We Gonna Ride an git some Kulture: 09/08/24

It was a relief riding into Dresden; we rode about 49 km in the day, actually taking a couple of little shortcuts deviating from the recommended route. Not on purpose.

With it being a Saturday, we were somewhat stunned by the fact that we appeared to be riding on the Bicycle Autobahn. At times, the riders were absolutely congesting the pathway such that not paying full attention would have been a disaster. Also contributing to this mess was that many riders appear to be racers practicing for the Tour de France, passing us like we were standing still, which we probably were at the time.

The route guidance in Germany wasn't quite as robust as what we had seen in the Czech Republic. Route markers were fewer and farther between and not quite as obvious, so when I said earlier that route markings were 95% good, I would drop that down to 85%. At times, deciding whether to follow the yellow brick road straight or turn left or turn right was often confusing, though it ultimately likely would have made little difference other than saddle time.

I love a beautifully presented table. This was on the breakfast ~~trough~~ buffet table at our Bad Schandau hotel. Cheese display with a garnish of my favourite tropical fruit, passionfruit.

Mmmm. Butter.

Leaving Bad Schandau - I should say that the name means "bath", not BAD; many German place names are prefaced with "Bad" (this had been somewhat disconcerting to me before I did a Google translation before we came over - we crossed the river once again via ferry. We were all excited to show our local passes, thinking we were going to save 3 Euros each but we were charged Euro 2.6 for our bikes. So not the bargain we all thought we were going to receive.

Riding along, Kevin spotted a sign that said "historischer Treidlpfad 300 m" off the main trail so thinking he might see some fabulous castle or structure, rode a short way down the trail. When I caught up to him, he was returning not having seen anything but acknowledging that he had not gone very far. I suggested we go together because misery loves company and we rode the 300 metres until our route was blocked by a campground or deviated. I just Googled the sign to discover it means "historical tow road". We had seen remnants of an old cobble road but not anything more. So our mystery was solved.

Passenger service to Dresden

I took this photo mainly to look up the words.

Konigstein Fortress. The oldest part is the chapel, built at the turn of the 12th century. More recently it has been used as a prison until 1922 and during both world wars, house allied officers who were prisoners of war.