Start: Litoměřice, Czech Republic
End: Veltrusy, Czech Republic
Distance: 68.6km
Elevation Gain: 844ft
Elevation Loss: 866ft
Time: 6h10m
Reading Material: The Unbearable Lightness of Being – Milan Kundera
Audio Material: Diane Rehm’s Friday News Roundup (Domestic & International); On the Media
Description
Follow the yellow #2 signs, follow the yellow #2 signs. Sometimes they make sense, like long stretches right up against the Elbe. But, then sometimes they veer off into through fields of unpaved ruts. One time I dead ended and had to do some improvised hand gesture communication to determine the location of nearby private ferry (e.g. a smelly man with a small boat attached to a wire who will take you across the river for 20 Czech Koruna (about $1).
The day started a bit late as I hit up the O2 mobile store in Litoměřice for a Czech data sim card. If my mobile data addiction didn’t already feel bad, I had to endure 25min of an MTV show in English about the difficulties of preparing for the big homecoming dance while several older Czechs bartered with the salespeople. Maybe to them the show was soothing with its shots of school gymnasiums and lots of crying teenage girls, but to an English speaker in was grating.
In Mělník, the Elbe and Vltava converge and I bid farewell and follow the Vltava. Only about 35km more until I hit Prague tomorrow.
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- I was tempted to put this little guy in my panniers
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- Private ferry
Arf, arf. I miss you. Think I’d like that little guy you encountered.
Licks and tail waggies
i like the photo with the perfect reflection. i expect you will see similar scenes many times. you should try to keep your eye out for them, and release a thematic album at the end of the trip: “bucolic eastern european scenes reflected on placid waterways”