All that we have read about this part of our new course, promises an adventure.  Considering we are traveling through the Czech Republic with a map written in German and only speaking English, we already knew we are in for an experience.  We just didn’t know to what degree.

We left Prague in overcast and cold (55), certainly not the sunny 70 degree weather that was predicted, but then, the rain we had last night was not predicted either.  With our hotel situated a block from the bike course, we were quickly out of the city and biking along the Vltava (Moldau) River.The first 20 miles of our course was definitely the adventure promised, bike touring, not bike sightseeing (ok, maybe a little sightseeing). Narrow trails, rutty roads and broken rock paths, but the scenery was beautiful, when we stopped to look around.  Several times we climbed serious hills leaving beautiful vistas behind us,enjoying plateaus of beautiful fields, many filled with poppies.

We didn’t go into town, but Mêlmik (in the distance below) is where the Vltava and Labe Rivers join to form the Elbe.By noon we got our first glimpse of the promised sun and the 20+ mph wind that would be in our face for the rest of our ride.   Good time to stop for lunch,where we chatted with the owner’s son who had spent two years in America singing Opera.

Biked past two Olympic training courses, a man-made white water kayak course as well as a crew racing course.

We biked the last mile along the river then straight to our hotel, that sat directly on the bike course.  What we didn’t know is the rest of the city was UP the hill, straight up.  We did our touring, but luckily, though it is a large town, the ‘pretty’ part is small.  Found a local restaurant for dinner, with only one other table occupied and hoped it was not a bad sign.  The food was wonderful, surprisingly.  After dinner and our rough ride, we felt like spoiling ourselves, so ordered dessert……..Fried Ice Cream with Coconut coating and a drizzle of Raspberry Sauce…….OMG……over the top and worth the thousands of calories (that we hopefully burned off today)!!

Once again, research showed we had a tough ride ahead, but at least it was going to be a pretty sunny day.  We started at 61 and quickly climbed to 65 degrees (perfect riding conditions).  A quick climb up to the bridge out of town and we were instantly in beautiful fields

with signing birds and rabbits the size of a (good size) small dog and hills in the distance. Large fields of string beans, almost ready to pick.

Words cannot describe the beauty of our ride today, or to quote:

“I won’t have enough hands, canvas or colours to paint the beautiful things I see.”
Vincent Van Gogh – 1888

One of the many joys of touring is sometimes you turn a corner and you are taken aback by what stands before you.  It happened in Budapest as the Parliament appeared and again this morning.  The pictures do not do the scenes justice

but it was breathtaking.  As a side note:  be sure to ask Jerry about the dog we met along the path.

In between enjoying the scenery, we did a lot of climbing and had some rough road conditions.  We rode on every single possible surface, concrete, asphalt, rocks, pavers, cobblestones, dirt and mud; none of it smooth.  Thought we had done it all until we hit a creek bed we had to traverse and shortly thereafter, railroad tracks, without any kind of path crossing it.  We literally had to lift our bikes over the railroad ties as well as the three foot ditch before the road.  The course definitely gave our gears, bikes, bodies and brains a workout.which way would you go?

But it was so gorgeous  as soon as the road conditions improved, we forgot the pain.By the afternoon, we hit a great bike path that was ‘relatively’ flat and still offered incredible sites, castles on hills included. Unfortunately, the wind (that had picked up to about 20+ mph) in the morning had remained and kept us at a slow pace.  We still made it to our destination town by 2:30, after 60 miles.

Bad Schandau is a charming town along the Elbe.

Most fascinating, though is a picture of the floods from a decade ago. From the markers on the walls, it looked like the river had risen 30+ above it’s current level, devastating.

After dinner beside the river and a little catching up on emails, it is time for bed.

We left this morning again to sunshine and 61 degrees.  It took only two miles to reach our first climb, but all was well as we had no mud, dirt or rock paths to travel.  As we traveled west, we quickly dropped out of the dramatic hills, odd to have the sun at out backs after traveling east for so many weeks.

Another beautiful ride today, the hillsides now dotted with homesand castles.Crossed the Elbe in a small ferryto the town of …..….now we know what Dave’s real name is.

As the weather has warmed and we slowly ride into the summer, we’ve notice the wheat is starting to take on it’s golden color.Once again small towns along the river bendand dramatic rock formations.Of course, there were chateaus along the river, small churches,beautiful fields with nice backdrops

and sand volleyball courts.

Late morning we reached the city of Dresden.We spent an hour or two touring the citybut, (1)had not gone enough miles, (2) way too early in the day and (3) the Women’s World Cup Soccer was in town and that is just too many people.

A turn in the river and once again, out into the fields.A couple more hours and our destination came into site from the other side of the river.  Charming streets,churches and squares.   We even rescued a lost little girl (who spoke no English), but was crying and lost.  Somehow, walking a mile through the city, we found her mom.

That (and 54 miles) deserves dinner!

A quick glimpse of the city from an angle we did not see last night.

The day started with beautiful, sunny, clear skies and 61 degreesas we biked along the Elbe.

Our first (and worst) climb came in the first hour, after that, the hillsides faded into the distance and then totally flattened towards the end of the day. Of course, some of the small towns we went through along the way, perched themselves higher than floodwaters (so they hoped).It may not look perched, but you have to downshift to get into town and that counts as a climb……and we count every incline to the top of a dike, a climb too.

The morning was beautiful as the air remained cool.

For the blog, we tend to pick the “prettiest” pictures, none doctored and many taken while we are pedaling.  So thought we’d treat you to real life; even with a view of a castle out of your window, you still have to do laundry.Around 1:00 and after 50 miles, we did lunch and a grocery store for more liquid.  With the sun shining on the open plains and dry air, we couldn’t drink enough water.  A few times we were cooled by a bit of shade.But a couple of hours later, we started hunting more liquid.   The afternoon had become hot,we were running low and had miscalculated our destination distance.  Shortly before 4:00 we found a small pension with an even smaller bar, but the beer and water were cold and much needed.  Best of all, the proprietor knew the bike course, a ferry (we were supposed to take) that was broken and a couple of hints to streamline our last 40 km.  The stork nest was just a bonus.

As a note to the ride: Yesterday, Jerry asked me if I wanted to do 70 miles and i said ‘no thank you’; what i should have followed up with, is ‘no, i would prefer to do LESS.

But all was good, despite the heat we maintained an aggressive pace (we felt good) and the scenery kept pace, too.By the time we reached our destination, we’d had eight hours in the saddle and had done 95 miles.  We were done!  However, since our chief navigator and hotel picker found a great hotel in the middle of the square, we managed a couple of pictures before dinner and bed.

This morning’s history lesson (since we were too tired last night)…….Wittenberg is also often also referred to as Luther Stadt Wittenberg, because that is where Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the church door and started the Protestant Reformation.  There is a 2003 movie with  Josef Fiennes (which we will now have to see, again) Luther, which chronicles Martin Luther’s life.

We slept in this morning…………’cause we can!  During the night a front came through and dropped the temperatures.  When we finally got out of the door it was 55 and drizzling.  Manfred had said, “when it rains in Germany, it always gets cold”……but it was 95 yesterday and it is the end of June!!  Seriously, a 40 degree drop in temperature?!
No matter, oddly enough after our very long ride yesterday, we were both ready to go, especially in the cooler temperatures.  But a bit of touring first.

Wittenberg is also where my grandfather grew up, so we had to find the house, which was only a mile from our hotel.  Would have knocked on the door, if either of us could have spoken the language, so we did a little more touring of the city and hit the road.
Unbeknown to us, the city had protected us from the blowing wind in our face, the rain didn’t take long to join in.  Which is a real shame, because it was a beautiful day……okay, maybe it wasn’t a beautiful day, but it really would have been a great ride if the temp had not dropped to 50 with a wind chill of 40, and that’s being generous.

Managed a quick picture;the beautiful fields in rich green from the rain, you’ll just have to imagine.

Surprising, neither of us got chilled until in the middle of the woods, we were stopped by another biker wanting to chat, in German.  Then the rain soaked us through via the penetrating wind.  We tried to go further, which required a ferry ride.  On the ferry, not generating heat by riding and one of us shaking from the cold., we both silently contemplated our options.  Then, at the same time we spotted the hotel across the river and both said DONE…..okay, one of us said it louder than the other!

But who could resist, warm, dry and a delicous bowl of HOT soup.

We WILL ride tomorrow!

A little diddy for the day is below.

Composed by the Noe/Bocrie team (of which I claim no part of in reference to below).

“Beer is good,

beer is good,

beer is good for me.

And I drink it every day,

you can plainly see ee.

And at  night at 12 o’clock,

when the fairies peek,

they will find me well and strong with roses on each cheek.”

It was a gloriously sunny morning, still cold (55) and windy, but no rain; this is what a morning should look like.

The ride today consisted of mostly forest, sometimes the Enchanted forest,fields, rough and rumble roads and Wind………in the face……..at 25 mph, plus stronger gusts!!!  But the vistas……. the downpour from yesterday seemed to have made everything green again.Skirted a few townsand rode the ferry across the Elbe with a way too big truck.But mostly we bumped along the rough paths pushing into the wind, sometimes almost blowing us over.  We were quite happy to finally cross the bridge into our destination of Magdeburg.It was a very tough 68 miles in the wind, but no rain, so we were happy.

There was a light drizzle when we woke this morning and though we were in a very nice hotel (with an incredible breakfast) in a very posh neighborhood, we were a couple miles from the center of the city and we’d already spent a day in a hotel room this week and were not quite ready to do it again.   So we left to similar conditions as yesterday, 51 degrees and a brisk wind, just no sun.  Without the sun, the temps did not warm.  With the slight drizzle on the way out of town, we did not do any touring as originally planned.  The ceiling seemed to lift about a half an hour out of town so we snapped a few pictures of the fields we were winding through.  Luckily, though the wind was still blowing at 25, it remained to our side and not directly in our face for most of the ride.  We definitely knew when we turned directly into it, as it stood us straight up.

We went through two or three sleepy little towns as if it was five o’clock in the morning……..guess nobody goes out in weather like this except riders, bikes and horses; we were definitely in horse country and actually saw a couple (horseback) riders facing the weather. Rode the dike top for several miles, offering us rooftop glimpses of the small villagesand another lock.Not sure if you can see, but the building on the left is the height of one canal and the water in the distance is what it drops to.

Saw the Elbe only twice today, once when we took the ferry to the other side and then as we approached Tangermünde when the winds had picked up to 40 mph…..a not so subtle hint the rain was not far behind.  But we managed to check in at 12:30 (after 50 miles) just before it got wicked.

We had hoped to tour this enchanting small town today, with a castle AND a church, but the weather is keeping us inside.