Jindrichuv Hradec to Slavonice

June 6

Today we took a taxi an hour long ride up to a historic site called Cesky Kromlov.  One of Marlene's friends had recommended this place as a must see medieval castle and town.  As the day was only scheduled for 48 kms and Bob had worked out a short cuts it was possible. The castle was in fact quite impressive.  It was really three castles which had been joined together.  I can see that they would have been quite impregnatable in the 15th century.  The little village has retained it's architectural style where the out side plaster on the stones is scribed and then painted to give the look of larger blocks or sometimes a scene.  However the town is now filled with souvenir shops, cafes, high end purse shops and high end clothing shops.  They even had a bear.  The poor looking fellow was all by himself at the bottom ot the castle moot.  Yes it is a tourist trap.  And there were lots of Chinese/Japanese tour groups being guided through the village while taking selfies.  

The cab ride back to the hotel where our bikes were was closer to 45 minutes as the lady had a real lead foot.  She darted down a lot of back roads, gunning the little VW van for all it was worth.  Ken had jammed himself in the middle of the back seat and every corner he would crash into either myself or Marlene who was on his other side.

Back at the hotel and on the road by 12:30 so not too bad.  Out of town and down Bob's short cut which turned out to be a very busy road with no shoulder.  I give credit to most of the drivers however there were a couple of local dump trucks which gave me not very much room.  Ok it did save 8 kms.   We picked up my route at a little town 16 kms into the ride where we ate our sandwiches in the town square.  

Back on the road with 24 kms to go and more down hill than up hill. As we left town is started to sprinkle so we stopped to put on rain jackets which scared the rain away after a couple of kms.   We passed a much older castle at the 35 kms mark but only stopped long enough to snap a picture. Back on the road  flying down the hills into Slavonice at 3:55 pm.  I had bet Bob a beer he couldn't get in before 4:30 so I better finish this off and go pay up.

Pretty decent day, saw a historic village, got a 40 kms ride in and avoided the rain.

Terry