Luby - Lengenfeld - To France the Long Way 2009

June 12, 2009

Luby - Lengenfeld

Rain and very cold to start the day. We warm up a bit on the hill starting at the front door and the rain soon stops. In the course of the day we have many more climbs, some of the steepest of our trip. The higher we get, the colder. Occasionally the sun peers through the clouds and I am thankful for the warming rays.

After a few kilometers we reach the Czech-German border

The gears on my Bike Friday are good enough for the hills, but not my legs (and how about ditching that camping gear)

We are riding through spectacular countryside in the part of Germany called Vogtland, in Saxony, former GDR. The expansive views across green hills and valleys compensate for some of the more strenuous stretches and once we pass through Schöneck, the hightest point, we start to descend and it gets warmer.

We see much evidence of the great amount of money and effort that has been invested in the restoration of people's homes, public buildings and roads since the German Reunification 20 years ago. As we ride along we notice new windows and roofs, freshly painted facades, perfectly restored historical buildings - restored to a splendor they might not have had even when they were new.

Much road construction in this part of Germany: we never paid attention to detour signs and never had to turn back

Again we ignored the detour signs and only had to push a short distance - better than many extra kilometers

How to say this without sounding arrogant? This is an eye-opening experience. This part of Germany was sealed off for such a long time, that even now it hasn't fully found its place in our, or perhaps to be fair I should say my awareness. Missing are all those little scraps of information and references in different contexts that one picks up over the years and that orient names and places in one's mind. There was no information coming across the German-German border. Previous to our trip, for me Vogtland was a blank page, blanker than other places I had never visited. This applies to the whole time we are in Saxony, Brandenburg and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern - we have a continuous feeling of discovery.

Traditional use of brick, all well restored

The sun comes out for us to admire the town hall in Falkenstein

Today's ride: 43 km (27 miles)
Total: 406 km (252 miles)

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