Dresden - Strehla 9th July

July 9

Despite best intentions, we still managed our usual slow morning start by taking the `proposed` bike route rather than the current one - not our fault - the blöödy map was wrong!

Hostel Kangaroo Stop.

The path started out ok.

Then turned to this.

A cold & cloudy day forced us to stop regularly for hot chocolate etc etc. Our first stop was the beautiful town of Meissen, famous for it´s porcelain & 'fummel' pastry.

Tracey crossing the bridge into Meissen.

Rod in a street in Meissen.

Lunch was a picnic in the forest, overlooking the Elbe, with Schloss Hirstein in the near distance, barges on the river and leafy forest as a backdrop.

The view from our picnic lunch spot.

After lunch, we were hooting along in fine drafting formation. Our intrepid leader at the time, Rod, must have been in a world of his own. He failed to notice a snake on the track and almost ran over him (may have even clipped him). Anyway, the snake didn't appreciate the intrusion. I was on Rod's wheel at the time - a perfect target & he decided to have a go at me. Luckily, he either hit my shoe or missed, so all was good (a bit of excitemenz for the day!!!). Our last coffee/chocolate stop was a cafe at Riesa, which fortified us for the last leg to Strehla.

Unfortuznately Pat left the map beh8ind at the cafe & had to ride back 3 km to get it.On the way he got lost & had to resort to TomTom - his phone GPS system. As luck would have it, the battery was dead. This meant changing batteries & waiting for TomTom to reboot. Meanwhile Rod & I were getting ready to send out the St Beernard.

Finally, 40 minutes later, we re-grouped & rode the last 8km of the day to Srehla.

Despite the cold wind, Rod opted to camp. Pat & I booked into a youth hostel, in a windmill, 200mt down the road.

We rode 70km today.

Our windmill hostel.