Sorry but yet again I’ve cocked up the map!

So far I’ve been very happy with my cycle-garb. Hours in the saddle and yet my balloon-knot is unhassled. Thanks for this must go to my DHB ultra-padded shorts and aerotech leggings with yet more padding, along with suitable amounts of Assos chamois cream. Little sweat in the upper half: I’m wearing a cooling long sleeved base layer and my Lifescycle jersey.

Photo to come when I’ve persuaded someone to take it!

That’s the good news! Today was hard. Quite a lot of getting lost, while Elly’s cold was getting to her. So this morning I took notes of the villages we were to go through. Just love these names!

• Kranichau
• Dobeltitz
• Belgern
• Ammelgosswitz
• Droschkau
• Plotha

Again some of the surfaces were crazy for a national cycle route. The worst was coming out of Belgern: not a full carriageway of cobbles but two tracks of cobbles: just enough for a car or tractor to navigate.

It took us 4 hours to do 27 miles from Torgau to Riesa (lunch stop). But that was only 2 hours and 20 minutes of movement.

Riesa appears to be quite industrial. Big harbour off the Elbe, lots of goods trains passing through the station (we had lunch at an Italian restaurant next to it) and trucks logo-ed with ‘Riesa Stahlstadt’

A bit of fun navigating out of Riesa until we picked up the Elberadweg. And then I fell off. I was trying to plug jPhone into his portable battery while moving, misjudged it, dropped the battery, felt a wobble, didn’t unclog quickly enough and do over I went. Pride quite bruised, left hip slightly bruised.

Anyway, lots more beautiful countryside but still we were hot and bothered, while the Radwrg continued to meander annoyingly.

So when we saw a road sign saying 16 km to Meißen, we took it. Most of it was excellent Tarmac, if a little hilly but the last 2 km were filled with traffic. There was a bike path but it was on the other side, across a barrier. So we played the ignorant tourist and carried on to the centre of Meißen.

Elly had looked up the hotel we are now in: Zum Goldenen Fass, on Vorbrucke Strasse. It’s bike friendly so here we are, well before 6pm.

Our room has a bath, joy of joys, so we’ve both soaked away some of the aches while watching the bubbles, then wondered into Meißen’s Altstadt for food and beer.

For me the inevitable potato and salad, with beer-bread. For Elly a bierbratwurst with tangy sauerkraut, mashed potato and mustard. The beers were firstly a Meißner Schwerter Elbsommer (golden, Sweet, no bitter aftertaste, slightly thickening feeling) then a Meißner Schwerter St Afra Dunkel, named after the main local church (slightly bitter but light. Not quite black. Very drinkable but I think I preferred the Elbsommer)

Then a wander around the Alstadt: I hope my photos do it justice, before visiting an Eiskaffee to get cones yo munch on the way back to our hotel. Elly had a neon-turquoise concoction called ‘Engelblau’ while greedy guts here had sour cherry and lemon sorbets

Nicely full, still enjoying it. (I’ve only written about the pants bits to get them out of my head and because they stick out.) this route is quite set up for tourist-cycling. We’ve seen so many tourists, including folk from Winnipeg: I guess we just hadn’t prepared for so much stopping and head scratching – and neither of us are exactly super fit triathletes, YET!

Anyway, tomorrow we might get to Děčin. Another country!