Almost there.....

Biking through Czech Republic!

I entered the "Ceska Republica" almost one week ago.

 

The nature combined with the beautiful landscape gives a wonderful feeling: I like Czech Republic! 

A lot of fields with wild roses

Nice churches almost in every town

I was biking now through the little villages. Every village had his own, nice little church.

The weather was not always so good. A lot of times I could see the rain showers not too far on the horizon.

Some rain on the horizon, just passed by

Shame on me, didn't know: Continental Jicin....

My road went via Jicin and by accident I passed a well known company.

The search of Uncle Peter


I was the first time in Czech Republic together with my friend Erwin almost 20 years ago.
At that time we met a very nice, already older person which became a friend and which we later called "Unkle Petr". We had very nice and memorable times together....

Erwin, another friend and myself even donated an oldtimer glider to Unkle Petr with the promise that it was in good hands and the guaranty that he will overhaul it, put an engine on it and treat it as his baby.

But we had no news since long time from Unkle Petr.
So, the real reason why I passed through Czech Republic was that I wanted to find our "Unkle Petr" again.
I know that the chance that he still was living there or even was still alive was not so big. But you never know!

So with only a old address in hand, I headed to Usti nad Laben, close to the German border.

Surprisingly, I could find his house very quick. Unfortunately, as somehow expected, no Unkle Petr anymore.
Even worse: he sold his house (or better the left over ruin) and, according to the neighbor, he moved to Germany.

Unkle Petr former house, now ruin

And the old glider.....well, it was still there on exact the same spot.

He promised us: "I will treat this plane as a my baby"

Usti nad Laben - Teplice: 32km!

Even more then Poland, it is amazing how the Czech Republic has been developed over these 20 years: no Trabies  anymore (well known ex-East German Trabant car), perfect roads and road signs, nice houses, nice cars, and a lot of bikers!!!!

Nice houses

With a little disappointment of the Unkle Petr story, there was nothing else to do but to move on, direction Germany.

Due to the rain, I decided to make a stop in a very small village, around 15km from Usti nad Laben.

The  "drinking brothers and sisters".....

There I met very friendly bicycle riders sitting outsite. 

 

We start to talk and I proposed the following rule: 

Rain = drinking beer
No rain = riding bicycle

They immediately agreed on my proposed rule!

That afternoon it rained a loooong time, so you can imagine in which kind of state we became!
I have to say, the men were champions in drinking and the women, they were champions too!

Finally, around 2 hours before sunset, it suddenly stopped raining and we all together continued to Teplice.
 
It was already late and due to the time, I decided to stay in Teplice.
I then realized I made a record: 32km in 6,5 hours....
Well, well.....it seems that the CrazyBelgiumBiker becomes a LazyBelgianBiker.

No regret at all! Teplice however is a very nice city with old buildings and a lot of nice churches.

Teplice by night

And then there was Germany

I stayed only 3 days in Czech Republic before entering another and last country: Germany.
And how do you know you are in Germany? Right!
Beergarden here, beergarden there, Schnitsels and wood factories.....

Every couple hundreds of meters you see this sign

Schnitsel must be the German national food

I diverted a little from my original planned route and headed direction Frankfurt to discuss some work related topics.

In 2 days, I had calculated, I should be there.
But I hate to say: I completely underestimated the (little) German hills going from east to west. The whole day it was hill up, hill down, hill up, hill down.
(It went so slow that I had to cancel my appointment.....)

Beautiful scenery but the little German hills were almost killing me

Even according my GPS it was a day where I did the most accumulated ascent over this whole trip......

At the end of the first day in Germany, I stopped in several little villages to find a place for overnight but without success.
Germany is a weird country in regards of lodging. In the small villages, the hotels are closed Sunday afternoon and Monday is their rest day......

Then a family approached me asking if I could use some help. And sure I could.
First the man, Christian, knew 2 other pensions to stay but both also were not open.
At the end, Christian offered me a place to stay at his home.
Lucky I was, I got even some upgrades.
His first proposal was to put my tent in the garden, then I could put my matrass in the barn, later he offered me a place in his garage between his 2 Triumph motor bikes.
At the end I was sleeping in his eldest son's bed, got a shower, diner and a nice glass of very good Italian wine! 

Drinking a glass of good Italian wine with Christian and Henriette

Breakfast with the family Tischer: Josiphin, Henriette, Joshua and Christian

It was a short visit but we had some nice talks. They were a very friendly and warm family! Thank you!









My legs complained in the morning and I promised them an easy ride. But the second day it was more or less the same: hill up, hill down.
I was on a road to Ullitz and, without knowing, it seems to be a historical important way.



Translation: "Here was Germany and Europa divided until November12,  1989, 10 am"

It was one of the roads that linked former East and West Germany but was closed for some decades after the World War II and opened again after the fall of the Berlin wall....



Completely exhausted I stopped in Schweinfurt where I met Loos, a very nice, smart (and beautiful) lady from The Netherlands.
Yes! I finally could speak Dutch again!

Because it was already very late and no other options, I decided to stay in the same hotel (with a very special "homeless man" rate...) as Loos.
While asking for a place where I could eat, a gentleman, who just finished his shift at Mc. Donald's passed by and give me his doggy bag.....
So I had a place to sleep and food....GREAT!

Loos and the Mc. Donald man

Loos had Vietnamese roots, studied chemistry and worked for a company that sells oil and grease. She likes techno parties.
Loos was an interesting person and promised to invite me for the next boem-boem party.

Nice talking while drinking a good beer and wine

Apparently, the hotel has a lot of bicycle tourist. The next morning I met the owner of the hotel.

He was interested in my story and invited me to come over again when there is one or the other bikers seminary..... 

 

Watching the German soccer game....

As I was close to Frankfurt, a former colleague while working in China, Michael, invited me to stay overnight in his house, have some barbeque and watch the German-Brazil soccer game.
He invited some other people too, Vera and Tim, also former work mates.

So, there it was, a Belgian guy in Germany eating (black) sausages and watching the German-Brazil soccer game.

According the cook in charge: burnt sausages is good for your health....it cleans your body

I have to say, I think I have already German blood as I was supporting quite fanatic for Germany.

All with a German flag. But Michael? He must have it on a secret place.....

The host, Michael, had still some Baijiu (a terrible but strong Chinese liquor) which he wanted to drink.
The rule we applied was the same as I did with the Belgium-USA soccer game: We all drink a round when there is a goal.

The concept was the same but the result completely different. Germany was scoring so fast that we could not follow to fill up the next round.....

Germany - Brazil: 7-1. Where is the party? Here is the party!

Even worst, we came into a logistic problem as we ran out of drinking material.....
The next morning some people (and I guess half of Germany) didn't feel well.....you might guess why but certainly it was not because of the burnt sausages!


The last kilometers....

Approaching Belgium and with only some hundreds of kilometers to do, I started to realize it is almost over...

I decided to change my tactic: no more direct routes, instead I will follow the river Main and Rhein. It is actually a great and well know R3, European bicycle route.
It's like a bicycle highway: I passed a lot of other bicycles.
It is just fantastic: No car traffic, special bicycle roads, beautiful scenery.....

Beautiful scenery along the Rhein

Typical houses along the Rhein

I am now in Kaltenengers, close to Koblenz. Today will be my last 150km in Germany. Tomorrow I am in Belgium......