August 19, 2015
Volary to Vimperk: Mountains with pine forests and a castle at the end of the tunnel
Hotel Zlatá Hvězda, Vimperk
AGAIN, breakfast was included, so down we went for our fill of yogourt, granola, cheese, cold meats, tomatoes, coffee, juice and boiled eggs. We were slow to get going so I think it was about 9:30 am when we were finally on the road. MA fiddles around so much when it's time to go.
Our route had us backtrack about 100m then we veered to our direction. The route was very hilly and very busy. It seems it is a detour for trucks so there were many of them on this narrow road with no shoulders.
Rain was not in the forecast; however, it was very misty in the higher hills. There were parts of the steeper climbs where we had to walk but we'd gotten even stronger by now. Of course, the temperature was around 21 C so that helped enormously, too.
I was counting down the kilometres when we had a long and very steep descent that brought us to the edge of Vimperk. We passed the centrum then found our very nice hotel. It had been totally refurbished now containing, in addition to the hotel, a restaurant, a concert hall with a stage, a bowling alley, a large parking lot, and large apartment-style rooms. Great.
As soon as we had locked our bikes in the basement storage we had lunch in the hotel. We both had what looked like a baked smoker's lung. Actually a potato pancake stuffed with smoked ham and greasy sauerkraut. Our weakest meal yet.
We decided to walk up to the 1400s castle, through the streets, to the town square for lattes - all of which were very beautiful. It is quite a nice town.
Also interesting is that in most of the towns people speak almost no english but we get by just fine with smiles and hand signals.
With a few sprinkles of rain we decided to return to the hotel to upload some photos. But then we were getting hungry yet again, so wandered up to the local brewery pivovar where we met the owner, tried their on-premises made dark beer and General Patton APA, and we both had beef goulash which was delicious. In this brewery that had been built in the 1300s. Awesome.
Both of us were tired and it was cool out, so we returned to the room to watch The Amazing Race Canada S03E07 in which they went to Sudbury, ON, and to Science North. Très cool.
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Today's ride: 28 km (17 miles)
Total: 236 km (147 miles)
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