Day 14 - Dresden to Litomerice - 9 1/2 Weeks - Copenhagen to Lecce 2019

October 2, 2019

Day 14 - Dresden to Litomerice

Riding with Clark

For all you parents (and grandparents) out there, if you've read Dr. Suess's One Fish Two Fish, Red Fish Blue Fish, you'll know that if you were riding with Clark, you were in the dark!

That's how our day ended, but that's not a bad thing. The complexion of the trip changed quite a bit today. First, the riding and scenery is first rate and the cycle infrastructure continues to be very good to great. Second, the Czech Republic is completely new for both K and me, and third, what wind there was today was mostly at our backs!

The rain? Well, it's still sticking around but not being too much of a bother.

Overall our best day of cycling so far. The Elbe river south of Dresden flows through a steep walled valley known as the Saxon Alps. That's stretching it a bit but it is very beautiful and we were very pleasantly surprised to see that the quality of riding was every bit as good in Czechia as it was in Germany.

A couple of things struck us today. First, there were a lot of other folks out touring on bikes. Most looked like folks doing a short 2-3 day trip but we saw quite a few 'road-warriors' as well.

Second, we saw no windmills today. That's good and bad. The good is that the wind had died down considerably, and it was slightly at our back. The bad was that almost immediately upon entering Czechia we smelled the unmistakable odor of coal smoke. Pretty sure there are some big coal fired generating stations nearby and it looked like every house also had a coal fire going as the tell tale blue smoke was coming out of every chimney. With the rain and the smoke, it felt like we were back in Scotland circa 1990.

Just before we left Germany we pulled into a very nice trail side hotel / restaurant to grab lunch and warm up. Lunch turned into a longer affair with a very large (even for me) German 'plate of pork and cabbage'. All good, but it knocked our timeline back for getting into Litomerice before sunset (the days are getting noticeably shorter!).

Overall, a great ride with a few interesting twists, I'll let the pic's and captions tell those stories, ending with an unexpectedly great dinner.

Song of Day, Rose Garden by Lynn Anderson. Yes. Complete cheese-ball. But it means something to us today. At breakfast the other morning in Schonewald this came on the radio (we've had similar sonic experiences is small town German restaurants) and everybody over the age of 40 knows the words to this baby.

It's been stuck in both of our heads off and on for the last few days, and today, when we hit the dam / locks about 40 km out of Litomerice , it's time had come. After unloading the bikes, schlepping them over the dam (or is that 'damned') stairs and then reloading them, we rode another 100 m to be faced with more stairs going down to a tunnel under the train tracks.

K looked over to me, with a non-happy face, and all I could say was "I beg your pardon, ... I never promised you a Rose Garden" ... small dance party ensued and we were on our way laughing.

Oh, and the lines "Along with the sunshine, There's got to be a little rain sometimes" fits right in with our trip so far.

So, sit back and enjoy the nostalgia trip. K's favorite is at 1:40 of the video. Nobody does it better than 70's BBC hosts! Give us your thoughts if you think that's the best part too!

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the baroque splendor of the Dresden cathedral portends the change in scenery we will get today

..... can’t you just see the influence of the subtle simplicity of Scandinavian design in this?

The towns along the way are getting to be much more picturesque

Waiting for train traffic ... we are seeing many other cycle tourers since we left Dresden

the last stretch of Germany. The Czech Republic is on the other side of the river and a couple of km's ahead the border comes over to this side too

Nice warm hotel and restaurant beside the bike path just before the boarder where we had lunch and hot drinks. It was here that we launched the plan too cycle all the way to Litomerice today. Lunch was BIG, and took quite a while setting up our night ride into Litormerice

A Freddy Flintstone size pork chop for lunch!

New country for K and me .. welcome to the Czech Republic

Czech cycle route signs. Very impressed with how well marked the bike routes are. Notice the EU symbol with the 7 in it. This is the part of the Eurovelo 7 route that goes from the Barents sea to Malta. we will be travelling bits and pieces of this throughout our trip. Ironically it's called the Sun Route. Well, show us some then!

First Czech town, Decin ... we're out of the Euro zone so it's off to find and ATM. No problem, found one within 100 m of the bike path

About 10 minutes before this we were commenting on how great the cycle paths were. No way we were getting loaded bikes up and down this. Unload, transfer bags and bikes, reload and get on our way!

approaching Litomerice with the sun approaching the horizon!

Beautiful setting in centuries old wine cellar below the streets of Litomerice

Arriving with no expectations we were very impressed with the meal and service. Great place and a nice intro to Czech cuisine

End of Day Pilsner at the excellent Radnicni Sklipek restaurant

Today's ride: 119 km (74 miles)
Total: 863 km (536 miles)

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