After going over the hill, I soon found myself crossing the border in to the Czech Republic.
By the end of the day, I made it to Vyšší Brod and the Vltava River, which I planned on following north all the way to the Elbe. Almost the whole way through the Czech Republic.
The Vltava is incredibly difficult to follow along as the terrain prevents the road from running along side it. This makes for slow cycling and tedious navigation, but also makes for some pretty fantastic scenery!
I stopped the first night at a kayakers campsite near Cesky Krumlov.
Cesky Krumlov is a medieval town with origins in the 13th century and is pretty amazing!
Next was České Budejovice, home to the real Budweiser beer.
I stopped this day near the Hrad Zvikov (castle). The castle is situated between two rivers and is from the year 1234.
After the castle, I put my head down and peddled my way through the heat all the way to Prague where I would take a rest day to see the city.
The next day (July 10) I left Prague and continued along the Vltava, but now with a very easy path that stuck to the river except for a few short deviations. Also, I wish rollerblading was as popular on the U.S. as it is here.
Just outside of the city, I met a couple from Oakland that was cycling from Istanbul to Berlin. As our routes were the same for a while, we cycled together for the next two days all the way to Dresden. They were great to cycle with and we got along well, using one another to keep the pace up while making good conversation along the way.
We passed many fields of hops that day.
On the 11, we left the Czech Republic and I was back in Germany.
Czech Republic, while being difficult to navigate and the weather not cooperating, was an amazing country and one of my favorites so far.
