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Go East

May - November 2020
A 175-day adventure by Herbert & Meike Read more
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  • Go East
    Day 14

    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
    Day 16

    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
    11
    Day 20

    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
    Day 21

    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
    1
    Day 22

    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
    Day 23

    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
    Day 24

    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
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    Day 25

    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
    1
    Day 26

    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
    Day 27

    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

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