Day 23

68 km Tabor-Ceske Budejovice

We started the morning with a visit to a bicycle shop to fix some loose inner stuff in Orsi's crank that had started to make noises already in Germany (oh, those roads..) and was worrying us. The mechanic also fixed a few other things, tightening up a few loose bolts, replacing lost bolts, and greasing the seat pole that was also making noises. What a difference it was riding on a perfectly quiet bike! :-)

Along the main roads, the terrain after Tabor is not so hilly. However, we decided to follow Garmin's advice which at least stays off the busiest roads. They are not flat though. The total ascent over 68 km was 671 metres and total descent 721 metres, with some missing data when the device turned itself off and had to be restarted. For our Trondheim readers, this is the same hillyness as going between Sluppen Bru and City Syd, back and forth, all day, in a temperature of 31 C... Sun cream and water can be useful, but poor Orsi couldn't almost drink the water due to the plastic taste of the warm bottles.

Regarding roads not being very busy, some roads *could* not be busy.
Isak got a flat tire (front wheel this time) on one of these roads, and with two bad pumps, it took a while until we could continue.
Not even a Land Rover could have successfully taken one of the roads suggested without getting stuck. It started quite well with two muddy tracks from tractor tyres. We went on the almost dry side, but wondered what it would look like after a rainfall if it looked like that after a dry spell. The road disappeared and we walked across a field of grass, which turned into a wheat field with tall plants. We walked where some vehicle seemed to have gone to spare the wheat from being destroyed. Two deers jumped out from the bushes and ran away from us. They were beautiful! The grand finale was to get up on the main road from this "road". This is where a Land Rover would land on its stomach..

You may wonder why we didn't take a different route. Well, the GPS told us it was only a kilometer until the next turn, so it was limited how much time we would lose by walking it. Also, Garmin doesn't have any "road blocked, route around" functionality, something TomTom offered on their devices already when I got my first one from them in 2005, eight years ago. Whenever the road is blocked due to roadworks or else, you're on your own, completely unnecessary, since this is a very easy feature to implement.

30 km before arriving to Ceske Budejovice, we ate pizza and chips, which gave us new energy for the remaining etappe. These last kilometres went past quickly, with lots of downhills in different forests, and with the sun not burning so hot as it did before. We reached our maximum speed at 56-58 km/h. :-)

With the heat that has caused us to be behind schedule, and the weather reports promising even much warmer weather, we have realized over the last few days that we will face more delays, and arrive to Budapest the day before Orsi's brother leaves and also after some of her friends leave for their holidays.

An alternative is to finish the journey now, take the train from Ceske Budejovice to Budapest, and have a full week there, with family and friends, visit places we wanted to visit, go running in the Budapest parks, and go to Lake Balaton. It was a no-brainer, really. We booked tickets for the next morning, got an executive suite at Zvon Grand Hotel at the main square for the final night :-), and had a nice meal in the upstairs living room area, before setting the alarm clock at 6:20 to make it to the 8 o'clock train.

Day 22

78 km, Senohraby-Tábor

We started again quite late, at noon, being sweaty even before sitting on the bikes. This climate is certainly killing us, although no question, this is the perfect weather for sunbathing and swimming in lakes. ;-)

The first 15 km were on small roads in the middle of nowhere, with heavy hills, and by 30 km we needed a break. We drunk cold water and Coke with ice ('led' in Czech), and had some raspberry and chocolate-banana pastries at a beautiful castle.

Later on, at the next stop, we found out that Isak was carrying a lot of food we bought days/weeks ago, and after getting rid of them, Isak could ride with 1 kg less weight. Nice feeling!

We saw quite a few dead animals on the roads. While in Scandinavia foxes were the main victims, here in Czech Republic and in Germany we saw several hedgehogs and mice, accompanied by dead birds.

The landscape did not make our journey much easier during the day, as we had to climb more and more hills on the way to Tabor. These hills were a lot easier than in the beginning, and in the last 30 km we only climbed 300 metres. With luggage and the early afternoon hills in our legs if felt a bit more though.

We arrived to Tabor happily that finally we could get an early rest (it was just 7 pm), but as we had to make a detour to the city centre because of closed roads, it was already late by the time we finished our dinner at an Indian restaurant. The restaurant we ate at, was next to a cafe Isak went to in his year 2000 cycling trip. That time, that cafe was full of people and dogs running around between the tables. Now it was quite empty. Perhaps it was just because it was Monday night this time.

We passed by three bicycle shops on the way back to the hotel; both our bikes needs to be fixed in the morning.

Day 21

67 km, Kralupy nad Vltavou-Senohraby

Today was similar to when we went through Berlin some days ago, except much hillier. The first 25 km was going through long hills in Kralupy, fields, villages that became more and more urban. We were just on the outskirts of Prague when we passed our 2000 km mark.

In Prague we enjoyed eating in parks, watching the view from another park, and passed the Norwegian embassy.

Going shopping, going to museums, and even crossing Karlov Most or other areas with thousands of tourists is not so much on the wish list when travelling with a bicycle cart full of stuff. We had a good experience cycling through the city though.

Sometimes we think it would have been easier to travel with nothing but a credit card in the back pocket. Isak did that once for two weeks, well, almost. Some tools, and one set of extra clothes, etc fit fine in the bottom of a light backpack. Most of the clothes we brought has been dead weight.  As you can see from the photos from lately, Isak has worn the same t-shirt, washed daily by hand. It is so warm here it pretty much dries on the way to the dinner. :-)

Reading weather reports from home, +8 C in the morning, and +12 C in the afternoon feels surreal and very far away now. In the afternoon sunny uphills those temperatures sound like paradize sometimes. :-)

30 degrees warm and hills make our journey a lot harder than we imagined. We hope tough that we won't run out of time, and that we can enjoy a nice rest in Hungary soon.

Day 20

74 km, Usti nad Labem-Kralupy nad Vltavou

We slept in late today, and left Usti around 1 o'clock. The first part of our trip was on a bicycle path along the river Labe. A note for the future if you are pulling a cart: take a detour before you come to the dam, because that involves carrying your bike up and down some stairs. A challenge, but there were several helpful other cyclists there who helped. Anyway, by 2 o'clock we still didn't ride more than 9 km..

We're glad we followed the path further, as it turned out to be full of little restaurants just for cyclists. Just imagine a garden full of parked bicycles, and tables with just as many bicycle helmets as beer glasses, and happy people enjoying the shade. All in all, we might have seen more cyclists today than during our entire trip so far.

In all, we have the impression that the Czech countryside has retained much more life than what we saw in Brandenburg. We remember the day when we cycled through village after village for 70 km without a single place to buy anything, and now we had places everywhere, both restaurants and small and big groceries shops ("Potraviny" is a useful sign to look for).

We had another few stops for small meals and to rest. At one stop, in Litomerice, we bought some water melon in a little shop, and sat down at the curb in front of a train station. Not maybe the perfect spot for a picnic, but it did fine. After cycling three hundred meters later we discovered the most beautiful park...

Our final stop was in Kralupy nad Vltavou, 20 km from Prague, where we stayed at Hotel Sport. Although modernized and probably more welcoming than in the past, it had a clear heritage from the communist times. First, who today would build a "Sport Hotel" with a long, wide stone stair case to the entrance of brownish glass doors. Old black and white clips with Karel Gott on tv in the restaurant. A perfect time machine, worth a visit. :-)

Day 19

122 km, Lauchhammer-Ústí nad Labem

Just after 9 o'clock we were on the road (our earliest start!) looking for a nearby shop to buy water and ice tea. We cycled past a Danish windmill manufacturing company, Vestas - those windmill wings look even bigger when lying on the ground!

After 30 km we had our first break, at a lake next to Zschorna. A road goes through the lake, and we were sitting on one side looking out over the lake and eating the bakery goods we had bought in the previous town. We left when Orsika discovered a small snake sliding past in front of us. It was probably harmless, but we had just finished eating anyway.

Next stop was Dresden. We first arrived to a part of town called Neustadt (new town), which was dominated by old buildings, young people, hip beer gardens, little shops, and quite a bit of graffiti. We cycled on and stopped in Altstadt (old town), dominated by modern architecture including a quite new shopping mall. Starbucks, Deichmann, H&M, and other brands like anywhere else. No graffiti. Of course, although *dominated* by glass and concrete, there were still surprisingly many old buildings restored after the bombings of the city during the war.

Leaving Dresden we could have followed the river for a flatter ride, but we went up in hills, despite the heat, around 30 C today, enjoyed a large meal an hour after leaving the city center, as a final preparation for the long hills towards the Czech Republic.

The thing about the area between Dresden and the north of Chech Republic is that you climb the same elevation more than once. Up, down, up, down. This was probably our first really hilly day since Norway. It was our slowest day,16.2 km/h on average, but also the one with the fastest descent, 59.8 km/h with tailwind but breaking. It could have easily gone faster without breaking, without the cart, and pedalling. One road sign read "12%,  next 3.5 km". Isak liked this, but it was too much for Orsika's taste.

The border area of Czech Republic looks like the Swedish side of the Norwegian-Swedish border, or the German side of the Danish-German border: large signs in the neighbour language about cheap cigarettes, booze, dentist services, and you name it... ;-)

The last ten or so km to our goal of the day, the city of Usti nad Labem, was a milder downhill ride, all the way, it was like riding a perfectly quiet motorbike. In the 13 years that had passed since Isak's last ride on the same road a lot had happened to the road quality. The pot holes were gone, and the asphalt was perfect.

Arriving at the same hotel as 13 years ago, Hotel Vladimir, one thing had changed: we were greeted in English as opposed to German last time. It is not clear whether this is because more young people study Engilsh instead of German nowadays, or because there more tourists from other countries than Germany.

After a well needed shower we withdrew some Czech Korunas and went to eat pizza.

Day 18

106 km, Zossen-Lauchhammer

At the same time Trondheim has its coldest July for a very long time, we were blessed with 26 C and mixed cloudy and sunshine here in south Brandenburg. Almost too warm, but it could have been far further from perfect at this time of the year. :-)

We cycled through fields, alleys, forests, town, and stop here and there to buy mineral water. It starts at around 19 cents for 1.5 litres, a fraction of what it costs at home, and gives back some of the minerals we sweat out during our cycling.

As soon as we came to the town of Finsterwalde we stopped at a little Gasthaus that had been in the same family for exactly 100 years this year. In the parking lot there were two horses who looked at us with friendly interest as we arrived with our bicycles. :-) Excellent food for cyclists, meat, potatoes, onion, cheese, lots of coke to drink (and banana juice - we have to find the recipe for this when we get home).

After Finsterwalde, towards Lauchhammer, there was a sign that the road was okay until the road works, but further passage was not possible. We accepted the gamble, rather than making a long detour, so we went anyway. First, alone on five km on perfect asphalt, except for one car. The last half of this had no trees, only sand and occasional bushes. It reminded of what one could expect from going through a desert in Arizona. Yeah, except for the heat of course. An impressive landscape with views to far away, like in the Scandinavian mountains, but flat. Apparently the landscape was a result of coal mining, so it was dangerous to leave the road, said the signs.

Anyway, we got closer to the road works, and met a young French student, working in Germany for the summer, who explained that it was only two km of bad road that we could walk. He had ridden a mountain bike through the road works. We talked a bit and wished each other luck for the continued journey. Walking through the open field, almost plowing the ground with our bikes, was had work, but still beautiful. We had plenty of time before the sun would set, we had plenty of water with us, and two hot-air balloons were accompanying us from a distance.

Arriving to Lauchhammer we quickly found a place for the night, a family hotel again, had a wash and went to bed. Tomorrow we'll have an early start, finally. Hopefully we can have a mechanic solve the mysterious noises from Orsi's bike, that we failed to make quiet.

Day 17

80 km, Germendorf-Zossen

An alternative header for today could have been "80 km, through Berlin".

Soon after leaving Germendorf and riding through the first few alleys along the wheat and corn fields, we could see that we were approaching a big city. Houses, shops, more and more closely together. In a strange way it was a good feeling of coming back to civilization. No more worrying about running out of water.

On the way into Berlin we crossed the old border between east and west, once quite empty, but now full of twenty year old trees. A symbol of not only the reunification of Germany, but of the end of the cold war. We would see more of this at Brandenburger Tor and Potsdamer Platz.

Once in central Berlin, we suddenly bumped into one of Isak's rickshaw friends from London, Mike. We had a good chat about cycling, news about common friends, etc.

After a nice meal at the riverside, not far from Unter den Linden but still much cheaper, it was already 6:30pm, and we had only done 37 km during the day, but we decided to push it for just a couple of more hours.

We ended up at a wonderful little family run hotel in Zossen, Hotel Reuner, where they grow their own vegetables, have rabbits, sell local honey, wine, etc. Again, coincidences led us to nice surprises.

PS. 1 There were no potholes today by the way. :-)

PS. 2 Berlin looks a lot like Budapest. :-)