Koprivnice

September 15, 2014

We both found today a really hard ride even though we only did about 48km. It was hills, hills, hills all the way and a possible explanation is that when we got here Ken found his front brakes were dragging and I, thinking it would be an easy day, hadn't taken any Voltarin and my back was giving me hell. I am sure that the countryside was lovely but it was foggy all day so we saw little which had one good point we couldn't see the hills coming up. We found a coffee stop shortly before 12 which was a real life saver.

Arriving in Koprivnice the immediate impression is that it is a town (?city) composed almostly completely of high rise buildings - it appears that everyone lives in apartments here. We are staying here because it has the technical museum of the Tartra Company and Ken is very keen to visit it. Our hotel is the International Tartra Hotel and is right next door. Our good luck started when we arrived andI found that they had upgraded us from the standard room we had booked to a sparklingly redecorated delux room. We discovered Ken's brake problems and with the help of the wonderful Galilao found a bike shop within about 100m. This is the best bike shop we have been to. Jiri is a really skilled mechanic. He got to the bottom of Ken's problems, trued his wheel measured our chains which were well and truly stretched. He gave both bikes a good going over and then road tested them. Astounding service and the cost, including high quality new chains only came to about 26E. This compares with the rip off we had in Passau. As we left he filled the back pockets of our cycle jerseys with chocolate. At the moment I feel I could live here on the seventh flour of the Tartra International Hotel for life. At about 5pm the fog lifted and there was a brief period of sunshine.

Tomorrow we will spend the morning a the Museum and have a short ride in the afternoon. I am looking forward to a sleep in as the museum doesnt open until 9am

A little chapel in the middle of the road

We saw the first barn full of cows since we entered the Czech Republic and beside it was this massive pile that this man was loading parts of onto his trailer to feed then

Roadside shrines are often painted very gold

Today's ride: 48 km (30 miles)
Total: 2,395 km (1,487 miles)

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