27 June 2016 (cloudy, sun and warm) 55 km

Sometimes doing this cycle touring thing, I feel and probably look like a homeless person. You pack up all your belongings and move from place to place looking for somewhere to lay your head each night. It’s really only like a homeless person, except that we’ve traded the supermarket trolley for a bike. I’ve mentioned in previous blogs about our ability to find camping spots beside railway lines, well last night was a new one even for us. In Decin, where we lay our heads, we found ourselves under a fly over…I do not lie….a bloody flyover..! Now what bright spark thought…hey let’s build a flyover and just to get some return on that outlay, we’ll put a campground directly underneath it. All we needed last night was a couple of cardboard boxes and we’d have felt right at home. We not only had a new experience, with a road going over our heads, but some prat from the railways thought “we could really piss them off and put a line through here”. So we had the double whammy….if the noise from above didn’t get you…the bloody trains did. I thought long and hard about the situation last night and decided that someone up there….isn’t too pleased with us. I realise I can make the odd aloof comment when it comes to religion, but I reckon the fact that Julia’s maiden name before she married me happened to be ..Hobo…is giving someone the last laugh…! All we need to do now is camp next to an airport……and we’ll have planes…trains….and automobiles…!! Maybe the film studios will get hold of that one…

Late start to the morning, rising at 7.30am to a sodden tent once again. It had been drizzling all night, but our dome on the inside was dry. Over to the kitchen for brekky and to use the wifi and power. Possibly the fastest we’ve encountered. 

Our last Czech city - Decin (pronounced Tetchen)

Rode the short ride to town, picked up some food for later, found a postbox…yes that’s right….not e-mail, but an actual postcard, from the cave man days, before we headed out of town for Hrensko, in the Bohemian Swiss National Park….don’t ask me….we’re on the German Czech border? Thinking that there was bound to be a Bankomat…or automatic teller at Hrensko….Pete didn’t get any money out and we only had 89 Czech Kroner left….sounds a lot, but it wouldn’t even get you a decent feed. Beautiful cycling through a scenic gorge on a lovely smooth road….a touring cyclist’s best friend….arrive at destination….no Bankomat…nearest one 11km away. The language used was not pleasant…so I told Julia not to talk like that….There was no option but to cycle into Germany, to the next town of Bad Schandau. It was all on cycle path and great riding…so off we set. 

the riding was beautiful this morning and scenes from a model a train set at every turn

the lovely little German town of Bad Schandau

Checked into a gorgeous camp there after getting some money out and then made the trip back to Hrensko. 

Hrensko

Now the reason we were visiting this particular place, Pravcicka Brana was on the advice of our darling daughter Briana, whose Czech friend Andrea had said we must visit it if we were going past as it had the largest bridge shaped rock in Central Europe …… and the ride and 45 minute climb were worth every Kroner…except that now I‘d paid in Euros.  

Met a Korean guy whilst we were up there and he offered to take shots of Ju and I whilst we did the same for him. He was on his own and is travelling around a few countries during a summer break from his studies. Was telling us that the average working day in Korea is 10 hours and the average wage is $7 per hour. He is currently studying, but doesn’t like his mechanics course, but will probably finish it because he will have limited opportunities. A job in the Hyundai factory is the ultimate in his line of work. 

After taking numerous shots and walking on the available trails we made our way down, meeting up with Gee Bum, our Korean buddy, on the way down. Then the cycle back. The weather, as is common around late afternoon, was looking dodgy, but it held and we picked up supplies from the supermarket and headed back to camp. After a delicious meal, we did some work on the blog and prepared ourselves for the trip up the Elbe river tomorrow to Dresden.

Pavcicka Brana

Some reflections on Czech.  We both feel sad to be leaving this wonderful country of contrast and surprises, not to mention cheap campsites.  We have had lovely surprises visiting towns we knew nothing about to find beautifully preserved old town squares, churches or a castle dominating the scene.  We have also had the wonderful smell of native clematis accompany us every day (well it looks like our native clematis and smells like it too – don’t know what they call it over here).  We have also had the not so wonderful smell of sewerage works as we seem to cycle past every one on the outskirts of every town.  You also get the occasional whiff of sewerage as you cycle in the streets.  There is a vast amount of beautiful old buildings left to rack and ruin, often right in the middle of town, as well as not so old buildings which have been started and inexplicably left to rot halfway through construction.  We wonder if it had something to do with the global crisis of 2008.  And then there’s the whipper snipper fascination!  I think Czech will always remind me of Beauty and the Beast – yes there is ugly stuff, but the beautiful stuff more than makes up for it.