Dresden to Prague, approx. 300km

Leaving Germany

After an agitated night, I am quite reluctant to head off as the weather is still terrible and I am pretty depressed by the thought of more rain, mud, detours and highways... We eventually prepare to leave Dresden and start our last big stretch to Prague. About 300km following the Elbe (we hope) which we plan to get done in 3 days. Since we have a late start, we don´t get as far as we would have liked. We experience more detours along the way but the water is going down and we can follow the normal route more and more. We make it to Bad Shandau, the last German town before the border with Ceska Republika. We camp in a beautiful national park and have a great dinner so things are slowly looking up.


Possibly the best cycle-path in Czech Republic, no doubt the funkiest

The next morning, we decide to have a big day. We have a bit of catching up to do if we still want to make it to Prague by the next day. We soon reach the Czech border and are amazed to notice that, as we had been warned by Mick a couple days earlier, the cycle path suddenly becomes terrible, riddled with holes and bumps. A few minutes into this new country, as I swerve to avoid a pothole, my back wheel smashes into it and slams down, bursting the tire instantly. We are soon back on the way and have our cheapest morning coffee yet in the unremarkable town of Decin. We discover that it is often more pleasant riding along the normal road than the so-called "cycle-paths" which are often a slightly sad joke. Nevertheless, we have a pleasant enough day and make it all the way to Roundnice, 106km further than the night before.


Fixing our first puncture a few minutes into the Czech Republic

Our final day along the Elbe turns out to also be the nicest day in a while. It is quite chilly in the morning but it is not raining which is already a small victory in itself. We have a nice ride to Melnik where we climb a steep hill into the town and get a magnificient view of the river below. A little bit further, we catch a small wooden boat to the other side of the river which reminds us a bit of South East Asia in a totally non high-tech homemade way but efficient and we are back on our way soon enough.


Waiting for the ferry driver

As we go along, we suddenly end up on a track so bad that I start cursing these "bloody under-developed ex-soviet communist countries" (sorry Marcinski, I was overwhelmed) before we realise that the mistake is probably ours and we are actually on a mountain biking trail before which we were supposed to turn off. Then, I start cursing myself instead. We get back to the turn off and start a long uphill section to a village called Klecany followed by a long downhill section to Klecanky. From there, it is an easy and short ride into the outskirts of Prague where we intend to spend a few days before continuing on to Vienna.


Learning from our mistakes and checking the map carefully