August 25 - The White Main - from Brook to River

Tuesday - Bad Berneck to Lichtenfels
This was such a nice, quiet place to recover and now it is time to move on down the river.

We discovered the back gate yesterday which meant we didn't have to walk our bikes UP their VERY STEEP driveway.

It isn't the "official" path but we weren't the first to go that way either.

It was still easier even with the little push up the bank and Donna's legs are feeling a bit sore from those cramps. 

We did go by the Tourist Info office to give Gerald his "Angel" card before we left town. We really should have showered him with hugs and kisses too because that book has been SOOOO handy.

Just in case you haven't seen one before.

Lanzendorf

Guess we aren't done with gravel yet.

The surface is very firm even though it rained last night.

Neuenmarkt bike shop. We needed more chain lube.

These regional passenger trains are very quiet and very fast. And they carry bikes so that is a nice back up plan if we need it.

Better pay attention to these because there are really healthy drain dips right around the corner.

Plassenburg Castle/Museum above Kulmbach. This is where the Red Main joins the White Main.

This qualifies as one the prettiest garden plot gates we've seen. And we've seen a LOT of garden plots since almost every town we've been through since Rostock has them.

Helmund was very curious about us when we stopped in this park in Kulmbach to eat our sandwiches. His English is about the same as our German but with some creativity we"talked" about our journey. At the end, he had a big smile for us and one word - "Respect"

Then we ate lunch

This park has a particularly nice playground for preschoolers.

It has a small aviary also.

Yep....one of the Berlin Bears

Only 32 miles to Coburg...we didn't know we were so close to home! Except, of course, none of those other names sound familiar and everything is in kilometers. All roads will lead to Coburg for the rest of the day.

Yet another version of road pavers. This one was just a little bumpy.

Hungry and thirsty cyclists pay attention!

We followed the signs but, alas they were closed until later in the afternoon.

Guess we will just have to go to McDonald's instead for something cold and a bathroom.

Schwurbitz

One of the trailside rest stops in use.

We are seeing these maps pretty regularly now.

 We were looking at the map on the east edge of Lichtenfels when Alfred stopped to offer his assistance. First he showed us a flatter way to reach our motel. Then he offered Donna one of his many maps but she declined as we are well equipped already. We gave him an "Angel" card.

This is the 3rd time we crossed paths with Alfred. He is making sure we know that this is the turn we need to make.

What a nice way to end our first full day on the Main Radweg. (and Donna is feeling a LOT better!)

August 24 - Not really a rest day

Monday - Bad Berneck
Last night is not one that Donna wants to do again. We think it was something from lunch yesterday. We are not going anywhere today while she nibbles some crackers, bananas and applesauce and massages the sore leg muscles that resulted from cramps in her very muscular legs most of the night. Doug had plenty of time to do laundry. The good news is that we finally caught up on the blog.

About 2:00 she finally felt like moving around slowly so we went for a short walk. Bad Berneck is a small mountain town,

They do have a Tourist Information office and Gerald was really, really helpful. His gift of a guide to the Main River Cycle Route will make this part of the journey much easier logistics-wise. (He said it was out-of-date so he could give it to us for free)

We found the new bike route symbol that we will want to follow.

This is the first dropbar touring bike we've seen, it's a Trek 520 and so, just maybe, he is American. He was zipping downhill so we couldn't verify this. Donna was feeling much better by evening though not quite up to dinner so we will be on the road again tomorrow.

August 23 - Finding the Main

Sunday  - Cheb, Czech Republic to Bad Berneck, Germany
This little guy kept watch over us all night. It was very quiet.

Time to stash the Czech Republic map.

The view from our room......the streets are pretty quiet at this hour.

Michael, our host, held our bikes for us while we loaded them....lots of service with a big smile.

You always know the number of the route but, without a map, you aren't sure where it is going next.

We were only 6 miles from the border when we started so really there wasn't much route-finding to do.

A very nice bike path to lead us to the border. 

And this is it, art from kids all over the area.

And two concrete blocks in the creek.

That and the path turned to gravel!

So we think we are in Germany but it doesn't quite feel like it yet.

This is a great way to cross a freeway.

We think we have found evidence of Eurovelo 4 (E4) in Schirdning.

So far, so good.

Nice sign but it is all in German, though we can sometimes make more sense of German that we were able to do with either Polish or Czech. We are not going very far, very fast at this point because so much is on gravel roads. When E4 turned away from Theirheim (the town we wanted to go to for lunch) once again we stopped following it.

 We only had 14 miles by lunch. We ate at a biergarten that was packed with locals. One minute after leaving there we found this sign. Now we have found Route D5 which is the one we think that we want to follow across Germany.

Once again, so far, so good.

The sun really made this pile of glass sparkle.

And Doug just had to touch. He picked up one piece and caused a miniature avalanche. No cuts though (his chain ring has been taking care of that)

This was the last we saw of civilization for awhile. The D5 route decided to be a mountain bike route taking gravel roads off through the woods. We did that for a little while until the road turned left up the hill and the E48  was only 300 feet away to our right. Despite pretty heavy traffic, it was OK because it had a decent shoulder. It was climbing too but the grade was OK. The summit came a bit later at 777 meters. Then is was a glorious 12 mile downhill run to Bad Berneck. It made us almost forget how hard the rest of the day had been. 

Halfway down a bike path appeared. Later we realized that we had found the beginning of the Main River Cycle Route, which is what we really wanted. This is a pile of the sett stones that are used for paving streets in towns..

And we found the Main River, which is just a brook at this point.

We must be close to town now....it has been a long day!

Uh-oh....that car is upside down in the river and the recovery has our intended route to the motel blocked. It took us another 45 minutes to get that last 1/2 mile.

Turned out that the car was in the river right next to our hotel. The guys sitting on the patio told us that the 2 people had not only lived through the ordeal but had gotten themselves out of the car.

A couple of hours later all was normal again.