Znojmo to Valtice

June 8 2023

On the road at about 7:45 this morning into dark gray skies.  This threatening rain thing is really starting to get old. The way out of town was pretty straight forward but was down a bury street which was not helped by the fact that we were in rush hour traffic and all of the cars were in a hurray.  Fortunately we got off the busy road on to a slightly less busy road but not cars are going 80-150 kmh rather than the 30-50 back in the city.  In fact one speeding motorist who was in such a hurray to pass this line of 5 bikes, that he missed the on coming car by only a few inches.  

At about the 20 km mark we pulled into a little town for coffee but as it was only 9:40 only a convienience store was open.  

As we rolled down the greenway which is now the EUROVELO route 13  or the Iron Curtain trail it suddenly ended and we were faced with about a kilometer through a tractor path along side a field.  My big wide 40 mm tires rolled through the grass until the trail turned muddy and then I was forced to push my bike. 

There are a lot of poppies growing on the edge of the fields that we are riding through.. So I tried to capture them in a rolling photo.  

At the 56 kms mark we pulled into the town of Brno for lunch but could not find anything so we wound up eating our lunch in a picnic shelter beside the trail.  As we were eating we could hear thunder in the distance and it started to rain.  By time we had finished eating the rain had let up but a few drops were coming down, so rain coats were on.   

With only 20 kms to go we pushed on but it started to rain again and was actually quite heavy at times.  Of course the trail turned rough and it had a lot of steep pitches in it as well.  This meant that the 20 kms was going to take longer than it should have.  It ididn't rain the entire 20 kms into Valtice but probably 15 of it.  So everything is soaked and bikes are covered in mud. 

We were in by 1:40 pm so we made really good time despite having to push or bikes and endure rough roads.  

The forecast for tomorrow is for more rain all the way into Vienna.  The route is 105 kms with 632 meters of climb.  Everyone is tired from the last 5 days of hills, rough roads , and cold gray skies and damp weather.  So I think that the plan is to ride over to the nearest train station and take the train into Vienna and our rest day.

Terry