The Elbe Cycle Route

Prague (CZ) to Dresden (D) 271.73km @ 19 kph 

The last three days we have been following the Elbe River from Prague in Czech Rep. to near Dresden in Germany. We have enjoyed the bike path that closely follows the river even though we have had to back track at times because of flooding. We have shared the bikepath with many other cyclists fom Dresden who have been enjoying the weekend sunshine. The Shoalhaven City Council should take a look at the potential from tourism such a bike route gives an area. We have enjoyed the scenery and every turn of the river a new vista or castle greets us.

Via email from Bev Louken we had been told Cathy Bennet (Federal) was riding from Dresden to Prague, so we kept an eye out for her. As we now and then deviated from the bike path we were not sure if we had missed her but no, all of a sudden, Don yelled out " Cathy!!".  She nearly fell off her bike. She was riding south with 3 other ladies from Shoalhaven. We sat down at a nearby cafe and enjoyed a beer and compared notes/maps. What a coincidence. We also swapped some money, as Cath had just arrived in Czech and we were leaving.

We later camped at the campsite they came from and for the first night in a week there was no thunderstorm/rain. So by now we had entered our next country:Germany. The bike path in this area follows a very beautiful section of the river through the Saxon-Switzerland National Park. The hills goes down to the river and there are many castles, forts and churches perched on the cliff tops.

Wendy Fetchet had organised us with a contact (parents of an exchange student, Lea, who lived with them 2 years ago) outside Dresden so after a stroll around this beautiful city we continued on.  Gunther and Inez lives near the bike path and we are now at their  house. We have enjoyed a lovely evening with homecooked food, a breakfast to kill for in the garden and are now ready to hit the tarmac again.  We thank them for their great hospitality.

After looking at maps we have figured out we can´t doddle too much -there is still a lot of Germany to go through and we have about 2 weeks to get there.  So we will be continuing along the Elbe for the next few days.