Border Hopping

Up we got to another clear Czech morning so we decided to stock up on supplies and have breakfast somewhere down the road. The early start would have been good if Hank hadn't spied fresh cherries for sale and decided to queue. We soon realised this was a bit of a social occasion for some and the queue crept along. In the meantime he enjoyed the banter of the seller as he offered advice to patrons complete with fag hanging out his mouth. Hank shared his cherries so we didn't mind.

We cycled through the countryside with still more barley chops until we hit the town of Slavonice. Nice little town but it seemed it was full of $2 shops. We settled in for some breakfast. The young waitron started to make eyes at Stan saying she wanted him to come and meet her mother. She also said he could dress up in rubber if he wished. While we were enjoying this dance, we soon realised she was saying there were underground caves and you had to put on waterproof gear to go down there. We liked our story better. We had another successful strategy meeting and continued on our way.

Hunter Gatherer

Along the roadsides an abundance of trees have been planted to brighten up the landscape. In this area it was cherry trees. So we stopped to feast on fresh cherries from the trees hoping that the fibre intake didn't have any spontaneous consequences  at inconvenient times. On we cycled stocked up on cherries as we headed towards Pisecne. Along the way we looked at some remnants of the Iron Curtain (fences and bunkers).

"We have rocket launchers but no
rockets. Let's improvise!"

We cycled along old border patrol roads again until we reached a pleasant memorial garden on the Austrian side of the border. Eyeing the nice flat Austrian road we crossed over to use this for a while. Much easier on some parts of the anatomy. We headed back to the Czech Republic to Vlatenin for some lunch primarily because it was a hell of a lot cheaper to do this . After lunch we headed back across the border to Drosendorf Stadt on our way to an old quarry outside Langau now used as swimming facilities.

Jesus of Infinite Suffering

After Drosendorf Stadt we were cycling along a track when I heard Stan start laughing. I rounded the corner and started laughing. Hank caught us up and started laughing. There in the middle of nowhere was a twisted cavaderous Jesus of Infinite Suffering. After gathering our composure we headed to the lake. We stopped off for about an hour so Stan and I could enjoy a swim in the lake. Refreshed we soldiered on towards Hardegg. Stan was continually warning us of the gut busting ride out of Hardegg to our final destination. We weren't sure if it was a windup. There were two things about the ride into Hardegg. First, it was a damn fine descent so I set a new speed record of 70kph. Hell, that was good. Second, you descented and that's when you realised Stan wasn't kidding about the

Lost in Translation

ride out. We stopped off for a few photo ops and then crossed the bridge back into the Czech Republic. There was no chance to build up into the ascent. It just started and kept going for ~2-2.5kms. The climb was such a struggle I started thinking of  The Little Engine Who Could. I was so inspired by the engine's values of optimism and hard work that I started  repeating, "I think I can, I think I can." This provided me with the intestinal fortitude to make it to the top where I  chanted "I knew I could," It was pretty satisfying that we all made it in one go and the only thing stopping us from enjoying the descent was we'd have to come back up again.  From the top it was an easy run into Cisov to our penzion and a well deserved beer.

90 kms travelled, top speed 70kph.