Wobbling Winos: Day 6. Cycling from Louny to Kadan on the Ohre Cycle Path

Day 6 Louny to Kadan 58 Km 3:40

We popped in at the Tourist Info this morning to see if they had a map with the cycle route for the rest of our stay in Chez Republic, they had a detailed map for Kr 20 which made Ian feel a whole lot better as the GPS is still paying up (or I am technically challenged).

We started off cycling in a south westerly direction along the Ohre River, the banks were covered in orange blossom, elderflower and a white rambling rose, what a heavenly scent. There was also a Cuckoo calling from the nearby forest - very special.

Most of the day was spent on secondary roads though mixed farmland, maize, wheat, rye, spinach and sunflowers, as we went further along we passed through the hop growing area. The hops are only about 2 m high now, they will get to 5 meters before they start flowering. The female flowers are harvested and dried and added to beer to impart bitterness and flavour to the Chez Republic' s most consumed drink. There are 10 million people living in the Chez Republic and they have the highest consumption of beer in the world. Germany is second with a population of 80 million, quite a thought as beer here is cheaper than an Espresso and bottled water.

Ian's bike really played up today, his gears were slipping, which forced us to stop and do some bicycle maintenance in Zatek. Well that was interesting, as Ian had to adjust two screw one marked H and one marked L neither of us could see the letters and I misread them and confused L with H. This meant he spent one and a half hours adjusting the cables,screws etc until we got the torch out to check, it was a breeze after that. How hilarious! - luckily the Czechs don't understand Afrikaans expletives.

The last 40 km took us over undulating terrain with quite a steep climb into Kadan, which is situated on the banks of the Ohre River. Our accommodation is at U Johannes Pension. The receptionist was very friendly but could not speak a word of English, she had to phone her colleague to translate for her! We have found the further away from Prague we go the less people speak English.

For supper we settled for another Chez meal of goulash for me and a hamburger for Ian at the Castle Restuarant, Restuarant Strelnice, not bad as far as Chez food goes.