Wow - today was a day of superlatives. The scenery was incredible: high rock cliffs, rock climbers scaling the heights, limestone cliffs, castles and fortresses at the top of the cliffs....It became hard to know how to capture the reality of it on film. With each pedal stroke of the bike, we would share our wonder at the sights we were seeing. Staying at Camp Fortune last night was a really good experience. The owners are great people and we really liked jumping in to the swimming pool after our hot day of riding. The balcony off of our bedroom was a pleasure for us to use to have our coffee and enjoy the incredible view and sunset.
We began the day with the frustrating situation of needing food for breakfast. There were no shops or cafes along the way - and finally we found a Kaufland's in Decin. Kaufland's is like a Costco at home. That is, it is immense and as it is organized for Czech shoppers, it is confusing for us Canadians. It felt like we walked several football fields to simply find provisions for breakfast. Workers in the store took me under their wing, and would walk me to the item I was looking for. I appreciated their great service, and I'm sure that the language barrier made it easier for them to show me rather than try to tell me where it was. The time it took ate in to our precious travel time. We ate our breakfast in a park in Decin surrounded by dramatic scenery as well as watching rock climbers scaling the rocky cliffs across the river. If there is one thing that we are sure of, it is that we will never endeavor to try this sport. It made us anxious just watching their progress up the cliffs.
When we got to the Czech/German border we felt sorry to leave this great country that has challenged us and given us such joy as travellers. It is bittersweet, as we are also excited to return to Germany. We have spent much time here in the past 3 years, and it has become a place we love and are beginning to understand. We are planning another route for our return to Czech Republic on a later trip. There is much more that we want to explore.
We met a couple from Germany earlier in Czech Republic who had ridden south from Hamburg and they told us that their favourite part of the Elbe was the section from Prague to Dresden. After the last two days of riding, we can understand their point of view. It is hard to imagine that it can get any better than this. We took a couple of ferries to cross the river and take advantage of what we hoped would be a better route and perhaps fewer hills. This was a good idea and we enjoyed our brief time on the water. We even tried an alternate route that we thought would help us make time, but the heavy traffic scared us back to the regular route. So far, we are finding that the signage is not great. Two things are helpful - follow the Garmin and stay on the route. The alternate routes leave you guessing as to where you should be.
We have finished our riding day at Camp Wostra, just a few km south of Dresden. We discovered that they offer an extraordinary kitchen, dining and TV room for campers. So, here we sit watching the World Cup - Brazil is currently leading in their game against Columbia (Brazil is a local favourite) and happily for our fellow campers, Germany defeated France, 1-0. After Grmany's victory, horns and bells and fireworks were ringing loudly in support of their team. It is fun for us to be caught up in World Cup fever in Europe. At this point, we're rooting for Holland and Germany to make the final. But our support also goes to Brazil as they are an amazing team and we can see that they carry the weight of their country on their shoulders.
Vladamir and Dana, the couple from the Czech Republic that we met at Camp/Hotel Formule have a total of 56 gears with their Rohloff hub and their Swiss made Schumpf gearing system.
