minutes for a ferry. The sky was now cloudy and threatening and it was quite cool. We were joined by a group of 5 from Austria on bikes taking a short ride who were very intrigued by John's trailer, so he gave them the demonstration on how it attatches to his bike.
After the 2 minute boat ride we were in Frymburk where we went to a Bankomat (ATM) and got our first Krone and spent a few right away at the grocery store. We sat and ate part two of our lunch while the sun came out. Off we went for the remaining 23 kms into Ceske Krumlov, our destination for the day. On the way we went down quite a few amazingly steep and fairly long hills that would have been real buggers had we been going the other way.
Once in Ceske Krumlov we did our best to find the Centrum (city center) and the tourist info office where our Aussie friends told us to stop to get bike route maps. Then we went to the internet cafe to find where our new friends in Prague live. We found them on the warm showers list (a place for cyclists to find other cyclists who are willing to let you stay with them while touring in their area).
Next it was on to some sightseeing. This town is best described as sort of a fairytale land. Being here is like stepping back into the time of castles and knights and all that stuff. It's touristy as the narrow, cobblestone streets are lined with shops, restaurants and pensions, but it was enjoyable to stroll around. We had an interesting treat (didn't get the name). It was sweet bread rolled in either nuts or cinammon and shaped like a 4 inch long bracelet. Very tasty.
After seeing the sights we enjoyed a nice dinner and marveled at the low price compared to everything in Austria. Even in this touristy area the prices were quite reasonable.
At 7:00 we rode back 2.5 kms to the campground we had passed on the way in. There was a large group of middle and high school aged kids camped there and it looked like a tent city. This probably won't be a very quiet night, but we're pretty pooped so hopefully it won't matter. If you get bored with our website you can visit wwww.where2pedalto.com and check out our friends from Perth, Australia who have just started riding from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska.
Kms 47.83
Time 3:35:44
Avg 13.2
Max ?
Totl 1226.6
Thursday, June 7, 2007
3 June 2007
Passau, Germany to Haslach, Austria
The journey to Prague began this morning with a 15 km backtrack east on the Danube to Obernzell. Once there we knew the routing challenge and the hill climbing were about to begin. We wanted to find the road heading up that was not the main road, highway 388. We tried asking a couple of different people, but none of them knew where it was. They all, however, made it very clear that the road we were going on is very steep.
The initial climb was 5 kms to the town of Untergreisbach where we rewarded our effort with a couple of pieces of bakery. The climb had a few switchbacks but didn't live up to all of the steepness warnings we were given.
From there the hills continued. We went from completely flat riding the past few days to not a single stretch of flat today. And we hit some steep ones. We were tuckered when we stopped for lunch in Wegscheid. When we came out it began to rain. We were in our usual indecisive rain mode (should we wait it out, should we call it a day, should we ride?) but decided to ride. We only made it to the near end of the next town when the rain started coming down harder. We ducked into someone's open garage and waited about 20 minutes before deciding to ride into town and get a room. Well, there were several gasthaus places in town but only one seemed to be open. It seemed a bit pricey and the rain had stopped, so we decided to roll on.
We went up and down, up and down through little villages. The sky still looked threatening, but it stayed dry. At Oepping we decided to leave the main road and take a scenic road for about the last 10 kms of the day. This turned out to not be the greatest decision in hindsight because the map we had wasn't very detailed. We did alright by asking people up to a certain point where we asked someone walking which way it was to Haslach and didn't clearly understand the way he pointed. We ended up climbing about 2 kms before we asked a woman washing her car which way it was to Haslach. She pointed back the way we came to our dismay. She went into her car and gave us a really detailed map of the area and we hightailed it back to where we had gone astray.
Finally we arrived in Haslach but it didn't get any easier for us there. One of our maps showed a youth hostel in the town so we thought we would give that a try. We asked a few people where it was and finally happened upon it. There was no sign anywhere and there was nobody there. There was a sign on the door with a phone number, so we went to a pay phone, called and were told it was only open to big groups. O.K. We had passed a campground sign on the way into town and decided to go there even though we really wanted to stay inside tonight to get some of our damp things dried out. We left the main part of town and went back to the campground to find it deserted with a sign in German telling us where to go for information. We would have just camped there anyways, but the showers were locked and we really needed to warm up a bit. So we rode back uphill into town and stopped at the gasthaus by the town tower. It ended up costing even more than the gasthaus we turned !
down earlier in the day, but at that point it was our only option. The area that we traveled through today has many long walking tracks. At one point we got on what we in the U.S. call rails to trails. Once we left the river the countryside opened up and we could see the big rolling hills that lay in front of us.
Kms 63.81
Time 4:32:15
Avg 14.0
Max 44.2
Total 1178.7
The journey to Prague began this morning with a 15 km backtrack east on the Danube to Obernzell. Once there we knew the routing challenge and the hill climbing were about to begin. We wanted to find the road heading up that was not the main road, highway 388. We tried asking a couple of different people, but none of them knew where it was. They all, however, made it very clear that the road we were going on is very steep.
The initial climb was 5 kms to the town of Untergreisbach where we rewarded our effort with a couple of pieces of bakery. The climb had a few switchbacks but didn't live up to all of the steepness warnings we were given.
From there the hills continued. We went from completely flat riding the past few days to not a single stretch of flat today. And we hit some steep ones. We were tuckered when we stopped for lunch in Wegscheid. When we came out it began to rain. We were in our usual indecisive rain mode (should we wait it out, should we call it a day, should we ride?) but decided to ride. We only made it to the near end of the next town when the rain started coming down harder. We ducked into someone's open garage and waited about 20 minutes before deciding to ride into town and get a room. Well, there were several gasthaus places in town but only one seemed to be open. It seemed a bit pricey and the rain had stopped, so we decided to roll on.
We went up and down, up and down through little villages. The sky still looked threatening, but it stayed dry. At Oepping we decided to leave the main road and take a scenic road for about the last 10 kms of the day. This turned out to not be the greatest decision in hindsight because the map we had wasn't very detailed. We did alright by asking people up to a certain point where we asked someone walking which way it was to Haslach and didn't clearly understand the way he pointed. We ended up climbing about 2 kms before we asked a woman washing her car which way it was to Haslach. She pointed back the way we came to our dismay. She went into her car and gave us a really detailed map of the area and we hightailed it back to where we had gone astray.
Finally we arrived in Haslach but it didn't get any easier for us there. One of our maps showed a youth hostel in the town so we thought we would give that a try. We asked a few people where it was and finally happened upon it. There was no sign anywhere and there was nobody there. There was a sign on the door with a phone number, so we went to a pay phone, called and were told it was only open to big groups. O.K. We had passed a campground sign on the way into town and decided to go there even though we really wanted to stay inside tonight to get some of our damp things dried out. We left the main part of town and went back to the campground to find it deserted with a sign in German telling us where to go for information. We would have just camped there anyways, but the showers were locked and we really needed to warm up a bit. So we rode back uphill into town and stopped at the gasthaus by the town tower. It ended up costing even more than the gasthaus we turned !
down earlier in the day, but at that point it was our only option. The area that we traveled through today has many long walking tracks. At one point we got on what we in the U.S. call rails to trails. Once we left the river the countryside opened up and we could see the big rolling hills that lay in front of us.
Kms 63.81
Time 4:32:15
Avg 14.0
Max 44.2
Total 1178.7
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