We thoroughly enjoyed our stay in Dresden - the hotel was a step up from our usual accomodation and the breakfast was probably one of the best we've had travelling. The hotel is known for their restaurant/chef and we can see why. Leaving the hotel was a bit of a leap of faith as the humidity has returned full force and we know that we are in for a tough day on the bike. We hope that the thunder storms will wait for us to get to our destination. The ride out of Dresden's Neustadt on the north side gave us a spectacular view of the skyline. It is Sunday morning and we see families, couples and friends out for a relaxing day together. Soon we started to see more and more cyclists wearing the same green t-shirts. We discovered that we were in the middle of an annual cycling event ("cycling party") that has thousands of participants riding on 30/60 and 120 km rides. Well, it seems that we are finally in a peloton, and we will ride with them to Radebeul. It was congested, festive and lots of fun. At one point, there was such a bottleneck on the trail, that we all walked our bikes. At Meissen, we decided to abandon the scenic north side of the river for a bit of shade and crossed the bridge. We took refuge in an air conditioned gas station and enjoyed some ice cream. We are finding that the trail in this area is mostly cobbles, some gravel, and very bumpy. We checked out a camping place at Gohlis, but it was a bit odd, deserted and no breeze or shelter. So, we pushed on to Riesa. As we pulled up and stopped at a side street, a man came out of Pension Friedland and offered us a room for 48 euros including breakfast. We must have looked a bit desperate! We hadn't intended on staying there, but the prospect of an immediate cold shower won us over. This guesthouse is family run and a special place. Our room was comfortable and the dining room was full of original historic paintings furniture and was truly a labour of love for the owner. We felt like we had had a personal tour of a museum when we ate our breakfast. We each had at least 3 cold showers while we were there.
We saw many forms of cycling: hand cycles, wheelchair assisted cycles, recumbents (1 and us!), child carriers, etc. and all ages and sizes of participants riding.
What a hoot watching this swan so determined to open the car door on this vehicle. It pecked along the side until it came to the handle and worked away at it. We are sure that the car's owner will be wondering what all of the marks are from .
