August 20 - This is a Tough Day

Thursday - Rakovnik to Karlovy Vary
It started out OK rambling through some nice farm land.

These are the first hops we've seen which is a little surprising given how much beer we've seen consumed in the last month.

Consulting the digital map again. We are somewhere along the proposed route of Eurovelo 4 but it hasn't been signed in the Czech Repubic so we really we are just guessing most of the time.

And when a fork in the road comes we have to take it. We have been trying to take white (local) roads like this one or yellow roads (slightly bigger with more traffic) but nothing is straight here so today we need to take a red road.

There are more gas stations and tacky tourist places on red roads however.

The plus is that the red roads normally have a wider shoulder too. Unfortunately, just after Doug took this picture there was a construction zone on the red road with a detour on a local road that wasn't intended for that kind of traffic. There was also a long steep grade with almost no shoulder.  We had to stop 5 or 6 times to rest, then we would wait for a break in traffic and pedal like crazy. This was going to be a long day anyway but this really made it a long day.

Almost there. Mattoni is the local mineral water bottled in Karlovy Vary.

The Karlovy Vary Golf Resort, good place for a break from the traffic noise.

It was also almost all downhill from here. Hurray! In fact we were enjoying the downhill so much we missed the turn to our hotel!

It is always encouraging when there is bicycle art on the premises.

Our host made sure we knew how to use the bus system to get downtown to the restaurants. There was a stop next to the hotel and they sold bus tickets too. Pretty handy.

Doug needed all these calories today.

They make it really easy to get around by bus. This is good since after all the climbing we've done since leaving Prague, we have decided that a rest day is in order so we will be ready for the climbing to come.

Never expected to see this T-shirt. The young man humored Doug's request for a picture but don't think he really understood when Doug said he had attended that college.