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Czech Republic
Sonja:
On our first day in Czech Republic, we set a new record: 113 km! On the one hand because we wanted to arrive as quick as possible at our friend Iva's in Rousinov near Brno and on the other hand because it just went really smoothly, despite the extreme (!) bumpy roads here. Olli was in such a good mood that he greeted everybody on our way with a loud and friendly "Ahoj". Every time we asked for the way people were very helpful, despite communication problems. If there was no cyclist or pedestrian available Olli even stopped cars to ask for directions. They must have thought: "Those Germans are crazy." When we finally arrived in the evening, we were of course received at the front door with a glass of homemade plum brandy, which is tradition in Czech Republic and to which we had been looking forward to all day.
The following days we didn't spent lying around lazily in the sun, but we spent them doing our laundry, cleaning the bikes and putting things back on track. Because we love to try out new things and take part in almost any kind of nonsense, we even went with Iva and her mum to their aerobic classes for two hours, which was a lot of fun but exhausting like hell. But that's the way it's supposed to be, isn't it ? ;)
Olli:
On Saturday we visited Petr (Iva's boyfriend) in his village Olsany, where we went for a walk with Petr's family. In addition to a "forest fire" because of discarded cigarettes we were also able to witness a bicycle-testing-day, where you could borrow bikes from leading manufacturers to try them out. We furthermore had the pleasure to try out our balance on a Slagline (= 10 meters long strap, strained between two trees). It's damn hard to keep the balance on such a thing, especially if you've been drinking Czech beer ;). To end the evening on a cozy note we relaxed on the couch to watch the famous Czech movie "Dědictví aneb Kurvahošigutentag" which was filmed in exactly this village we had spent the whole day in.
Sonja:
On Sunday we were allowed to physically strengthen ourselves by helping Petr's family preparing firewood in the forest before we could relax on the beach of Brno followed by a delicious BBQ.
The night leading to May 1st (Walpurgis Night), we spent according to Czech tradition at the village's witch pyre, where people, especially to the delight of the children, dress up as witches to grill sausages and to carouse the homemade brandy singing campfire songs until late at night.
In the end it was very hard to say goodbye to our hosts. It has been a very nice time here. We will miss them all very much. Děkuji vám pěkné! Na shledanou!
Let's go to Bratislava along the Austrian-Slovakian border.
Olli - Addendum:
On our way back to Austria Iva's parents accompanied us for a short bike tour to Slavkov (Austerlitz) to visit a replica of Versailles. When we started in Rousinov the road went fairly steep uphill and Sonja, due to the unaccustomed heat (25°C already at 10 a.m.) almost suffered a sunstroke, because she started untrained at full throttle. After Slavkov the temperature climbed up to 38°C and the road was very hilly. A short distance before the border we refilled our water in a warehouse. It tasted a little bit like of old pipes but was edible. On the edge of a forest we finally spent our last night on Czech soil.
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