Today was an awesome day to ride in the Czech Republic, as we approach our final days. The weather behaved, the route was great and we had a really chillaxed ride.

We chose to walk out of the old Cesky Krumlov town, as the cobbles are so uneven with tyre width gaps.

Our final views of a wonderful town. We walked through this arch and whilst crossing a bridge, took a look back towards the castle.

This was our route today.

Sunday morning is a great time to ride. We have found each Sunday to be much quieter and today was no exception. As the day went on, the main traffic were other cyclists of all shapes, sizes, ages and capability.

It was an up and down rolling day.

Predominantly great roads. The smile says it all.

A cute horse and cart…taken on the fly, the man was cut out, but the horse is nice!

There were numerous lakes today intertwined with forests.

We stopped for a coffee break half way, in the town of Trebon. It seems to be a centre for all things bikes. Every place has bike racks. The lakes around the town have heaps of different riding routes.

Leaving Trebon we felt some rain spots. Dark clouds had rolled over whilst we had our coffee. Fortunately our direction was different to the rain clouds and we were delighted!

The theme of lakes, rivers and forest continued.

Reaching the outskirts of Tabor, we finished our ride with a nasty little climb to the old town, passing other cyclists who pushed their bikes up the hill.

We did not have any accomodation booked, so I whipped my iPad out and sourced a Penzion some 500 metres away.

We took an immediate like to the old town. It was humming. The market square had a large screen up with cycling! We thought awesome!

We showered and walked back into the square, noting ice hockey was now on, so we wandered around to check the old town out.

The rest of the town was pretty quiet really. I think they must have all been watching the ice hockey.

The Old Castle was interesting, but closed. It is the oldest building in Tabor and dates back to the second half of the 13th century. The importance of the castle for fortification purposes was lessened by time and fires to such an extent that it was turned into a brewery around 1612.

Only one tower of the four remains.

Returning to market square, there were big celebrations. We checked out the screen and noticed that the Czech Republic were playing Russia. The Czechs had just scored a goal to take a 2-1 lead in the match.

We remembered then that the ice hockey world championships are currently on in Bratislava, Slovenia. We had noticed the signs when we were there nearly 4 weeks ago.

The match was for the bronze medal.

We decided to have dinner at a restaurant in the square seated so we too could watch.

This was our view.

Russia levelled the scores….it was a very tense, scoreless, third and fourth quarter and the match went to a penalty shoot out in Russia’s favour. Not what the crowd wanted.

As the Russian national anthem was about to be played, the screen was switched off. All over red rover!

Someone enjoyed his dinner in the warm sun. We realised that after 35 days on the road touring this was our first evening meal where the conditions were warm enough to be outside.

Tomorrow the weather is looking ok again!!! Two days left on the road. 😢

Thanks for reading

Ooroo