(Dobreny, Czech Republic to Furth im Wald, Germany)
View 2008-06-11 Dobrany, Czech Republic to Furth Im Wald, Germany in a larger map
Highlights: early start to beat heat, overcast at times, headwinds & hills, reaching the German border, waiting for thunder & lightning to dissipate
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Journal: We got an earlier start today (by about an hour) to try to beat the heat that got to us a little yesterday. Also, we weren't sure how bad the hills would be as we approached the German border. In the morning it didn't matter much since the skies were mostly cloudy or overcast and the hills were quite mild. As usual, the riding itself was nice enough as we rode on lightly trafficked back roads past pleasant country scapes & through small rural villages. The only hard part today occurred just before lunch, when the intense sun returned and we climbed several hundred feet in under a mile to our highest elevation of the day (2155 feet). It was worth it as we had a great view of the Vserby Pass to Germany in front of (& below) us. This pass has been used for 1000+ years to connect Bohemia (present day Czech Republc) to Germany. Armies have marched across this pass to fight one another, but from the end of World War II to 1990 the crossing was completely closed because of the Cold War. Hard to imagine today since there is very little even left of the border itself now that Czech Republic's borders are completely open (unmanned) to the European Union.
The biggest excitement of the day occurred as we were crossing the border into Germany. Some early afternoon thunderstorms were creating some lightning in the distance & getting us wet in the process. We decided to wait out the storm for a short while, making sure our path into Germany would be safe. As had been the case more often than not on this trip, we were on the "right side" of the storm and able to continue towards the city of Furth without much hassle from the weather gods. It felt good to be back in Bavaria, where the roads are smooth and bicycle paths abound when needed. In fact, there was a short paved bike path right at the border crossing, which we were happy to take advantage of.
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