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Go East
  • Herbert E
  • Meike Grothe

Go East

A 175-day adventure by Herbert & Meike Read more
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  • Trip start
    May 30, 2020
  • Go East
    Start in Warburg
    View of Warburg's Southern partGermany is very green at this time of the yearHannoversch Münden - the start of the river Weser marked by the "Weser rock"Mühlhausen city

    Start into the green

    May 30, 2020 in Germany ⋅ ☀️ 15 °C

    As we can't stay in one place for a long time, we decided to go back touring. At the moment, border crossing is not even possible in EU countries when you travel by bike. So we biketour in Germany. Luckily, there's plenty of nature and bike paths to explore 😀
    After a few day tours with our road bikes this week, we left Warburg, my home town. The weather was perfect, blue sky, sun, a bit chilly maybe, but good temperature for cycling. Our idea is to go East to Niesky first to visit Herbert's parents which will take us a few days.
    Our trip today took us to Mühlhausen where we could stay with family friends. The road was pretty nice: remote small roads, bike paths, and cute towns. We even saw 2 foxes, a beaver and lots of birds on the way. The route also followed rivers Fulda and Werra for some kilometers. In Hannoversch-Münden, we had a short stop at the start of river Weser as well.
    Some 45km before our destination, the hardest part of the route started as we had to climb Eichsfeld. It wasn't a long pass or anything similar, but quite exhausting with already 90km in our legs and on the first day of touring. Plus - what a surprise - we had headwinds again. Most of the time, the wind comes from Western directions here. However, when we go East, the wind obviously changed as well 😏
    So we had a tough day which we finished with pizza, kebab and a couple of beers.    Read more

  • Go East
    Center of SömmerdaDDR quality carEnjoying Thüringer BratwurstHerbert preparing dinner

    Following the river Unstrut

    May 31, 2020 in Germany ⋅ ☁️ 14 °C

    After breakfast, we left Mühlhausen to follow the river Unstrut. The route was diverse, some parts were paved, some gravel, some cobblestones (which feel disgusting on our bikes...). We passed valleys, vineyards, forests and towns.
    After about 125km, we found an open food store and got one of the famous "Thüringer Bratwurst". Due to Corona restrictions not from a charcoal BBQ though 😢
    As it was already late afternoon, we decided to stay at the next Campground where we found a place next to the river. Herbert cooked some spaghetti and we finished off the day with a glass of local wine.    Read more

  • Go East
    Vineyard in Freyburg
    Naumburg central squareRiding towards the cathedral in NaumburgEnjoying a proper Thüringer BratwurstLake ZenkauOur hosts Lars and Jenny

    Saale-Unstrut wine region

    June 1, 2020 in Germany ⋅ ☀️ 18 °C

    When we got up, we were welcomed by the sun and blue skies. After breakfast, we continued our way along river Unstrut. We passed Freyburg, which is famous for its hilly vineyards, and went on to Naumburg where we hit the river Saale bike trail. Naumburg is a pretty town, so we decided to stop for a coffee. Afterwards, we followed the river Saale for a bit, admired some old castles and monasteries along the way, stopped for a proper Thüringer Bratwurst (properly prepared on a charcoal BBQ) and slowly made our way East along an old train route turned into a bike path. We got to the lake region South of Leipzig where we first stopped for a picnic and then headed to a café to get some ice cream. Finally, we cycled to a small village nearby where our hosts Lars and Jenny waited for. We enjoyed dinner in the backyard and discussed our South America trips (they traveled in South America in 2018).Read more

  • Go East
    Saxonian single trail bike path through the grass
    River ElbeMeißenRain stop - ebikes obviously don't like water 😉Moritzburg castleDinner at the lake

    Saxonian bike pathes

    June 2, 2020 in Germany ⋅ ☀️ 21 °C

    After a cosy breakfast with Lars and Jenny, we were ready to go further East. Yesterday, we already cycled on some "interesting" sections on the official bike paths, but today was going to be even more special. We really learned about the nature of Saxonian bike pathes. It started with a very nice and remote path through the forest. We then hit the river Freitaler Mulde and rode along it for a while. This actually wasn't too easy at certain times due to sections that looked more like a hiking trail. In order to get to river Elbe, we then followed the bike path "Elbe-Mulde" which was quite an adventure when it suddenly led us through a grass field. However, we safely arrived at river Elbe and had a short stop to check out the beautiful city of Meißen. From there, we took some more forest trails in order to see Moritzburg castle, before heading towards a little lake in the middle of nowhere to set up our camp. It was a nice camp spot except for the malicious sand flies that bothered us all through dinner.Read more

  • Go East
    Niesky library on the main square
    Bärwalder SeeDinner and champaign time

    Pit stop at Herbert's home

    June 3, 2020 in Germany ⋅ ☀️ 18 °C

    The last section of our trip East mainly led us through an area of moors, swamps and lakes. We saw a lot of birds of all sizes and enjoyed the relatively easy ride on flat land. Even the Eastern headwinds were not as bad as the days before. We stopped at Lake Bärwald for a drink before riding the last 25km to get to Niesky where Herbert's parents live. We were happily welcomed with cake in the afternoon, a bbq dinner and some champaign.Read more

  • Go East
    1Start of the next stretch
    Spring of the Spree / border crossingBohemian SwitzerlandCrossing the Elbe by ferryTetschen

    Testing border crossing in Corona times

    June 8, 2020 in Czech Republic ⋅ ☁️ 17 °C

    After some days rest with birthday celebrations we started our next stretch this morning. As the German - Czech border opened last week, we decided to test border crossing in Corona times on our way to Bavaria.
    So we cycled through the "Oberland" region towards the border. Before crossing, we had a lunch stop at the spring of the river Spree in a small town called Ebersbach. Afterwards, we headed straight to the Czech Republic. No border, no controls - exactly as it should be in the Schengen area :)
    The following 60km of riding were absolutely beautiful. We rode through Bohemian Switzerland with forests and valleys, saw cows with giant horns, and arrived at river Elbe. We crossed the river by ferry to get to the bike path on the other side and continued to Tetschen where we found a centrally located campground. After a shower and dinner we went for a walk to explore this interesting town. There were lots of really cool old buildings right next to ugly buildings from the 70s. We also saw many young people in the streets and parks - a bit of a difference compared to the last towns and villages we passed.
    What Corona is concerned, the Czechs seem to be relatively relaxed. They wear face masks in the supermarkets, but are pretty bad in handling the masks - same as us Germans 😉 People sit in bars and restaurants without masks and don't even wear it when entering a bar or ordering. Next to our campground, a fair with rides visited by quite some people was on as well - so this doesn't seem to be a problem either.    Read more

  • Go East
    Breakfast before heading off
    Elbe bike pathTypical Czech living areaCoal mining site1Adventurous Czech bike path

    Adventurous Czech bike pathes

    June 9, 2020 in Czech Republic ⋅ ☁️ 16 °C

    After breakfast at our camp, we left for another day of cycling in Czech Republic. It started with some 25km along the Elbe bike path. For the first time in ages, we had tail winds, so we could go at a decent speed.
    The second part of today's route was quite dull. We had to cycle on some roads and passed average Czech cities.
    The last 50km were kind of adventurous. Komoot (our routing app) sent us on MTB trails with partly 20% elevation gain. Maybe fun on some nice mountain bike, but not that much on our heavily loaded touring bikes. Nevertheless, we could enjoy the views over coal mining sites. After some more interesting and difficult-to-find bike paths through grass or mud, we arrived at our campsite next to river "Eger" where we are the only guests.    Read more

  • Go East
    1Eger view
    More of the adventurous Czech bike pathesKarlsbad1Bike path across a wooden bridge (we had to carry the bike up some stairs to get up there)2Castle at Loket4Our "bungelow" and new Czech friends

    The center of Europe

    June 10, 2020 in Czech Republic ⋅ 🌧 12 °C

    It had rained all night, but luckily stopped when we got up in the morning. We got ready, packed the wet tent and went off along river Eger. The Czech bike pathes were quite challenging again, up and down, through mud, puddles and up on grass. Pretty beautiful nature, but totally exhausting and only slow progress.
    We therefore decided to have a second breakfast in Karlsbad, a picturesque city with nice buildings. Meanwhile, it had started to rain again, so it was pretty cold and we were all wet. Also, the city didn't look that nice with a grey background.
    We continued along the river. The path was still muddy, but almost flat and not too many puddles, so progress was ok. We passed some really remote areas and saw some cool castles. As it didn't stop raining all day and everything was wet and muddy, we decided to stay in a hut instead of the tent. It was pretty simple and "old-school", but at least dry. And we met some very nice visitors at the campground. The guys were very happy to meet us totally crazy roadbikers, as this gives them something to talk about for a month. They also made us try local rum and becherovka and taught us some basic Czech vocabulary. It was difficult to leave the guys who wanted us to try more Czech schnaps - could have been really dangerous 😂
    When planning the route for the next day, the guys also recommended to pass by the geographic centre of Europe (depending on the definition). But as we found out it's on a higher hill, we decided to skip this but have an easier day instead.    Read more

  • Go East
    A wet start
    Finally it stopped raining"Maibaum" in NeustadtWeiden centreLake in WeiherhammerDrying our stuff (Frida is watching what we are doing)

    Back in Germany

    June 11, 2020 in Germany ⋅ ☁️ 16 °C

    We woke up and it was still pretty wet outside. Our clothes hadn't all dried either, but it wasn't too bad anymore. The route started with a lot of up and down to the "green" border to Germany. We entered the country on a small path in the forest. Again, there was no controls or anything, so border cross is REAL 😀
    After crossing the border, we noticed the change of housing quality immediately. Furthermore, the number of E-bike riders increased significantly. In Czech Republik we have seen only very few E-bikes. In Germany, cyclists of all age groups seem to be in need for some artificial support to move a bicycle 😉
    We stopped for a coffee in Tirschenreuth, then continued our way in a Southwestern direction. At some stage, it stopped raining and even the sun came out, so we could finally take off our rain gear.
    We cycled some remote roads, followed a couple of marked bike pathes and had short stops in Neustadt an der Waldnaab and Weiden. Both towns have really picturesque centres.
    In Weiherhammer, our destination for the day, we were happy to see our friends who we could stay with. We could also clean the muddy bikes and dry our stuff. We spent the night over dinner and holiday pictures.    Read more

  • Go East
    Sulzbach-Rosenberg centreLake HappurgCastle HersbruckLauf centreDinner with Anne, Quinh and little Henrik

    Cycling Frankonia

    June 12, 2020 in Germany ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C

    Today was the most wonderful day for cycling: sunny, nice temperatures and strong tailwinds. We said goodbye to the Koppmanns after breakfast, cycled through some forest with quite some hilly sections.
    Once we got to Sulzbach-Rosenberg, it got easier: We followed part of the "5 River Bike Path" which was pretty flat. With the tailwinds it felt like riding an electric bike. At Lake Happurg, we had a picnic for lunch, dried our tent and went for a swim. Then we continued via Hersbruck and Lauf to Nuremberg where we met friends again.    Read more

  • Go East
    Cycling along some hops fieldsCastle Ellingen

    The friends tour continues

    June 14, 2020 in Germany ⋅ 🌧 14 °C

    After a day helping Anne and Quinh move to their new home, we got back on the bicycles today. It rained when we left Behringersdorf, so we were already pretty wet when we arrived at Barbara's in Nuremberg. We enjoyed an extended breakfast before heading to Weißenburg to visit Rico, Vanessa and their daughter Nora.
    Luckily it didn't rain all afternoon although the weather forecast had warned us otherwise. We had to get out of Nuremberg along some busy roads, but once away from the city, we cycled on quiet roads through hops fields and passed some castles.    Read more

  • Go East
    Cycling in the rain
    1Bakery break1

    Visiting "good old home"

    June 18, 2020 in Germany ⋅ 🌧 14 °C

    On the way to Ingolstadt, we got completely wet as it rained all day. We stopped at a bakery in Eichstätt to wait for a dry window. But after 3.5 hours of waiting, coffee, tea, different types of bread and cake, it still rained. So we just went on cycling. When you know you can stay under a roof at night, it's actually not too bad.
    In Ingolstadt, we took a few days break to catch up with friends and family (and dry everything again after the rain). It was really good to see everyone and share stories!!    Read more

  • Go East
    Castle RiedenburgCycling along the AltmühlThunderstorm ahead of us

    Fly east

    June 19, 2020 in Germany ⋅ ☁️ 20 °C

    After 3 days of rest, we started cycling again. Our idea is to go East until we get stopped, either by a closed border or by the weather or who knows what.
    Today, our destination was Regensburg. We had strong tailwinds, so we could almost fly 😀
    Our route passed by Riedenburg where we turned on the Altmühl bike path to Kelheim. From there, we continued along the Danube to Regensburg.
    In the end, we were really lucky. There were quite some thunderstorms around us, but we managed to avoid them somehow, so we only saw the dark clouds and the rain.
    In Regensburg, Michl welcomed us. Who would have thought we'd meet again this soon after our adventures in Panama and Colombia?    Read more

  • Go East
    Rain!1City center of Deggendorf

    Cycling river Danube

    June 20, 2020 in Germany ⋅ 🌧 16 °C

    It rained all night, so we were not too motivated to get up early. Instead, we enjoyed a longer breakfast and left around 9:30am when it stopped raining. We then had another awesome day with tailwinds, so rolling along the Danube was really easy and enjoyable.
    In Deggendorf, I went grocery shopping. When I came out of the supermarket, there was a bad surprise: pouring rain and it didn't look like it was going to stop any time soon. Another 30-40km of cycling plus sleeping in a tent wasn't really an option anymore, so we checked out sleeping options in Deggendorf. Lucky, we found Oliver on the warmshowers website who replied immediately after I had sent him a message. He welcomed us in his a apartment and we cooked dinner together. So glad we had a roof and a view this night!    Read more

  • Go East
    Cake time in Waldkirchen
    Border crossing again :)

    Go Czech again

    June 21, 2020 in Czech Republic ⋅ 🌧 12 °C

    When we woke up this morning and looked at the rain radar, we were sure, we would get pretty wet pretty soon. However, we still went on the bikes to get at least some kilometres in.
    The first part of today's section went along river Danube, so this was easy rolling. Then we headed into a hilly region East rather than following the Danube. The new bike path was an old railway, so climbing was relatively smooth. Around noon, we had to stop for something to drink as it had started to rain. Luckily, it didn't go for long, so we could continue after about an hour.
    For some reason, we always missed the rain. We cycled on very wet roads and were surrounded by a dark grey sky most of the time, but stayed dry.
    Climbs got harder the closer we got to the Czech border again. The elevation gain up to Waldkirchen was 14%. We were hoping for a bakery, but everything was closed. So we just ate a whole cake we had carried for an emergency.
    Afterwards, we continued our trip, crossed the Czech border and started looking for some accommodation. This wasn't easy this time: most smaller guesthouses were closed, the bigger ones fully booked and the campground closes. In the end, we found a small apartment to spend the night.    Read more

  • Go East
    Can you spot the dear?
    Budweis: Maltsch viewA beer in the parkBudweis: main squareMuddy trailCamp for the night

    A beer in Budweis

    June 22, 2020 in Czech Republic ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C

    Finally it was sunny when we woke up! This makes it a lot easier to start. The first part of the route was quite hilly: up and down on forest trails, so we only made slow progress. Especially with tired legs after a long day yesterday. However, we enjoyed the nature and watched the animals along the way. Can you spot the deer hidden in the grass in the first photo? Looks pretty cute when you can just see the ears 😉
    At lunchtime, we stopped in Budweis. What a nice city! Very green, 2 rivers (Moldau and Maltsch), beautiful buildings and lots of young people. Even though it was early, we also had a beer. And as we are in Czech Republic, we were not the only ones drinking beer at noon.
    In order to get to our campsite for the night, Herbert wanted to skip some meters of positive elevation by following a little stream. But after a lot of rain over the past few weeks, half of the stream was running down the trail, so it was wet and muddy. This was definitely harder to climb than the road!
    The last section passed many small lakes and through a remote forest until we arrived at a bigger lake where we set up our camp for the night.    Read more

  • Go East
    1Breakfast at the lake
    SlavoniceBorder crossingBunker and an adventurous section of the trailThaya river gorge and Bitov castleEnjoying typical Czech dishes

    Iron Curtain Trail

    June 23, 2020 in Czech Republic ⋅ ☀️ 19 °C

    Breakfast at the lake watching the ducks on the water - what a great start into the day. Today, we cycled on the Iron Curtain Trail, a European bike path from Finland to the Black Sea. The part we rode follows old military roads along the Czech-Austrian border. Thanks to Schengen, we could cross the border 4x today without any checks. The main things we noticed was that signs change and the road in the Czech Republic was usually worse than on the Austrian side.
    The trail in general was beautiful and interesting at the same time. We passed bunkers and museums related to the Cold War and rode on remote roads and forest paths.
    We had our lunch stop in Slavonice. The town seems to be a cycling mekka, so many other cyclists... Many came from nearby Austria, easily recognizable because of their ebikes.
    In the afternoon, we passed a lot of agricultural land. Also, Herbert had tried to plan a short cut again. This was actually quite an adventurous part of a trail, mainly characterized by mud, high grass and rocks 😏 But we made it 👍
    Our day ended in Bitov, a campground next to Thaya river where it flows through an impressive gorge. We decided to go for a Czech meal for dinner. The chef recommended a duck and a beef dish which we really enjoyed. Of course, we also had a beer with it, it cost a third of the coffee we had in Slavonice 🤷‍♀️    Read more

  • Go East
    Thaya river and Hardegg castel
    Watchtower and the "Iron Curtain" fenceInside a bunkerZnojmo castleAdventurous trail1Chased by a thunderstorm

    Exploring European history

    June 24, 2020 in Austria ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C

    Today, we cycled another day on the Iron Curtain Trail. We left our campsite and followed a pretty rolling road until we arrived in Hardegg, an Austrian town at river Thaya with an impressive castle. Here, we crossed again to the Czech side and cycled through Podijy National Park. At this part of the trail, we could explore a lot about European history. We saw the former fence between the Sowjet Union and the Western world and climbed a watchtower. It's hard to believe that many people have lost their lives at this border. A little bit later, we passed a bunker that we could even enter. You really don't want to spend much time in this dark whole!
    The next section of the trail was pretty adventurous. Lots of forest trails, gravel and sand. I actually think we accidentally happened to ride the mountain bike option of the trail. But we managed without having to push and it was a lot of fun even though it was exhausting.
    In Znojmo, we stopped for lunch. However, we had to keep it really short as a thunderstorm was behind us and we wanted to get as far as possible before the rain. So we cycled as fast as possible through a beautiful wine region. In Haugsdorf, we found a shelter at a Billa supermarket and waited for the rain to pass. We then continued to Mailberg where we had a warmshowers host for the night. As we were a little early, we looked for a wine bar (as we are in a wine region) and found an awesome self service place in the middle of the vineyards. The place was a renovated wine cellar where you find a selection of local wines and a price list. You can help yourself with the wines and put money into a box. As we didn't have change, we had to buy 2 bottles 🤷‍♀️
    After drinking one and taking the other, we rode to Lisa who welcomed us with a yummy noodle soup in her house.    Read more

  • Go East
    Castle in JanislaviceTownhall in Laa"Kellergasse" of the year 2013Town centre of MikulovMain square of Valtice

    The castle day

    June 25, 2020 in Czech Republic ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C

    After a nature-focused section yesterday, today's highlights were more related to the towns we passed. We cycled past castles in the Czech Republic as well as in Austria and admired the impressive old buildings on both sides of the border. In Laa an der Thaya, we had an extended second breakfast and enjoyed the view of their townhall.
    We also cycled through many vineyards and passed the so-called "Kellergassen" where the wine is stored. It was tempting to stop at one of the many "Radlerrast" again, but after a bottle of wine we couldn't bike any further.
    The Iron Curtain Trail continued to Mikulov, where we stopped again to relax and enjoy the old part of the town. In Valtice, we left the trail after 3 days and 10 border crossings between Austria and the Czech Republic. The trail leads further South while we are heading towards a Northeastern direction from here.
    We finished our ride on a campground next to a little lake after a detour to Breclav (which wasn't really interesting).    Read more

  • Go East
    A dry weather window to have a quick breakfast
    1One of the bigger puddles in the morning1Lots of mud :(Cycling along the canalTraditional Moravian folklore band

    Traditional folklore evening

    June 26, 2020 in Czech Republic ⋅ ☁️ 19 °C

    The start of the day wasn't too good. It rained half of the night, so we didn't sleep to well. At 7:15am it stopped raining and we had a 1 hour window to get ready, pack up our stuff and have breakfast (standing). Then the rain started again. We decided to have a coffee to wait it out and left when it stopped again at 9.
    The first part of our ride was difficult as well, all headwinds and lots of puddles on the bike trails and roads. At some stage, we followed a smaller path. But the mud stuck to the tires, so they wouldn't roll anymore. We had to clean it up as much as possible and push the bikes to the next road.
    Luckily, things got better afterwards. The wind turned more to Southern direction which even pushed us a little. The bike path then led along a canal and was paved, so no more mud and only a few puddles now. We saw lots of people relaxing on houseboats on the canal. The region and scenery reminded us of the Netherlands.
    At about 5pm, we arrived in Zlin, our destination for the night. We still had some time before our warmshowers host expected us, so tried some icecream. The Czechs love icecream, you see small shops all around.
    When we arrived at Ondrej's, he gave us a warm welcome. At night, he was going to play a concert with his traditional Moravian folklore band and invited us to come and watch. We cooked up some pasta and then headed to the bar. The concert was really cool. The music was different, but we enjoyed it. They played mainly happy songs and the other people in the bar danced and sang along.    Read more

  • Go East
    Leaving our host Ondrej in Zlin
    Start of the Tatra mountainsFollowing the riverLaundry time

    Entering the Tatra Mountains

    June 27, 2020 in Czech Republic ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

    For today, we had planned a shorter trip. This gave us some time to have breakfast with Ondrej and share some bike touring experiences as well as information about our cultures. In general, we missed these conversations in the Czech Republic due to a language barrier. Our Czech is basically non-existent, so when people addressed in a friendly away (probably) asking about our trip, we had to admit we don't understand anything. Unfortunately, they usually didn't speak English or German either.
    Anyways, we hit the road after breakfast and started straight away with some climbing. The Eastern part of the Czech Republic is quite hilly and reminded us of the Bavarian lower Alps. The mountains are part of the Tatra region which belong to the Carpatian Mountains.
    The second part of the route followed a river. It was steady, but really easy climbing, so we arrived at our campsite before 3pm already. This gave us some time to do laundry, relax and have a last beer.    Read more

  • Go East
    Motivating signs to reach the top 😉
    Entering Slovakia - almost missed the country signView over the mountaineous Czech regionMain square in ZilinaCanal ride with tailwindsA bath in the cold river behind our campground

    Next country - Slovakia

    June 28, 2020 in Slovakia ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

    Our route started with a pretty steep climb: 450m of elevation gain within the first 10km. However, it was a remote forest road, the locals had drawn beer signs on the road for motivation and the view on top made up for the effort! We were in a little ski resort with cute wooden apartment houses and hotels.
    This was also the point where we crossed to Slovakia - our first time in this country! After the climb, we were treated with a super nice 23km downhill ride on a paved forest road along a little stream. It ended at a canal which we followed until we reached Zilina. Here we stopped for lunch in the historical old town.
    From Zilina, it wasn't too far to our campsite anymore. 10km along the canal again with tailwinds and another 10km on a busy road into a smaller valley. We went quite fast, as the Slovakian drivers are as crazy as the Czech drivers, so it wasn't too much fun.
    When we reached the campground, we went for a bath in the cold river to relax our tired muscles.    Read more

  • Go East
    Our first shelter
    Beautiful bike pathsTop of the passStorm coming over the lakeStorm chasing us to our guesthouse

    Thunderstorm hopping

    June 29, 2020 in Slovakia ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C

    The weather forecast showed some rain and thunderstorms for today, so we got up early to start our ride. We climbed our first hill right at the beginning, went down again on the other side - and had to look for shelter for the first time. It rained heavily, but only for about 15 minutes, so we could continue.
    It was dry for the next 3 hours, so we climbed up the next pass. The bike path was really nice: no cars, green, quiet, so we really enjoyed this part of today's route.
    Then we saw the next thunderstorm chasing us from behind. We cycled as fast as possible on a busy road around a lake and found shelter again when the storm was very close. We could see the rain only a couple of hundred meters away, but it didn't hit us.
    However, we knew we only had about 45min until the next bigger storm, so we had to speed up. We were lucky again! We just reached our guesthouse before it started to rain for the rest of the evening. Glad we decided to exchange our tent with a dry bed tonight 😉    Read more

  • Go East
    Entering Poland
    Enjoying the mountain viewSki resort fair and Zakopane downtownZakopane architecture: wooden houses and churches and bus stopsDelicious dinner!

    The Poland detour

    June 30, 2020 in Poland ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C

    When we got up this morning, the clouds had gone away and it was perfect cycling weather. We were going to pass the Tatra mountains on the North side via Poland and enter Slovakia again in the afternoon.
    But sometimes, traveling doesn't work like this. When we saw the mountains, we immediately fell in love with this place. We just loved the nature and the wooden houses of Zakopane architecture style. Plus, when we had climbed our first hill, we were welcomed by something like a fair with little stalls, rides, horses etc. We were in the middle of a ski resort on a ridge overlooking Zakopane. Most of the hotels and restaurants had an amazing view of the Tatra range, so we stopped for a coffee, extended the stop with a Radler and decided to look for accommodation nearby.
    We found a nice guesthouse in the direction of the Slovakian border. This gave us time to explore Zakopane: We went to the main shopping and aprés ski road to watch people and try some local street food. We also went to the famous ski jump area and the entrance of the Tatra National Park.
    Afterwards, we cycled to our guesthouse, a real lucky find. It was clean, the owners were super nice, we could see the mountains while chilling in the backyard and we received a delicious traditional meal. We later learned that the owners are famous chefs in town, so couldn't have chosen any better accommodation for the night!    Read more

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