The plan for today was to aim for a late lunch at Litomerice and then cycle on about another 12kms till we found a pension.We’d had a good quiet nights sleep at Pension Hana in Melnik so with a good breakfast and our spacious room it certainly deserved its 9.2 rating on Booking.com!

Lovely slightly misty morning and relatively easy to get back on the eurovelo route now back to being called no 2 not 7. Plenty of photo opportunies along the river including one of hubbys favourites a nuclear power station, which we cycled right past. We had a real warm up as we cycled over the bridge over the outflow from the nuclear power station the water must have been really super heated. Clearly the czechs havent heard about using cooling ponds like the germans.

Out of nowhere it started to rain, real serious rain. I was totally unprepared after our sunny day yesterday, luckily there were some huge umbrellas we could take shelter under whilst i emptied my panniers to find my rain gear. All togged up we set off  hubby lamenting that he hadnt had a coffee yet,luckily  around the corner we found a great spot.There was a cafe just beyond a tunnel for river access, the railway was above.So our bikes sat in the tunnel sheltering from the rain, whilst we sat out under awnings at the cafe, perfect.

Just after this my front tyre seemed to be going down, hubby had already pumped it up in the morning, goo came out so I had had another puncture , the goo held phew.

We expected to cross the river to the right bank at Roudnice but it appeared the route now called 2A was still on tne left bank. We decided to stick with what seemed like the new main route.This route took us via the town of Terezin, infamous for its long history of its fortress from being used as internment camps from a prisoner of war /concentration camp in the 2nd world war and then as an internment camp for germans after tne war.70,000 inmates died here the majority being jewish. A very sombre place, the whole town quite dismal.Hunger meant we ate at a pub in Terezin,a lacklustre affair, but whilst parking bikes for lunch hubby discovered his pannier rack was really loose. Hubby couldnt tighten it up, a real problem.if the rack sheared off it could be a disaster.

A repair shop was required. A friendly tourist information lady in the next town of Litomerice directed us to a great bike shop. The owner Pavel was so happy to see Australians cycling through Czechia. With a long handled tool he fixed the pannier rack easily and then tightened my brakes for me  fantastic service all for the cost of a coffee.

It was now nearly 3pm but we decided we needed to do a few more kms and hoped to see a pension en route.Off we went on some more really bumpy tracks, vibration therapy is good for you Im sure. The danger is youre looking around at the view or an interesting allotment and even on the bitumen you can hit a huge ridge , ouch.

We peddled on and did see a sign for accomodation. We rang the bell, it was full. The cabins at a camp ground looked very run down and we might have needed sleeping bags, so we gave that a miss. No more pensions appeared so on we peddled  hillsides to our right scarred by mining but otherwise a picturesque valley., known as the Porta Bohemia.

The cycle route went away from the river and that meant hills again, just when we were tired. Finally we reached the town of Usti nad Labem and found a hotel. The bike storage was already full with cyc.lists bikes but they made room for our bikes in another area. It had been a long day 80kms and just as were about to go to sleep a band starts up outside  there is a festival on!

Fortunately reception informed us bands arent allowed to play past 10pm , great for us early birds not so good for night owls!Fatigue took over and i hardly noticed the heavy metal band playing outside.

Hotel Clarion is probably your best option in this area if you want a comfy bed, airconditioning and cheap room service. Just dont expect good pillows or lighting  my blow up pillow is getting well used. Easy to cycle eround Usti in spite of being tired.

Wifi hopeless at  clarion,  no wifi at pension last night and weve got 3 nights in Dresden so photos will have to wait.