DE Day 1, May 30, Manfred knows

This year I took the privilege of two biking trips. The first one just me across Austria, this second one now with my wife and friends. Our route goes from the border triangle CZ/PL/DE up to the Baltic See. Since mostly on the German territory, I label this blog as DE.

Right at the boarding of a train in Vienna, we learned that two trips per year is nothing special. We met Manfred. Another biker, approximately 70 years old, He immediately offered addressing on the first name basis and started to talk about his regular trips – up to 6 weeks per year crossing Europe up and down. He knew everything and was everywhere.

“Where are you going this time?” , I asked
“I don’t know. I will start biking from Prague to Germany. Three to four weeks to my liking. Then I will stop somewhere” was his reply.
In addition to that, he kept telling stories so that we had free entertainment. Including how he was cycling through the night when he was not able to find a hotel room once.

Anyway, our planning is much humbler. We started today in Liberec. The heavy clouds were clement to us and didn’t start raining. Having passed a little bit off Czechia and Poland, we arrived in the first German town of Zittau. Here we checked in a hotel with a representative name Dreiländereck = “Three-Border-Region”.

Coincidently, I somehow forgot to ask the receptionist if Manfred has been here already before 🙂

35 easy km today
An incredible story. The citizens of Liberec built this crematorium in 1915, though they knew they would not be allowed to use it, since the laws of the Austrian imperium forbade it. Four years later, after the breakup of the monarchy, the crematorium started to “operate normally”

Biking romance in “Dreiländereck” = border triangle CZ/PL/DE
Typical old architecture
This is where I like the EU. You just cross the border. No papers required, no barriers. Here between Poland and Czechia
City of Zittau, which actually translate as the Rye-town

 

Posted on 30.05 2024 at 22:10