First thought going through my head this morning when I woke up is that I really would like to stay for a day, I’m not ready for a new day in the rain….BUT!!!!
I woke up around 9am. I’m listening to music and got a phone call from Lillian. I’m not ready to get out of bed, I could stay there forever.
It’s knocking on my door. It’s time for breakfast. It’s not the mother that’s in the house anymore, at this time it is the old grand mother…It’s easy to see. If you are 5 minutes late for breakfast she let’s you know…I mean, she really let’s you know!
I walk directly back to my bed after breakfast and a coffee. Can’t you just let me stay here, I don’t want to move!
It’s knocking at my door again, you can here the sound of her talking loudly: «Schließen, schließen 10 Uhr». I reply: soon, soon… and in my head I’m thinking, «leave me alone, just go, just give me a break!»
The owner of this pension asked me to write about the trip in his guestbook, and so I did.
It’s empty here, I’m all alone, maybe she left? I leave the key in the door to my room and start cycling.
Lena, one of the girls that were in the pension yesterday were standing 100 meters down the street. She’s waiting for the train to Berlin. They’ve been hiking for 8 days now, so she wanted to see something else than forrest and nature. I have a quick talk with her before I continue.
It’s only about 45Km to the Czech boarder. So far the weather have been quite nice with me. I’m cycling in my rain jacket and are quite warm at the moment.
For the first time on my trip, I’m actually connecting the name of a place to how the surroundings are. I can promise you that if the name includes «Berg», it will be some climbing there….
When I’m cycling through Eisenbuhl, the people are stopping in the streets and just look at me while I’m climbing the streets with the tunes of Rita Eriksen singing «Det lys som alltid skinne», sometimes it’s nice to have some variation from the pop playlists.
Some people, including me, would love the name of a road called «panorama weg», but in this case it will most likely include more climbing, and so it does!
I’m cycling with a smile on my face today. It feels great to be back…YES, I’M BACK! After a hard day yesterday, I can’t describe how good it feels to climb the streets with a smile on my face.
I stop at a museum. This actually looks like a museum that is worth paying for. There’s a tanks standing outside, and you can see the walls and barbed wire fences in the museum area. I pay 3 euro to get the access. I’m taking some pictures and are looking at all the historical monuments.
The road further is good quality, just as earlier today. At some parts I’m cycling on the concrete plates, which is no problem today, the roads are flat in these areas and I’m stopping several times to take some pictures.
I reach the czech boarder. I’m in the middle of the forrest. I cross a small bridge and takes a picture at the boarder. I need to disconnect the trailer and carry my equipment up the stairs to get to the gravel road. Finally, country nr 9 out of 20.
I’m cycling on gravel roads for a while and when I reach the asphalt, I can see a sign with route nr 13, «The Iron Curtain Trail». It’s pointing me in the correct direction.
Dogs….It’s 2 things that hits my face when I got into this country, it’s poor and the dogs are not trained to be nice, they are trained to be aggressive. I cycle through some streets and the dogs are really close to jump over the fence when I pass them. One of the dogs are running back and forth on the property, you can see that he’s trained to keep people out of their land. I must admit that if I’m afraid of something on this trip, it is the crazy dogs…
After cycling through Hranice, I’m on the direction towards Aš. I’ve decided that I will stop there, if I can find a place to stay.
The difference between Czech Republic and Germany is huge. It’s so easy to see that it’s a poor country. You can see it on the buildings and the people, you can see it on the way people dress and just that they don’t care about how they look when they are walking in the streets.
After a while I find a hotel in Aš. The price is really low compared to Germany. A hotel room is 13 Euro. When I walk into the hotel and the restaurant, I can’t see anything… I would need a radar to find the bar or the reception desk, the room are filled with smoke.
I carry my bicycle to the room and have a good shower. It’s been heavy rain for the last 1.5 hour, but I don’t care. I’m warm now and are walking out to a restaurant.
I’m ready for a new day tomorrow. I will get back to Germany and will probable spend the night there.
Picture album from todays trip:
GPS Data from todays trip: