We woke up in a slightly chilly tent at the Campingplatz Zur Mühle. As the sun cane over the horizon the tent definitely warmed up. We bought our rolls and juice from the bread lady's mobile van, packed up, ate, and checked out.
I rerouted us around the main City of Nuremberg using the ring road through Fürther, but the traffic that way was just as bad. It took almost an hour to get clear of the city. And then the rain came. So we stopped and put on our rain gear. The rain would persist most of the rest of the day. We encountered another unsigned road blockage that took a bit to navigate around. There is no warning on these blockages; there's simply a red x across the route signage at the point of blockage But I'm getting pretty good at figuring out detour routes on the fly.
We slogged along little back roads and refueled at Speichersdorf (I wanted a full tank entering a new and unknown country to us) and took a break from the rain and had some lunch. We also took the opportunity to purchase some dishwashing gloves to help keep our hands dry. They worked well for 99 euro cents. Soon we approached the Czech border with the customary blue European Union sign, but our waterproof camera battery had died so I stopped just past it at the former border checkpoint to swap batteries. With the formation of the EU, there are generally no border checks between member countries on the continent.
Just after we crossed the border, a pretty blue unmarked police car did a u-turn in front of us and pulled over a vehicle. Welcome to CZ. We continued on our journey passing through little villages and it looked like they were generally a bit older in appearance and condition than typical German villages. There were a number of Soviet style apartment complexes (think big, boxy, & drab). We also noted Soviet style electrical towers that we've previously seen in the former East Germany.
In one little village our route had us turn right on what was now a gravel and pothole marred muddy road. The GS (it stands for road and trail in German) handled it well. This went on for about a mile and the pavement then returned until the next village. Then the conditions repeated themselves, only more harshly! But we motored on and when we reached the third village I asked Angela over the intercom if it would be a three for three day. Fortunately it wasn't and we motored on in pretty dry conditions on these little back roads until we reached Karlovy Vary which is a renowned CZ town noted for the largest film festival in Eastern Europe. That festival starts next weekend.
I first wanted to get some local currency so we found an ATM. Then we needed to find some lodging as it was 4pm. On the GPS I found a place with camping cabins (we did want to camp in the damp), and we headed to it. About 500 feet from our turn off we came to a complete stop due to an accident ahead, and it took nearly an hour to get to the intersection. We finally made it and navigated to the camping cabins which adjoined the Hotel Vitkova Hora. There were no camping cabins and the hotel was hosting a wedding; but the proprietress said they had one upper really nice room for $72 and we booked it for two nights. We couldn't eat in the dining room so she brought up terrific salads which became our dinner. We watched more of the World Cup (Switzerland vs. Serbia), began to dry out, charged our devices, & took our first real baths in years. Yes it's good to be pampered every once in a while. All the while, the downstairs wedding party throbbed to the loud music which resonated throughout the hotel.
And so ended yet another wonderful day. Sometimes it pays to be lucky. Or as we say continually to each other while traveling that our first rule is to just show up. Nothing good can happen until you do.
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