September 20:Wolkenstein

Distance traveled: 142.2 km

Cumulative distance: 849.6 km

Maximum speed: 86 kph

Temperature range: 15 - 19 degrees

I was eating crow this morning. Not one day earlier, I had emailed a friend back home who is traveling to Portugal next week that "it is not busy here and it will be easy to find accomodation". Well, we certainly havent had any trouble to this point but of course, people in this part of the world have spent the last 10 days building arks, so may not have been in much of a mood to travel. We had tentatively set a destination for today  and last night, before shutting off the lights, I had quickly scanned for hotel rooms but came up blank as each place I checked was full. We had agreed that we would decide on a plan of action in the morning but it was a little disturbing to me that I checked three hotels and not only was there was not one vacancy but the hotels were booked through next week and into October.  The town was Rothenburg ob ter Tauber, a famous tourist town in Germany due to its  medieval history and I wondered if there was a festival on, like Octoberfest or wine harvest or something of the sort but I did not see a thing that would give a clue as to why the town was so busy. Checking this morning and not finding an opening, we quickly made the decsion to go somewhere else and we chose Wolkenstein, whick is not even in the same direction but looked like a pleasant place. But apparently popular as well as I could not find a hotel in the town. I phoned one little penzion and when the owner answered the phone, I said "Guter tag, do you speak english?" and he responded "We are in Germany so you must speak German" so as I fumbled around to get Google Translate up on my phone (an amazing feature, I have learned on this trip) he decided that he didn't need any foreigner's money and hung up. 

Eventually, I was able to find a place out of the actual town. What is somewhat amazing to me that this is the third time I have booked a hotel without providing any security that I am committed to actually stopping at the hotel. I make the reservation and provide all the details required, which usually includes passport numbers but not this time,  and when the website asks me if I want to pay while I am making the booking or when I am at the hotel, I always choose "at the hotel" thus, leaving our options open should it not look as good as it does on the website. This astounds me that they would actually take my word for it that I am coming even though we have no prior relationship and no contract other than a promise to show up. Anyway, I can tell you that Germany is pretty busy with tourists. And maybe other parts of Europe that are out of Saxony, Bohemia and anywhere else that was recently flooded but now enjoying sunshine.

Last look at the castle in Loket.

Since I am on about the hotel, I'll just keep on that theme for a minute. We did ride through Wolkenstein and there are some pretty serious hills - the terrain reminded me of Nelson and I was sweating about whether I would have to make any sharp turns - but the Google guidance just kept us going outside the north end of town until we eventually came to an interesection of two busy roads in the middle of endless fields and we could have just as easily been at a rural intersection in the middle of Saskatchewan. The hotel looked like a 3 dressed up as a 9; not too tidy around the outside perhaps in part because there seemed to be some construction going on but unlike almost every place we have been or seen, there is usually some effort to make a place look tidy and inviting - even the gas station where we filled up today had flower pots on the gas islands - but none of that that we noticed. We walked into the lobby but as is often the case in these little family run hotels, not a soul in sight so we rang the bell and eventually a gentleman came from the dining room and walked past me into the office then came out behind the desk. I said we had a reservation and he asked for my name and then handed me a key. No paperwork, no confirmation that I planned to pay and no security for him. We had dinner in their restaurant later and I could have charged dinner to the room and then they would have had that much more risk. It is quaint how trusting they are but maybe it is not an issue here. I can't imagine it being like that anywhere back home.  

The inside of the hotel is undergoing renovations, too, and clearly, our room has new furniture and new carpet but there is a... quirky smell. We decide that it must be odor coming off the new carpet - that chemical smell that you get with a new carpet - but I eventually decided that it was coming from the drains that must have been dried out so when I ran the water in the sink and the shower for a few minutes, the smell went away. When I confirmed to Nan after walking around the hotel that indeed the inside was being renovated to, she mused that they hadn't changed the carpet because it was so ugly. So I took her to the part of the hotel that had not yet had the carpet changed and if that is what I had seen when I first walked into the place, I would have just turned around and walked out.

Even though today was again a short ride at a projected 82 km, it still took over an hour and a half. Any mileage over and above that was stuff we rode after we had checked into the hotel. That is the nature of riding here: the back roads are slow and again, we were riding on little lanes. When we turned down one little lane, prettily lined by large trees, we wondered if any of the roads here are gravel and not paved. Even the little lanes have a hard surface and it is usually pretty fresh road ashphalt so there is never a worry about taking some side road and ending up covered in dust. We were rewarded for our faith by being treated to beautiful scenery and fun riding roads, including an extended stretch where the road followed a stream we remarked how it could have been at home. 

After checking into the hotel, we were motivated to get out for some lunch, so we jumped back on the bike and chose a neighbouring town pretty much at random and rode there for lunch. The first place we stopped at was closed so we walked up the street and picked a donair shop. We were something of a novelty to them and they were quite curious about where we are from, since they must have identified the "L's" on our foreheads. But it was pretty good fare and neigher of us was much in the mood for another meat stew.

Donairs, German style.

The castle at Wolkenstein.

As soon as we crossed into Germany today, we immediately saw numerous more bikes.

The Europeans as so conscious of their energy use. We have seen numerous wind farms and solar ranches on this trip.

Wow, nothing says "fresh sausage" like driving to the gas station and there it is in the sausage dispenser! There was even wine for sale inside.

That is 28 Euros for 17 litres of gas. That's $2.52 per litre.

After eating crow this morning, we were eating duck for dinner.  We were eating in the hotel restaurant, which we were absolutely stunned to see nearly full and we had both decided on the marinated chicken for dinner. Nan gave her order first - NOT drawing any conclusions about that - and I just nodded and pointed to myself. We got duck. This is only a story because in the past Nan has made a big deal about being duck free. Even though our friend Pete had made a plan for us all to go out to a great duck restaurant in Prague and then the rest of us shooting him down (no pun intended). But she ate it tonight because she had just enough doubt about whether it was chicken marinated in a rich brown sauce or duck. Then the bill came.