Wobbling Winos: Day 9. Cycling from Cheb to Bad Berneck.

Day 9. Cheb to Bad Berneck. 72 km. 5h00.

We rolled westward from Cheb alongside a lake on a beautiful clear day, and only realized we had crossed the border into Germany on our cycle path when the color of the signboards changed. We got rid of our last Czech Korunas in exchange for a bag of walnuts. The Czech Republic has certainly been a very easy country in which to travel, even though the language is totally indecipherable. That we had entered a more affluent country was immediately obvious - neater, cleaner, and more expensive.

While the Czech Republic may appear like a poorer cousin, it is still a highly functional country. It has the second lowest unemployment rate in the EU, and weathered the 2008 financial crisis better than the rest of Europe. This was probably because they have held to their own currency and being a net producer have been competitive in the export market. They concentrate on producing heavy industrial machinery (cranes etc), components for cars as well as Skoda cars (owned by VW), electrical goods such as insulators, and telephones. Their current president, Melos Zeman, is a national embarrassment. While supposedly being intelligent, he is usually drunk by 10 in the morning and was totally legless at his inauguration. (Can be viewed on YouTube). He is however popular with the working classes, and fortunately the president has very limited executive power, and is only influential through his opinions. Perhaps SA needs to adopt a similar model.

After crossing the nonexistent border, the GPS, road signs and map got into a serious disagreement and we promptly got lost. This time the map got it right, but later in the day the GPS found us our accommodation. We also confused Neuenreuth with Neuhaus which didn't make it easier. We knew today was going to be quite tough as we had to cross the Fichtelgebirge (mountains) from the Ohre (Eger) to the Main river systems.

On one occasion the map and road signs sent us onto a farm road which rapidly deteriorated to a muddy track going up to a wheat field. A U-turn back to the tar road, but a bit later we were waved through a farm by a friendly farmer before hauling our 40kg bikes up a stony path to a forestry track. Having eventually got to Neuhaus after aiming for Neuenreuth, we found an excellent road that took through to Roslau where we stopped for fried eggs (hemenex) and coffee at the White Rose Hotel.

Then followed a good climb to the river watershed and quick descent to Bischofsgrun with surrounding ski lifts and ramps. As we left this alpine-looking village there was an almighty clap of thunder and we scrambled to get into our rain gear. It then bucketed down and we stood under an umbrella in the forest like Hansel and Gretel waiting for things to improve. As it lightened up we set off again on a great tarred cycle path towards Bad Berneck. Unfortunately we underestimated the ferocity of the weather gods. We have never before cycled in such rain, as we crunched and shivered our way through the hail on the path.

It was a long 10 km to our Hotel Heissinger, a really nice place in the charming village of Bad Berneck. After thawing out and cleaning up the bikes (the Mms. Dawes had a private garage next door to a Spitfire for the night), we had a predictable but good meal at the neighbouring establishment. Rather than naming this trip P2P, we should have called it PCP (pork, cabbage and potatoes).

It was good to sleep with a stream running outside our bedroom rather than a stream of motorbikes, cars and trucks as we've had for the past few nights.