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Today we chose a shorter day (only 36 km), to allow ourselves some recovery space, and expecting more hills. We had a lovely big breakfast in the banqueting hall of the pension, where the wedding had taken place the previous day. Just us at one table and early rising wedding guests at the other. We had eggs, sausages, cheese, muesli, yogurt, little cakes, not very good coffee.

It was hot from early in our ride and there was no wind to cool us. Our ride was mostly through rural hill country, on very quiet roads, through wheat fields and occasional wooded areas. We would stop for water/ rest breaks in the shade of any tree alongside the road.

Kris observed again that the swarms of gnats that delighted in alighting on our sweaty faces could not keep up when we travelled faster than 10 km/h. Between 9-10 km/hour they hover around and disappear after a couple of seconds. Any slower than this and we are plagued by insects. They can also be problematic when you hit a downhill run – as they hover in swarms and can easily be breathed in or swallowed if you don’t keep your mouth closed.

Every now and then we would pass through a small town. Our route took us through Korytha, Plane, Vladmerice. The biggest town we went through was Manetin, which had lots of statues all over the place – leading into the town and along a cobbled promenade near the church. We were keen to buy an ice cream, but even Manetin didn’t seem to have any open shops (at least not on the main throughway).

The final couple of towns were Psov and Zizkov, until we reached our destination Zlutice at around midday. One of the first things we saw as an open supermarket, so we were quick to go and buy some ice cream (and other essentials such as dental floss). From here it was still a long hill climb (walking the bikes) in the hot sun to our hotel at the other end of town. I was quite happy to stop and get out of the heat early in the afternoon.

The Pension is in a complex which includes mini-golf, squash courts, virtual golf and virtual bowling. We had beer and a meal (mixed grill with vegetables) on the terrace after it had cooled down. We met and chatted with a German couple from Berlin during our meal. They are also on a (shorter) cycle tour. We have not seen any other cycle tourists on our route since Prague, but today there were two other cycle tourist couples (the other was 2 young men) staying at this pension.

Today’s ride was easier going overall, but still very hot. In all it was 46 km from Zlutice to Karlovy Vary, a major stop on the Eurovelo 4.

It was a bit of a climb out of town, on through Ratiboř, after which we entered some woods on an off road path. This was marked as a dotted line on the cycle map app, so we knew it may be marginal. Some parts of it were certainly not easy, as can be seen from the photos. I also saw a small deer scuttling away in the brush (near the muddy bit).

As we were riding along these sections, Kris made several remarks that we may already be on the Eurovelo 4 – as there was no other way through here. I thought he was joking, until we emerged from the woods at Polom (just a few houses and a junk heap here), to see this sign. The small blue stickers with 4 in the centre are the Eurovelo 4 designation.

The rest of the ride was less eventful, our route took us through Údrč, Bochov, Dlouhá Lomnice, Pila and Kolová. We saw a few heards of cows for the first time on the ride – must be a sign that the landscape is getting less mountainous.

We stopped for ice cream and water at a small store in Kolová, and Kris was asked for some advice on car maintenance (to help identify the brake fluid holder using an English car manual) by the Chinese owner.

The rest of the ride was on nice easy contoured roads and mostly downhill. We approached Karlovy Vary through a long downhill forest stretch, which was pretty satisfying.

Karlovy Vary (formally Karlsbad) is famous for its hot springs, and was founded by Charles IV of Bohemia in the 14th century (there is a silly story about a hunting dog falling into a spring and being healed). It has lots of ostentatious buildings and many hotels. Also plenty of cafes and high end shops aimed at a wealthy clientele (Pierre Cardin anyone?). It was really hot when we arrived and we couldn’t resist a beer at a pavement cafe – further tempted by the jaunty music from a nearby busking accordion player.

Kris spent about an hour in the heat re-balancing the wheel on my bicycle. It seems the tube is of poor quality and maybe a little small so is causing a dent in the tyre near the valve. Kris spent about an hour in the heat re-balancing the wheel on my bicycle. It seems the tube is of poor quality and maybe a little small so is causing a dent in the tyre near the valve.

We found a good restaurant to eat a pizza and Cabonara pasta for supper, after which we had an early night.

Today we enjoyed an easier ride on Eurovelo 4 from Karlovy Vary to Cheb. Most of route was cycling along river, on good quality bike paths with fewer steep sections than previous days, so it was not so hard on the body. The route zig zagged along the bends in the Ohře river and between towns – so we ended up doing 72 km, even though the straight line distance should only have been about 40 km. The first part of the ride was through part of the Slavkov forest.

The bike path goes directly past the impressive granite Svatoš rocks, which are a national monument. Kris had to carry the bikes up a little staircase here and then we had to cross the swing bridge. The swing bridge was moved around quite a bit while I was crossing it!

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Coming out of the forest, we passed through Loket – enjoying views of the bridge and the castle directly above.

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We had an unplanned 3 km detour after Sokolov – we missed a turn off and ended up going up a steep hill around one an a half km. In the end we just turned and came down again. This was the major hill climb of the day (just keeping our hand in).

Kris had another flat tyre on his font wheel directly following our detour and we had a stopped to change it near a small closed up outdoor cafe (on cafe lawn). The cafe opened while we were still there and we got some ice cream and had a conversation with another cyclist who stopped to drink a beer. He is a retired German musician from Weimar, who loves Czech and regularly visits. He cites music and slower pace of life as key attractions of the Czech culture.

It was very hot again but a lot of the route was in the shade and we were able to maintain a reasonable speed – which keeps one cool. In the last 10 km or so we were cruising along at around 20-25 km per hour on tarred flat zig zagging bike paths to Cheb.

Cheb has a very lovely central town square. We located a bike shop and bought a new tube and found our accommodation, which is very spacious and close to the town square. It is not so easy to locate bike shop and hotel as tourist info marked them on the wrong places on the town map!

After showering and cleaning our clothes we spent quite a bit of time planning our route for tomorrow – we decided to hug the Czech border and head north.
We had a walk around the town square and an excellent meal (calzone, tagliatelle, salad, beer) at a place we spotted just off the town square.

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Today we had planned a shorter route, expecting heat and hills – both of which we got. In all, we did 47 km from Cheb to Aš.
We planned an early start at around 8 am, which didn’t happen when I took my bike out of the lock up and discovered a flat back tyre! This ended up delaying us until around 10.30, while we mucked around with the tire. First we took the tube out and couldn’t find a leak, so put it back on, pumped it up and left. By the time we were at the other end of the town it was flat again, so we took the tube out again, found the leak, but couldn’t find anything causing it on the tire. Kris used the expensive Swab inner tube we bought the day before and it immediately seated in the tire perfectly, with no bulges like the other tube. We decided to go and buy another two of these tubes before leaving – which involved finding the bicycle shop again. Bicycle maintenance is one of the the more frustrating aspects of bike touring.

The paths today were very varied. We had a lovely forest ride just out of Cheb, then a ride alongside a road with cars, past lots of wheat fields, then another forest ride to the border. I almost missed the border it was so obscure but Kris pointed the sign out to me. There was a German policeman sitting in a car on the other side with a dog. He seemed to be looking for something specific – anyway he was friendly enough.

We were following the Grunes Dach Radweg, but the first part after the border was actually also called the Eger Radweg, as it followed the Eger river. Some parts were directly on the river and others took us away through forests or green wheat fields – with quite a bit of climbing to and from the river (which is also the German-Czech border). At one point we started following a track on the wrong side of the Egar river – it became a real walking track – Kris checked his phone and we doubled back to cross at a wooden bike/pedestrian bridge.

It was also very hot – we took four bottles of water with us and stopped twice to ask for top ups from householders who were outside (one working in the garage). So in all we drank 8 bottles of water during our ride.

After Silberbach there were very long straight dirt roads – they did not follow the contour but went straight up and down – really cool going down but hot riding or pushing the bike up.

We crossed the border into Czech again on an forest path with a very small sign. We rode through the town of Aš before reaching our accommodation. It is a typical border town, a little seedy with crumbling buildings, lots of glass on the ground. It also has very steep streets – going down was ok but walking up the other side was taxing at the end of the ride.

We are staying in a Casino around 2 km out of town, basically on the border. We have stayed in all types of accommodation on our tours before, but never in a Casino. It is really reasonable – actually costs less than a youth hostel I looked at in Germany. Our room is big with a huge bath. You have to walk through the casino gaming area to get to it. It is “all inclusive” – which means that we can help ourselves to a buffet for breakfast, lunch and dinner. And beer is included. We enjoyed sitting in the quiet dining area alongside the gaming floor and ate well (including lots of fruit). This would be one of our cheapest days food and accommodation.

Today was an easier and more relaxing day. We did a shorter distance – only 43 km (from Aš to Klingenthal). Although there were still a lot of hills, they were reasonably graded (easier for cycling). It was also not quite as hot, with the forecast high only around 20 degrees. We didn’t even drink all our water!

We left really early, around 8am. We did our first 20 km in an hour, as the road was mostly downhill, on roads without much traffic. The main event during this part of the ride was crossing the border into Germany again.

We rode through Bad Elster – past a huge spa. (German towns whose name starts with “Bad” are spa or health towns). The next section of cycle way was brand new and luxurious. The sign says that it is funded by European Union funds for regional development. We saw these signs alongside a number of the new cycle ways between villages in Czech – but this is the first one we can read!

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The cycle way was alongside a railway track again after Adorf, to Markneukirchen. We stopped here, as we saw they had a tourist info office. They didn’t really have any useful information on cycling trails – it is evidently not a big part of the tourist offering in this part of the world. However we did catch sight of the worlds largest violin – in the musical instrument museum alongside the tourist office. This area is known for its violin makers, and a group of them built this beast. It is 4.27m long and the bow is 5.22m. It is takes three musicians to play it – one on the strings and two on the bow. You can see it on YouTube here – https://youtu.be/KetMm_70QmM

After Erlbach we got onto a long forest road (mostly uphill). It was very scenic and pleasant, with a good tar surface (with not too much bike pushing). We didn’t see another bike or car on this road – it was very peaceful.

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We rode past a huge, almost deserted hotel/ ski resort at Landesgemeinde – the area must be very popular in winter. Parts of our forest road were directly on the Czech border. At one point you could cross the border on a little footpath adjoining our road, with only a stone marking the border.

The tar surface changed to gravel near the top. The downhill road to Klingenthal was so steep that we got off our bikes and pushed them for part of the way, to save our brakes.

The town of Klingenthal is mostly known for its large ski jump (which we didn’t see as we were not keen on riding up the mountain). The town centre was very quiet when we got there. It felt like a bit of Klingenthal spilled over the border – we rode across and found a bunch of budget shops and a restaurant just on the other side. It seems that these exist to entice German bargain hunters – with a focus on selling alcohol and cigarettes. There was a lot more activity on this side of the border. The restaurant turned out to be nicer than I thought at first glance. It was busy, with everyone sitting on the veranda out front. We were keen to spend our remaining Czech currency (Korona), so we had a meal (goulash with the now familiar Czech style dumplings). We also bought some chocolate and sweets at the store.

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Our Gasthaus was a traditional German style country hotel – friendly and comfortable. We had a light meal and some beers at the hotel restaurant in the evening.

Today we only did 40 km, from Klingenthal to Lengenfeld. We have given up following the Czech/German border as the terrain in that direction seems to be getting too mountainous and it is slow going. So we are heading more north, to ensure we can reach Hamburg on schedule.

Although it was short, our ride was not all easy going. We struggled to find good bicycle paths the whole day. We found ourselves sharing the road with cars more often than not, in sharp contrast to the previous day. Thankfully the weather remains reasonably cool.

The first mishap occurred when we missed our turnoff at Zwota to Oberzwota and found ourselves on a long hill climb with reasonably fast moving cars coming past at regular intervals (and not much shoulder to the road). We pushed our bikes up the steeper sections instead of riding really slowly, feeling that it was safer with the traffic. This route was more direct and shaved a few km off our total intended journey. We took the opportunity to turn off from this road near the top, at the small settlement of Kottenheide. Kris could see some minor roads through the woods on his app, so we decided to use these to cut through to a bike path below. The first part of the road was very good. Then we turned off onto another side road and it steadily deteriorated, but we didn’t want to turn back because we have already traversed part of it. This was once a forestry road, but had obviously not been used for some time. There was a small stream running down the centre so we got all muddy, there was long wet grass and patches of nettles (very unpleasant), and then there were also a number of trees that had dropped across the path. I wouldn’t have gotten my bike through without help from Kris. He pulled some of the trees out of the way and lifted the bicycles over one of them. At one point the water/nettles situation was so bad that Kris took the bikes over a little ditch to the side of the path. It eased up after a couple of hundred meters and we were quite elated when we joined back onto a real bike path. This took us into Schöneck, the biggest ski resort in East Germany and the highest located town in the district (at 700m).

From here we travelled to Falkenstein, again finding that the bike routes indicated on the phone app were usually not on very quiet roads. We stopped here for an ice cream from the supermarket (1/2 litre of Belgium chocolate ice cream with huge choc lumps).

After Falkenstein, we got separated (Jenny didn’t see Kris turn off onto a side road), and Jenny continued on the busy road to Ellefeld, where she stopped to send a sms text and wait for Kris. We reconnected and continued on the busy road to Auerbach. From here we did find some quieter roads, through Rodewisch.

We had a funny incident at one point (near Rodewisch) where the bicycle route we were following on the app had to cross a small stream. We found a construction site at the crossing, where they were building a new bridge. Standing at the edge of the site, we were happy to see a small temporary wooden bridge over the stream. How thoughtful we said, as we set off to cross it – pushing the bikes down and up steep banks on either side. When we got to the reconnecting road on the other side, we found that it had been fenced off as a construction site – so we couldn’t get out! Kris was just starting to unbolt part of the fence (taking his bike tools out) when a man (who was silently observing us up till then), started yelling and waving at us from the other side of the bank to come back. We decided not to push our luck, so we turned around. At the bottom we spotted another crossing – a little weir, which was not too deep. We quickly rode through the water and found our way back to the road.

The bicycle route followed the railway track for a while out of Rodewisch. This was fine for a while but eventually disappeared into a large neatly mowed field (which was actually fine to ride on). Soon after this we gave up on supposed bike tracks, and did the last few kilometres into Lengenfeld on the road (which was not too busy).

Lengenfeld is a small neat town and our hotel is right on the central square – so we just cruised right up to it. It is a huge hotel and we are in an economy room right on a top floor – the lift went up to the floor below, with a little route to get to the top floor.
After cleaning up and doing the next day’s route planning, we went and had a beer at the hotel bar, before wandering around the square. Our eating options were an ice cream place, a kebab shop, a bakery and a pizza restaurant. A few people had bought ice creams and were sitting eating them around the fountains in the middle of the square. We decided to eat at the pizza restaurant – it was very pleasant sitting at an outside table and the calzone (folded) pizzas were good.

Today’s ride from Lengenfeld to Zeitz was satisfying, as we found some good bike paths and it was quite invigorating to do a long ride again – we achieved 95 km.

It was pleasantly cool in the morning and the bicycle paths between Lengenfeld and Greiz followed the Göltzsch river, a tributary of the Elster. The route went through Weissensand, Mühlwand and MyLau. We enjoyed the view of the MyLau castle from the bike path.

We had a bit of a climb through the fields to Reinsdorf and then a long downhill run to Greiz, where we also stayed in 2017. The town still looked just the same, bringing back memories as we rode through.

We crossed to the other side of the river, to follow a different path to the one we took two years ago. The trail now follows the White Elster river and is referred to as the Elster cycle trail on the signage. It took a romantic but slow path through the forest alongside the river. There were good river views and a wood carving alongside the bike path at Neumuhle.

The cycle route moved away from the river to Waltersdorf, Obergeissendorf, Berga and then a long stretch through the quiet wooded roads to Wünschendorf. We bought an ice cream at Gera, where we had also stayed two years ago. The ride became quite ugly after Salsitz, and we approached Zeitz past a large soap factory.

Zeitz has a small baroque castle, and a slightly run down historic centre. There are a number of empty buildings, including right next to our very basic, but friendly, pension. We self catered with a kebab/ pizza and some salads from the supermarket.

Today is Pentecost (Pfingsten), which is a big holiday in Germany. Monday is also a public holiday, but the main day to celebrate and enjoy seems to be the Sunday. We enjoyed seeing the people out and about enjoying themselves as we rode through Leipzig.

The ride (from Zeitz to Delitzsch) was 80 km overall and relatively flat, mostly on dedicated bike paths, making it very do-able. Our hands were just still a bit sore from the long ride yesterday.
We continued following the Elster bike path for the first 40 km or so, which was mostly tarred. It felt good riding along at a steady pace, and even being able to ride side by side a lot of the time (because the bike path was so wide). There were few people out and about early on Sunday morning, mostly dog walkers.
We saw a wood carved man sitting on a bench right near the start of our ride, at Zangenberg. The man is Prof Dr Johannes Thienemann (1863-1938), an ornithologist who established the practice of ringing birds to study their migratory habits.

Our route went through Pegau and then around the two lakes to the south of Leipzig – the Zwenkauer See and the Cospudener See.

We started to see groups of people on bikes at the start of these lake rides (around 10 km before Leipzig). These increased, most coming from the Leipzig direction. At some points we couldn’t pass by slower cyclists due to the number of bikes on the path (kind of like a traffic jam for cyclists). There were whole families with little kids riding their own bikes and even smaller kids tied to the parents bikes, groups of young people, groups of older friends, couples, people with dogs on bikes. I counted three tandems (the only ones of the trip so far). It felt like every bicycle in Leipzig was out and about.
Looking through the trees around the lake we could see parked bicycles and people sitting on the shore or swimming.

When we got away from the lake and onto the canal path into Leipzig, the number of bikes did not ease. Now we also saw lots of kayaks and canoes on the river – and even more being set up alongside the banks. (unfortunately I failed to catch all this activity with my camera – we were so immersed in the hustle and bustle ourselves)

As we have previously visited Leipzig, staying for two nights in 2017, we didn’t try to do any sight seeing. We just wanted to pass through the city. This required a bit of zig-zaging and navigation to get on track going away from the Elster and heading to the north. The inner city infrastructure was reasonably good to navigate through with a bicycle. We moved off the Elster cycle way and onto the Saale river cycle way.

This field of poppies was just on the way out of Leipzig. We see lots of poppies alongside the road, but this was an exceptional display.

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We rode past another lake, the Werbeliner See, just before Delitsch. There were still quite a few other cyclists riding on the bicycle paths with us.

Delitzsch didn’t seem very promising as a destination as we approached. However it began to look better and better and we were delighted when we got to the town centre. There is a small castle and the town is surrounded by a moat.

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We walked around after checking into our hotel and drinking a recovery beer there (it was very hot). We looked at the various restaurants, drank a weisse beer at one of them, ate an ice-cream cone. Eventually we ended up in a Russian restaurant on the town square. It was very popular and we could see why – good food at reasonable prices (the borscht soup was excellent). The Russian saying on the menu (below) seemed to sum up the feeling of our evening.

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The typical German hotel breakfasts includes – a selection of fresh bread rolls, cheeses, cold meats, sweet and savoury jams and spreads, tomatoes, boiled eggs, yogurt, muesli, fruit, juice, coffee. When we have a hotel breakfast, it is one of our two main meals of the day – the second one in the evening once we have finished our ride. We find it is not a good idea to eat a big meal while still riding – the odd ice cream or slice of cake keeps my energy up. The breakfast at our hotel in Delitzsch was especially good – it had extra luxuries, such as slices of salmon and little dutch meat balls. However, it was the faces drawn on the boiled eggs that sent me back to my room for my camera this morning!

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Today we rode 74 km from Delitsch to Zerbst. There are several large lakes to the north of Delitsch. We asked for directions from another bike rider (all in Lycra) early on in our ride – at the Paupitzscher see. He helped direct us around the lakes, and even rode with us for a bit. The route he suggested was slightly longer than the one Kris had planned, but probably more scenic. It took us between the two big lakes – Großer Goitzschesee and the Muldestausee.

For most of these rides you cannot see the lakes very clearly, much of the time you are just travelling on good flat paths through a marshy landscape with patchy trees and bushes. We did however get some good slightly elevated views of the Grosser Goitzschesee, which was a highlight.

We were intrigued to see this huge camping ground on the peninsular of the lake. Most people seemed to be packing up and leaving, with cars already queuing and quite a few others coming past us with their camping gear packed on bicycles. Later on we saw that there were also a number of other camping grounds around the lake, including on the other side. A sign informed us that this was the Sputnik Spring Break music festival which took place over the holiday weekend (evidently 10,000 visitors expected).
There was a huge traffic jam of cars further on – quite unexpected.

The rest of our route took us through a number of neat towns, with the road crossing the Mulde river every now and then. The river was dammed and very wide at Friedersdorf (I asked thought we had reached the Elbe).

The reflections in the water on either side of the bridge at Jessnitz were really striking.

We rode alongside the Mulde river on a dike for some time, coming off it just a few kilometres before Desau.
We travelled through Desau (a small city) on dedicated bike paths. It has excellent transport infrastructure – with the central city street design separating trams, cars and bicycles. There are even separate traffic lights for the bikes. This made it really pleasant to ride through the city. We stopped for an iced coffee at a cafe in the centre, as it was getting pretty hot.
The rest of our ride from Desau to Zerbst was not very interesting. However the bike paths were good, being separate and alongside largely busy roads. We were away from the rivers now, moving through wooded areas alternating with wheat fields.

Zerbst is an attractive little town, and our accommodation (Pension Schlosswache Zerbst) is an old Castle guard house opposite the town hall (Rathaus). The nearby castle was destroyed at the end of WWII and only the eastern wing remains, now in ruins.

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As today is a public holiday, all supermarkets are closed. So we had to go and eat in a restaurant. We went to a very nice Argentinian restaurant near out accommodation. It has a large cool terrace and garden at the back and all the patrons were seated outside. We arrived relatively early, and there were only two other couples and a large family group present. We parked our bikes in the bike parking area at the back. There was already another pair of bikes there and Kris immediately noticed a cloth with a symbol (an iron cross and the word “Reich”) on the back “male bike”. This lead to our speculation about who this bike belonged to. We both had our money on the young well built blond guy with a brush cut and pretty girlfriend. The other couple were elderly and fairly nondescript, sitting quietly and hardly speaking to each other (like some long married couples you see in restaurants). Once we had finished our meal we had some more beers and were waiting for the younger couple to leave to confirm our expectations – they seemed very relaxed and kept ordering soft drinks, deep in conversation We were wondering if we could wait them out – how many beers would we have to drink before the young lovers finally left. Eventually the older couple got up, and confidently went over to the bikes, got on and left. So it was the harmless looking old man – and we had been totally unfair to the young couple! They were still there when we left.

Today was our longest distance on the trip so far, 106 km from Zerbst to Kehnert. At the end we still felt pretty good, though with sore knees! We started really early (just after 7 am), getting in a couple of hours before the heat of the day really helped. The route was also almost totally flat – the only inclines being getting up and over various bridges over the Elbe.

Our first two hours were through mostly wide open farmland interspersed with small villages – Niederlepte, Nutha, Walternienburg, until we reached Godnitz and the Elbe.

We haven’t done this part of the Elbe cycle way before, as we joined further north on our 2017 cycle route. There seem to be multiple versions of the cycle route that can be taken on this part of the Elbe (and on either side of the river).

We hadn’t had breakfast at the pension, so we stopped for coffee and a cheese roll at a local bakery and store at Pretzien. Many local people were also dropping by to buy baked goods, some also on bicycles.
We passed through Grunewalde and Schönebeck, which looked like a nice place but we didn’t leave the path to explore. Soon after Schönebeck, we saw our first stork nest of the trip. We remember lots of stork nests alongside the Elbe from our 2017 tour.

Riding past the city of Magdeburg was a highlight of the day – there are great views of the river and grand old buildings from the Elbe promenade, as well as a number of beautifully placed statues and fountains.

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After Magdeburg we crossed and stayed on the Eastern side of the Elbe, until Hohenwarthe where we passed back over the impressive Magdeburg Water Bridge. This is the largest canal bridge in Europe and spans the Elbe, allowing large commercial ships to pass between Rhineland and Berlin.

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We stopped at Wolmirstedt to buy some food for the evening meal, and also had a snack – as we still had a way to go and had to keep our energy up.

After this we moved away from the Elbe, as there were no roads beside the river, through Colbitz. And then along a relatively busy road (with cars) to Angern and finally Kehnert (back on the Elbe).

Our accommodation was in a small town (Kehnert), alongside a small 19th century (1804) castle. We were delighted with our beautifully decorated room. There was also a comfortable shared kitchen where we had our supper, and a fridge with cold beer you could buy (on an honesty box system). The people that run it are also keeping horses, giving riding lessons, and have a huge long term project on their hand renovating the castle and surrounding buildings.

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