Day 81: Roudnice to Decin

July 2, 2022

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In our guesthouse we picked up a government pamphlet entitled "Central Bohemian Uplands - The Elbe Route". This featured the Eurovelo 7 insignia, the Route 2 sign and a Czech cycle association logo. So it seemed pretty credible. The pamphlet began by extolling the area, and urging everyone, including families with children to explore Cycle Route 2. The pamphlet then began at Roudnice - right where we were - and explained that the main route to Libotenice was too dangerous to ride, because of "a motorway with high traffic density". It suggested instead going up the other (left bank) side of the river.

I read this early in the morning, with Dodie still asleep, and slightly freaked. So I created a new gpx track for the left bank, and was just about to put this in her phone when she woke up. "What kind of idiots create a route and then declare it too dangerous to use?", was her measured first response. Her second response was to refuse to change the plan, and to stick with the right bank.

As usual, she was right. You can see the road they were afraid of, #261, on the map below. As it turned out, not only was there almost no traffic on that road, but a new cycle way eliminated the need to go on it at all. If one wanted to be at all nervous about this map, there is Terezin, also known as Theresienstadt. We believe we had one family member murdered there.

This particular error in favour of protecting families or whatever, was balanced by some stuff that was decidedly hostile to anyone that was not a youth on an unloaded mountain bike. Although 3/4 of today's track was beautifully paved and by the river, there was still a lot of rocky gravel that slowed us down a lot, though not as much as if there had been rain.

There were then two bits that were a serious pain. In the first case we came to the path blocked off, like this:

We broke our own rule here and somehow decided to believe the signage. This lead us to a long push down by the river, like this:

When we came out at the other side of the obstruction, I was curious, and rode down the road backwards to see what all the fuss was about. What I found was some dudes beginning to set up a stage for some sort of music event. There was lots of room to pass our bikes behind the stage. How annoying.

The other theatrics occurred just before the town of Usti. The radweg had mysteriously disappeared, but Dodie spotted it on the other side of a bunch of train tracks. Then we saw that cyclists were using a tunnel under the tracks. OK, but it was stairs and a narrow ramp down to the tunnel and the same up the other side. Did that, only to find it was two flights of steep steps up to some kind of a catwalk by a power station. Did that, though the bags had to come off. Next, of course, two sets of steep steps down the other side. Are these route people trying to tell cyclists on recumbents, with trailers, heavy loads, or old folks, or children, something? If yes, it would be forget about Czechia until they have their act better arranged!

In contrast to these cases, as mentioned, the route was very nice, and there were a few interest spots for us, like these:

A large area where people were playing petanques. We had thought of that as only from France.

The wheat is already beginning to be harvested!

Poppies. They have to get all the mohn (mahk) from somewhere!

These geese looked so pillow like and asleep.

This is the area of Bohemian Uplands, said the pamphlet.

But wait, we also could not help noticing remnants of past times, such as defunct factories, ugly building projects, and one derelict ferry, like this:

and lots of bunkers. Which occupying power built these, and for why?

Decin looked like it had some nice sections, but we had arrived late and did not really look around. We did spot a bakery by our hotel, and Dodie went in to pick up some snacks. She was surprised when the bakery clerk rejected her paper money, saying that a security stripe on it was the "old" narrow one, and she would only accept the new wide striped model.

The difference looks like this:

We looked it up and yes, the narrow stripes became obsolete on Thursday! We still have a pile of these, and banks are closed until we leave the country. But we prevailed on our hotel to swap the bills over. They are still actually good for two more years or something, but you have to convert them at the bank normally.

We found that our hotel in Decin had an Indian restaurant - a good chance to get rid of surplus Korunas! It was amazingly, terrifically good. One thing, we could not get the waitress to bring us fizzy mineral water. She obviously did not speak English, but surprisingly not German either. We are 15 km here from the German border.

Our route tomorrow will take us to Germany, to Pirna and the home of Thomas and Jana, a couple we met in 2012 in Austria. We have not seen them in 10 years. It will be fun to reconnect!

What gave Meaning to Life today? The smooth river path, when it finally appeared. We really needed to see it.

Today's ride: 74 km (46 miles)
Total: 4,554 km (2,828 miles)

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Ellen LeeI don’t remember stairs. I tried going up this hill on the road out of Libotenice but it was too steep so I turned back and kept riding along River. I don’t remember stairs and the path was really nice to Decice, actually new pavement so very smooth. I rode on right side of river than as I got into Decice I crossed the bridge and found a restaurant which had the owner speak English & was from Boston who married a Czech gal & opened a cafe, that’s how I had buffalo wings. My garmin map showed the way. The rest of ride was uneventful up to Dresden. OMG those stairs look horrid!
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1 year ago

Suzanne GibsonOur encounter with the stairs: https://www.cycleblaze.com/journals/bavariatothebaltic/decin-theresienstadt-terezin-enough-of-this/
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1 year ago

Steve Miller/GrampiesTo Suzanne GibsonWe love this reference, because it not only shows that we were not dreaming up the things that bugged us near Decin, but that another (respected!) blogger could freely express any negative feelings. We are just now going to put up a forum post to survey whether people prefer in a blog a frank narrative that can be both positive or negative, or one that glosses over negatives, or one that stresses negatives (even if they are all true or heartfelt.)
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1 year ago

Steve Miller/GrampiesTo Ellen LeeWhen we saw the (first, not even the worst) stairs, we considered sticking on the road. But the track was so clearly marked through the stairs, we figured they know what they were talking about. Dodie later said she was sorry she spotted the route signs at the stairs. Had we stayed on the road, it would have been a possibly scary couple of km, and then the track and the road joined. Maybe you missed seeing that the track wanted you on the stairs, and you just sailed down the road!
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1 year ago