Eger - Windischeschenbach: Back in Bavaria - From Bavaria to the Baltic Sea and Back 2011

July 7, 2011

Eger - Windischeschenbach: Back in Bavaria

It hardly seemed true, we were riding back across the border to Bavaria. I was excited that we had completed this much of our journey. The road to the border was excellent and we had good weather. Shortly after the border in Waldsassen, we stopped for a coffee. No denying it, the standard of living in Germany is high. We noticed after travelling through the Czech Republic how everything here looked new, well cared for, solid, well built.

We are entering Bavaria - Notice the sign does not say you are entering Germany.

We had no planned route for this part of the trip but did manage to find some maps with approximate bicycle routes and hoped that if we followed the bicycle signs we would find quiet roads to Windischeschenbach and Weiden. We ended up making some enormous detours and also frequently found ourselves on dirt and gravel paths that weren't easy to ride. It turned out to be a very tiring day although the scenery in the Waldnaabtal was some of the best on the trip. I again realized how good our Garmins are at keeping us out of trouble. Just depending on signs and a simple map to keep us on bicycle friendly roads didn't work entirely. I'm not saying a GPS is indispensible, but good maps are, in my opinion.

I have a kind of phobia about riding on this kind of stuff.

Our trouble started in Falkenberg after lunch. When we left the restaurant we missed our turn-off and didn't notice our mistake for quite a while. Later in the Waldnaab Valley we were so absorbed by the beautiful scenery, we again missed our turn-off through the forest and were quite confused. And I thought everything was going to be easy-peasy now that we were back in Germany.

We stopped for a lunch break in this country pub, a historic gem.

Waldnaab Valley, some of the best scenery on the trip.

Fortunately, we didn't have to ride across the bridge.

When we arrived in Windischeschenbach we were tired and disgusted at our slow progress. We took a room in the hotel we knew from two years ago, Oberpfälzer Hof, 55€ including breakfast. It was just one of those days that should have been perfect but wasn't.

We finished the day in Windischeschenbach

Today's ride: 54 km (34 miles)
Total: 2,399 km (1,490 miles)

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