Leaving Czechia - Back to Germany

Up very early and down to breakfast - actually before (!) schedule. Mr Rippl kindly arrived early as requested and we had a nice breakfast including wonderful scrambled eggs and ham. He was most efficient - and friendly.

We even managed to load the bikes and depart on schedule riding along the cobblestones streets back the way we can yesterday; if there was a better route, I didn’t care - we just kept with what we knew! We mixed it with kids going to school and commuters but pretty straightforward - back past the statue of St Wenceslas in the lovely early morning sun (nice for photos, but no time for that!). It was cold (brrrr!! 7 deg C?). So, we had a good run as everyone out and about had a purpose - apart from at the station where we had to cross a 6-lane road with a high median strip - somehow! Fortunately MF2 spotted a break in the bollard and we made a run for it, weaving through the traffic. Phew!

Into the Hravní Nádraží (central station) with its Art Nouveau top level (where we entered from the road) although we gave it just a quick glimpse as we looked for a lift but couldn’t find one so we had to somehow get down an escalator with our bikes(!) to go to the next floor lower - still, better than stairs! Had to hold the brakes really hard as the bike twisted on the escalator.

Despite our anxieties, we actually arrived half an hour early - it DID take 1/2 an hour to ride 4.8 kms from our B&B! The route planning before bed last night was worthwhile but it couldn’t account for the street works at the station that forced us onto the road (we didn’t know where some of the subways went, and what we did see seemed to end in masses of stairs!).

While we waited for a platform to be allocated. I ‘cased‘ the layout; once the platform came up on the bosrd, we were ready to go and proceeded efficiently along a corridor, up (another) escalator (!) and walked and walked the length of the platform as the train came in - looking for the bike carriage. Went through the usual routine loading the bikes on: panniers off, heaving bikes on, throwing panniers in, finding a place to hang the bikes on the hooks provided, then searching for our seats.

I always heave a sigh of relief when these key milestones are achieved - nothing short of a miracle I think at times!

So we travelled back through towns we had cycled through during the past week: Ústí nad Labem, Děčín, Bad Schandau. A bit under 2.5 hrs to Dresden. Fast train.

Last night we made a change of plan - which, as things turned out, was a ‘good call’. Rather than take a (very) short train journey from Dresden to the next town Meissen (famous for its porcelain), I had a Plan B in the itinerary which was to miss Meissen and continue to Riesa - this would save us 53 kms. Hopefully we’ll make it to Meissen later in the trip when we return to Dresden.

Of course, this meant buying the tickets from one of the machines (the others I have bought online). So once we unloaded the bikes and panniers, I tore down the steps and ran to the Info booth for DBahn and waited in a queue (as the minutes ticked by) so I could explain to the lady there that I didn’t know how to buy the tickets INCLUDING the bikes. For people without bikes, I can do. 

Amazingly, she left her booth and went with me to the ticket machine and (in German) she pressed so many buttons I would have had no hope! I still don’t know how to do it!

I thought we had about half an hour to make the transfer and even so this would still be tight although it looked like we didn’t have to change platforms - a real bonus!

But not so! My helpful lady had different plans and was putting us on a train 5 minutes EARLIER and we needed to get from platform 17 to 1!! I tore up the stairs to the MFs who had no idea what was in store; ‘platform 1‘ I puffed out at them, ‘move it!’. Along the entirety of platform 17 we went, ducking and weaving between other passengers to get to the lift at the end; 2 bikes only on at a time squashed like sardines; down and then about 200 m of more running with bikes to platform 1 and up another lift 2 at a time - with MF1 having to be on the 2nd lift each time - and then raced along the platform; of course the bike carriage was right at the front of the train (!). We ‘jumped’ on (well, we could actually roll the bikes straight on WITH panniers because the platform was at the same level as the carriage) - barely a minute to spare. Three more cyclists came on straight after us plus a lady with a pram almost completely filling the space and we were off to Riesa, 50 minutes away. Next train was not for another hour.

Argh - more bikes load on at the station just before we have to get off... How will we get them out? Anyway, like unpicking a puzzle, we extricate our bikes from behind the others and offload and take a lift down, then up to street level and make our way to the centrum (the centre of town).

Riesa is a small town (the population has dropped since the local steelworks shut), and is quite pretty. During the 1980s, Riesa was the headquarters of the Soviet Forces in Germany’s 9th Tank Division.

We enjoyed a yummy lunch at the local bakery and the boys bought new cycling gloves for MF2 (his Kathmandu ones have completely disintegrated) and new hydration pack for MF1 at the nearby sports store.

Finally we start our cycling for the day!  It is close to 1:30 pm and we have about 50kms to go to Torgau.

In general, it is lovely riding - Elbe wetlands: meadows and fields; sometimes we can’t see the river because tall dykes have been built. Paths are mostly sealed, some with sand and gravel but we are mostly off-road as the tracks meander along the river and through villages. But there is a persistent headwind which is freeeezing! I resort to wrapping a scarf around my neck and face to keep out the cold.

We cross the Elbe by ferry at Strehla (cranky German ferryman).

Further on we stop at Mühlberg next to the lovely town hall (Rathaus) to eat the cakes we had bought at the bakery at Riesa. There was a big POW camp near here in WWII - 300,000 prisoners. We cycled around to the Marienstern Abbey, a former Cistercian nunnery (1565) - Gothic with Romanesque elements. The brickwork is amazing. The town played an important role in the Reformation.

We cross the river again - over a long, long bridge and cycle on with our long shadows spiking out horizontally over the fields into the late afternoon. We pass through the small village of Belgern - very pretty, lovely autumn leaves everywhere.

Finally we arrive in Torgau.

Torgau has a nice town hall in renaissance style, residence palace Hartenfels and church St. Marien; it is famous as the town which commemorates the meeting of US and Soviet forces during the Second World War on April 25, 1945, later known as Elbe Day. Torgau was also the spiritual centre of the German Reformation and the chapel in the Hartenfels Castle was consecrated by Martin Luther.

Good old ALDI - just around the corner! Bought provisions for breakfast and lunch tomorrow. 

After a welcome shower, we search for somewhere to eat - and find a place just behind the castle. It turns out ‘der Grieke’ means Greek so we have wandered into a Greek restaurant (Der Grieke am Rosengarten) with the menu completely in German. So I have moussaka as I recognise what THAT is; MF2 has the most enormous schnitzel. Every night he says ‘this is the best schnitzel I have ever had’! Tonight he says he was in ‘7th heaven’. Gosh, we even got an ouzo ‘on the house’ at the start of the meal. Whatever, that MF2 can sure ‘wolf down’ a meal!

We walk back via a full moon to our little apartment which is right opposite the Hartenfels Castle.  Straight to bed - I am stuffed!

Cycling distance: 53 kms