Highs

Beautiful towns of Cesky Krumlov, Prague, Dresden was really special, and Hamburg.

Loved the Saxony Gebirge , a day in this area wasnt quite enough. The Konigstein fortress was really interesting, you could spend hours there and a great walk up through the forests. We went up the Sandstein bridge the same day being late in the day the crowds had gone, made for some spectacular photos.

Plenty of historic places we needed more time for Lutheriam Wittenberg really needed a day to itself aswell as a day to fully go through the museums of the camps at Terenz.

 

Lows

Food at times was difficult, wasnt enough protein at times for the kms we were cycling. 3 lumps of beef in goulash or 2 small herring fillets not quite enough. We were hanging out for a very large steak.If a rabbit had hopped out we might have grabbed it.

We hadnt realised the hot summer would have such a big impact on the water levels of such a large river system. The resultant lack of ferries across the Elbe we hadnt planned for at all and kept thinking it would be better further up.

The drought also impacted on the beautiful scenery we should have been seeing, everything was looking a bit brown.

The rough tracks, often because we werent on tne side of the main route of the ride and couldnt get back.Hands, knees, neck  were all crying out at times from the jarring and jolting but with youth on my side ha,ha or perhaps all the herrings they recovered.

STATS

Distance covered including some kms around London 1150kms. We needed another week to reach Cuxhaven.

1030kms for Elbe in 17 days 60.6kms average per day cycled.

We did meet a couple in Hamburg who had just finished the Weser river and ended up coming down from Cuxhaven to Hamburg so another trip including the Weser will see us complete the Elbe.

Incidently they couple had arrived in Hamburg and couldnt find any reasonable accomodation and had had to catch a train out. I explained we’ d had to use air bnb which ended up being a well located appartment but we had had issues getting the keys to get in.

TRAINS

German trains as per usual highly efficient, and set up for taking bikes just dont forget to buy your bike a ticket.There are now 4 ICE trains with bike carriages so soon it will be easier to take bikes on high speed trains through germany, at a price of course.

Belgium trains are enough to give you nightmares huge gaps and steps onto the train.They also dont tell you till you are on the train that there are rail works and youre going to have to change trains. Minimal space for bikes and then on the odd intercity train with a bike carriage the guard has to open it so if he doesnt you are then carrying your bike down steps inside the train.These bike carriages are great with straps and seats that go up out of way. However not many trains have them.

French trains often have the hooks to hang your bike up or theyll put them in the guards cabin. The lift up to the guards cabin was over a metre on one train. This doesnt worry the guards who just tell you doucement, gently lentement slowly, no wonder french trains never run to time!

Czech trains we didnt sample.

Eurostar

We went to return by eurostar from Brussels and noone knew how to book our bikes onto the train and we were going to have to pay 480 euros one way for ourselves plus extra for the bikes. We caught a train to Dunkirk and caught tne ferry to Dover. Ferry let bikes on first and off first. Cycling through Dover well signposted good option if youre fed up with eurostar like us!