Another clear sky day dawned but thankfully not as hot as
yesterday. You had to pay for showers
and when we attempted to, the showers still didn’t work. So morning ablutions did not take long. Then it was over to the camp store for some
milk (longlife stuff), and two bread rolls and we had breakfast on one of the
tables there in an effort to hook into their free wifi. Well it might be free, but it’s so slow it’s
not worth the power to wait for it to work.
After waiting ten minutes for our blog page to load, we gave up and
switched the computer off, packed up the tent and hit the road.
The first ten kms were a lovely flat ride alongside the
railway tracks and the lake. We
definitely needed flat today after yesterday!
After we made the turn-off to Cesky Krumlov, we debated whether we
should take the cycle track or not. Pros
were it was quiet and it looked like an ok surface……at this stage. Cons were, the surface might not stay smooth,
the gradient would probably not be as good as the road, we could get lost, we
would be doing at least 2 more kms than if we stuck to the road – so we chose
the road as it wasn’t too busy either.
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| A nice house on the lake front |
Good decision as even though we struck a few hills,
yesterday had given us a new benchmark to measure hills by – and this was
nothing, the biggest one being a mere 3 kms.
As we cruised along, we noticed what appeared to be a large ginger cat
in one of the fields. As we got closer
we thought it was a dog but it turned out to be a fox! He looked very relaxed and maybe I could have
got a photo of him without him running away, but we were powering along about
30kph and didn’t want to break our stride.
Wasn’t long before the uphill work we were putting in paid
off, with a huge downhill where we were zipping along. After that a couple of
small climbs until we reached Cesky Krumlov. Cycled to a supermarket, which was
the first one we’ve seen since arriving yesterday and got supplies for lunch
and tea. Looking for a tourist info led us up another huge climb to the train
station. It’s gonna be a real effort to get wifi in this country, we can both
feel it. No luck at this one, but there is one in the square in the old town,
so we’ll try there. Decided that because the station had a nice quiet area with
good seating, we’d have lunch there.
Met a lovely lady with a dog while we lunched – must say,
our second day in Czechia we have met much happier people. Is it coincidence they are all women? From the receptionist and the cleaners at the
camp, to the ladies in Tourist Info to the lady with the dog, all very nice.
After lunch we cycled a km down the road to one of the camps
that had been recommended to us. It was
very quiet – we are the only people here and it only costs $3 per night! However, there is no shower – mind you if
this heat keeps up, we might jump in the river which runs right by the
camp. The man who runs the camp is nice
enough but he wouldn’t break any smiling records!
Set the tent up and got changed out of our cycling shorts
and had a cruisy ride on our luggage free bikes into the old town – which is
spectacular! It is also very full of
tourists, mostly Asian.
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| Cesky Krumlov - a stunningly beautiful place |
After wandering
around in the heat for a while, we came upon the town square which is supposed
to have free Wifi. We tried by the
fountain but no luck, so we went to a café for a cheap iced coffee (about $5
for two), but they were not great. And
we still couldn’t get Wifi. The waiter stood looking at me when I went to pay,
hankering for his tip….his tip from me would be…make a decent iced
coffee….smile when you serve it and don’t make it so obvious that you want a
tip!
With the bikes parked and locked, we commenced our
exploration of town and what a lovely place it is. Dating back to medieval
times, they combine the old architecture, with avant garde shopping and all the
names are available, for the right price. It would be hard to pick one photo
from the shoot we did. Every turn of a corner opens up new angles and with the
sky changing colour over the afternoon, options were always there. Decided to
go to the tourist info to see if their wifi would work for us, but no……so we go
another day without posting….just like JK Rowling, our readers wait in
anticipation for the next chapter!
Had picked up some nice postcards of the
place for our Mums and Jill, the lady in Laufen who bought us coffee and cakes
after breakfast. Diverted to the ‘Posta’ on the way back to camp and whilst
Julia started on dinner, I carried on writing. The temperature had dropped a
lot and about 6.30pm it began to rain, as it had been threatening to do for
most of the afternoon. We count ourselves lucky that we got the photos taken.
Tomorrow we begin our journey down the Vitaya river…well,
alongside at least, on our way back into Austria, heading for Vienna. We will
be back in Czech after Hungary and Slovakia. Still trying to comprehend why a
good few, former Eastern Block males are miserable bastards. I’d have thought
that life would have been better for them now…perhaps not, or maybe they were
always lacking a nice word and a smile, even then. But, it is definitely a
theme we have going on.
As we sat eating our meal, of some unidentifiable meat in a
sauce, with rice, the heavens opened and a thunder and lightning storm hit.
Very loud indeed.
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