This morning in Dečin
Knee-pain is a good thing when it leads to pleasant mornings like this. A visit to Dečin’s synagogue was enhanced by meeting the bloke (Vladimir Poskoliče) behind its restoration. He has 3 gold medals in javelin! Very chatty in broken German and so friendly and full of energy at 80. The altar painting is of the sun, which shines on and for everyone. Exhibition (in Czech) about Reinhard Heydrich had me choking – not really a surprise.

On his recommendation (Vladimir’s, not Heydrich’s!) we walked up a hill to some fine views of Dečin. I’ll post a photo or two later.

Then back to the hotel to collect bikes and on to the fortunately nearby station. Not too much trouble to buy tickets for us and bikes. (This explains what  to do to get a bike on a Czech train). Just now chilling in the outside bit of the station cafe over tea and water…

This evening in Prague
So we’re in hotel Aida, in a north-eastern suburb 4 stops up metro line C from Praha hlavni nadrazi (main station). Plans have changed a lot! Our first thought was to get a train to near the border with Austria, as near as possible to Linz, then cycle to Linz and then do the Donauradweg (Danube cycle path) to Vienna.

Most options were ruled out because south-bound trains with bike spaces were rare and south-bound trains with uncooked bike spaces were non-existent. It turns out there are train works between Olbramovice and Tabor, so replacement bus services are the order of the day. I’m amazed the buses can carry any bikes at all!

So our plan, with thanks to a very helpful lady in the ticket office is to take a 09:15 train to Olbramovice tomorrow morning, arriving around 10am, then cycle 39 km to Tabor. Then we have a train to Ceske Budejovice at 18:54. Even I shouldn’t need 9 hours to cycle 25 miles, especially now my knee has a support that has taken away all the pain!

Deciding and redeciding what to do, along with buying a knee support in the station pharmacy, took about 2 hours. So food was required! Fortunately only 14 minutes’ walk from the main station is Radost FX, a vegetarian/vegan eatery and nightclub. I’ve just had a tofu burger, which goes excellently with Budweiser Budvar Tmavy ležák (dark Bud), while Elly had had an African-style tofu and peanut stew over couscous and an orange and banana smoothie. Yum!

And now cheesecake! All the while Barry White and the Love Orchestra have been serenading us. And not a single Orc in sight!

As for after Ceske Budejovice, who knows? I’d like to cycle across the Czech/Austrian border and Elly would like to cycle some of the Donauradweg. But neither of us are sold on cycling all the way from Ceske Budejovice to the border so there may be more train. More as and when…

Elly puts it much better
Adventures on Czech railways today. Bit of sightseeing in Dečin this morning, including meeting Vladimir (photo) who showed us round the very moving reconstructed synagogue – and also showed us the medals he had won in international javelin competitions. Then to Prague by old-fashioned corridor train with bikes in the luggage van, which was easy enough once we worked it out. Prague metro with bikes interesting but probably less stressful than cycling through rush hour traffic over tramlines and cobbles. This evening’s entertainment involved a pantomime in the chemist’s shop since we can’t say ‘please’ in Czech, let alone ‘knee’ or ‘support’. In spite of this, Bruce now has leg assistance. We then tried to book rail tickets for tomorrow to get us somewhere close to the Czech border so we could carry on to Vienna in easier stages, but no luck. The words ‘rail replacement bus service’ seem to spread chaos in any language. Thanks to the sterling efforts of a very enterprising assistant in the main railway ticket office, we are going by train tomorrow morning to Olbramovice and we will see how Bruce’s knee holds up after 20 miles or so by bike to Tabor. Another train booked to take us on to Ceske Budejovice tomorrow evening and then we will have to work out a new plan from there.

Here’s today’s map.

Much better surfaces today. This part of the Elberadweg also follows the river closely as it winds through a deep gorge.

Setting off a bit earlier helped too, as did minimal hassle finding our way back to the cycle route.

We didn’t stop in Dresden, but there may be a few blurry photos to accompany this blog when I make a proper website. Neither of us fancied being in big cities for very long.

So we decided we’d have a lunch-stop in Pirna, a few miles upstream from Dresden and then aim for Decin, a relatively big town 10 km into the Czech Republic.

After Pirna, the country either side of the Elbe rises up so that the river runs through a spectacular gorge. There’s some climbing, and at least two ferry-crossings if you want to avoid road-bashing

Also the route crosses the railway line a few times. But no matter, we made good time, despite missing a need to cross the Elbe on a wee ferry at Königstein. This cost us about 20 minutes.

After that the climbs and drops were more frequent. Not significant but a change from the very flat paths we’d encountered so far.

We also got slightly lost at Bad Schandau, the last town before the border.  The final crossing was just before we’d have crossed the border on the east bank. The border runs along the middle of the Elbe for a while here, so we didn’t cross into the Czech Republic until 3 km later

At that point my left knee became very, very painful. We limped the last 10 km into Decin and then up a slight slope to Hotel Andy.

Lots of drinks later (2 of these: the cerny/dunkel/dark version is to die for) and any number of bottles of chilled water, we were ready to change, eat and then wander into town.

Czechs like their beers and nightclubs, it seems. No ice cream parlours but many, many different beers affected by bars and clubs. My last for tonight was a Pilsnet Urquell (golden lager, so not quite what I was after but considering I speak no Czech, I’m lucky I didn’t end up with someone’s clothes, boots and motorcycle!)

My knee is still tender, and my hip is sore from falling off yesterday so we’re going by train to Prague tomorrow. No worries: we’d have needed to go by train at least one day to be in Vienna in time, unless we had gotten quite far ahead of plans.

Next report tomorrow after drinking absinthe at Radosk FX!

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!

This post is based on emails to my parents during the day.

09:51
Drinks-stop at Gaststätte Flaming-Eck in Kleinmarzehns. 15km so far today but spent quite a while finding our way back to the cycle route.

Then we faced the worst surfaces yet on the D-route 1. Until now, lots of tarmac, some concrete with expansion gaps every 5 metres, some brick and cobble (flat top, not the nasty round-head ones inflicted on the UK). But this was a farm track with very loose sand and gravel. Sort of OK if going flat but uphill caused skids and nervousness, downhill caused brown steam to emit from the shorts. Not much fun on laden touring bikes.

13:25
26 miles so far today. 13:20 when we arrived in Arsenalplatz in Lutherstadt Wittenburg

Long break to find toilets in shopping-centre and buy some anti midnight-starvation supplies.

And then we got onto the Elberadweg! We’d hoped to be here last night but no worries: this is an adventure for us.

Most of it is beautiful. Wondering through countryside that I hope my photos can show, because my writing can’t!

14:27
Stopped for lunch in a Gaststätte in Elster on the Elberadweg. So far mostly tarmac and brick. My arse likes. My tum likes a litre of apfelsaft and will like salad mit extra Kartoffelsalat. My first of the trip 🙂

Not to be: the Kartoffelsalat was made with mayonnaise 😦 Germany, you need to learn from Austria! Olive oil, bits of gherkin, lemon juice, garlic are what you need in a potato salad.

21:40
Here’s the map.

Actual distance well over 60 miles. I stopped Cyclemeter while we were waiting for a ferry. Then we did a lot of twisty back-roads before I realised it was off.

Good feeling when we crossed from Brandenburg to Saxony-Anhalt. We’d changed state. (My socks became liquid.)

Knees not as worked as yesterday. Signs for Elberadweg not the same in this Land but still plentiful, wanting to take you the scenic route! We ignored the last one and headed straight along a road to Torgau.

Elly had looked up Hotel Pension zur Markt and we found it without any hassle. The receptionist was amusingly boggled by me being vegan. ‘No fish? No cheese? What do you eat? What can we give you for breakfast?’ Thank goodness I can cope with dry muesli (especially this morning’s one which had tiny pieces of raw chocolate), tea and above all European breads. Oh my goodness, how I will miss those back in Edinburgh.

Evening meal was in Herr Käthe, a restaurant nestling in the castle walls. Huge foiled-wrapped baked spuds with fine beans, carrots and pine kernels, then a fruit salad. All washed down with a half-litre of my darkest beer yet: Ur-Krostitzer Schwartzer from Leipzig.

Now back at hotel, about to crash. Aiming for Dresden tomorrow

So we’re in Bad Belzig, 36 km from where we thought we might get to (Lutherstadt Wittemburg). Here’s the map

As you can see we’ve done over 60 miles. Today’s planned journey to Lutherstadt Wittemburg was supposed to be 64 miles, but the Mauerweg twisted and turned more than could be predicted from Google maps. Also, signposts were less frequent than might be liked, so we probably lost 90 minutes today for stopping and waiting for jPhones to wake up and smell the 3G-coffee.

Surfaces varied from smooth, new tarmac to cobbles to dirt paths to the whole road being dug up: get off and walk! By 6pm we were more bothered with finding a loo and a place to stay than carrying on. Attempting to ask directions to a hotel and then receiving them in German was quite taxing.

But we lucked out, finding an excellent place with a comfy room and a fine restaurant. Now necking salad and Petersiliekartoffeln with a small dunkel Paulaner von Fass. München bier, rather than Brandenburg, but excellent all the same!

So tomorrow on to Lutherstadt Wittemburg, where we pick up the path along the Elbe. Surely no map reading needed from then!

By the way, Elly’s just had a desert called Mohnpielen: bread pudding flavoured with poppy seeds and chocolate. I had a wee taste: excellent! My second dunkel Paulaner is very welcome too.

Loading up with rye bread and Erdbeeren Fruchtauftricht with lots of tea! Weather cool, overcast, so not hot.

So we’re in a holiday inn and enjoying it? Apparently so.

This morning started far too early: I’d worked until stupid o’clock on MSc stuff. I woke about 5am after a dream that I was in an English class with James Dean Bradfield. We had to do some work based on words on an electric blackboard. But the words flicked on and off so fast I couldn’t copy them down, despite JDB’s help.

The next thing I knew was a phone call from my dad to wish us happy travels. Then a hurried breakfast, some swearing at my luggage and the taxi was here to take us to Turnhouse.

Checking and the actual flight were fairly painless apart from being made to go and weight the bikes, and a wee but of turbulence during landing.

We had to wait quite a while for the bikes to be delivered. I noticed Lev’s box looked a bit bashed so I was quite concerned. So I got quite agitated waiting for the shuttle bus to the hotel.

Reinstating the bikes took over an hour: next time I want bigger bike boxes so I don’t have to remove so many bits! The only casualty seems to be the bottom of Lev’s front mudguard: an insignificant piece of chromoplastic had broken off. Fidel survived just fine!

Vegan choices here aren’t great: tagliatelle with rocket salad, baby tomatoes and chanterelles  – or nothing. The house beer seems to be a Sächsische Pilsner (Radelberger). Ok, but nothing special and not from Berlin or even Brandenberg

But what has me amused beyond belief is the trippy techno/industrial mix playing on the restaurant terrace. Very danceable!

So we have over 60 miles to do tomorrow, fairly laden. Why are clothes so heavy? Time for bed!

Theme song
Fidel is going on a summer holiday.
No more potholes for a week or two!
Gurkensalad on a summer holiday.
No more worries for me and you,
for a week or two.

Lev’s going where the sun shines brightly.
He’s going where the Donau is blue.
We’ve seen the third man movie.
Now let’s see if it’s true.

Elly’s going on a summer holiday:
bike to places she always wanted to.
So we’re going on a summer holiday
To make our dreams come true,
for a week or two.

Bruce’s going where Prater spins nightly.
He’s going where the Elbe is blue.
He’s seen it from a train-seat.
He wants to swim in it too.

We’re all going on a cycling holiday
doing things we always wanted to.
So we’re going on a cycling holiday
To change our arses’ hue:
to black and blue!

Packing bikes
This took ages, even though I’d pre-cut lengths of pipe-lagging to protect the bike-frames. For both Lev and Fidel,

• As expected, I needed to remove the front wheels, then extract their skewers and also remove handlebars, pedals, saddles, and deflate all tyres. I also removed Lev’s front pannier rack because I won’t be carrying front panniers, so I didn’t need this extra weight.
• I had not expected I’d need to remove both bikes’ front mudguards. This was so so I could turn the front forks to point backwards and thus make the bikes short enough to fit in the boxes.
• Nor had I expected I’d need to remove Fidel’s rear pannier rack (to make him low enough to fit in the box) and dismount his brake/gear units from the handlebars so I could fit them in the box.

Moral – bigger bike boxes are good!

For me, the most annoying thing about the current UK government system is that while there are governmental bodies for Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, England is done by the Westminster government.*

To make the system coherent, I’d want a separate body for England, then a body doing all of the UK. This could be simply a federal clearing-house, a body that deals with things that are likely to affect all of the UK** or it could delve deeply into ‘regional’ matters. I don’t care*** so long as there are the same number of tiers of government, with the same sets of powers and duties, over all UK citizens.

Perhaps this is a start…

*Please tell me what annoys you the most about the current system! (No need to parade the perceived pros and cons of different parties within the system.)

*** such as defence, interregional transport links, disease control: invaders, motorways and railways and disease vectors either shouldn’t be or aren’t persuaded by lines on a map

***Actually, I do care but my opinions aren’t well-informed enough to go into here and now. They’re also quite fluid.

I’ve started some work with Brandelicious, a start-up company that pools some talents from Edinburgh Napier University’s marketing and computing departments.

Brandelicious’s idea is to build an online marketplace or set of shops within a shop (think of Amazon or Ebay ‘shops’ – but with a personal feel) that builds relationships between customers and family producers, to give their great products a supportive online home. Ideally this will also show the next generation that a living can be made from these products, so that the current generation’s skills and knowledge aren’t lost. My current role in this is to research how customers would prefer to shop on Brandelicious’s website, in particular which product categories and choices appeal to online shoppers.

This survey is my initial attempt to research this area. I’m grateful for any constructive answers, so please spread it far and wide. Because the survey was limited to 10 questions, I’d welcome extra comments on this blog post.