Saturday, August 8th, 2020 – Lutherstadt – Wittenberg to Dresden to Prague

Distance travelled 405 km

When we woke up on the final morning of our trip, the sun was already blazing down even though it was only just after half past six. The warm night had already become a very warm day and it was clear we were in for a day of being cooked as we rode along. We had pleasant, buffet-style breakfast in the hotel garden and I was particularly pleased because the tea, so often quite dreadful in an hotel, was extremely palatable.

We packed our little bags for the last time and set off for Dresden. We deliberately travelled along smaller roads to avoid the highway as much as possible and it paid off handsomely. It was a very pleasant ride, through numerous quaint little towns where rural life continued apace !

The towns and villages were interspersed with stretches of aromatic woodland and broad meadows. The only slight wrinkle was that although most of the towns had a usual 50 kph limit through them, some, for inexplicable reasons had a lower limit and I know I set off two speed cameras with my reckless 50 kph speeding ! I was watching the post box for weeks, but fortunately no letters came with a German stamp !

We arrived in Dresden at around noon and easily found our favourite café, Schinkelwache (Theaterplatz 1, Dresden). Although we were not in the “herring season” (the café’s herring dishes are a true culinary delight), our smoked salmon dishes certainly did not disappoint.

Our original itinerary was to ride straight home from Dresden, but Lucie had been persuaded to make make a stop at her family cottage in the Czech village of Doubice. This meant a small detour, but a not unpleasant one as it would lead us through the spa town of Bad Schandau and we would cross the border at the achingly beautiful Czech town of Hřensko. This would be followed by a lovely ride through the beautiful landscape of what is called Bohemian Switzerland. It was a Saturday and traffic was a bit slow as we made our way through Saxon Switzerland, which is what the same landscape is called on the German side of the border.

In Bad Schandau we stopped for the last drink which, at the time, we half considered to be superfluous because we were, by then, only a few kilometres from the cottage.

Of course, this turned out to be not actually the case. As soon as we set out again we discovered that, despite the narrowness of the quaint streets, two cars had somehow managed to gain enough speed to totally block the only road when they collided head on. Not even a motorcycle could squeeze through the gap and the police predicted a minimum two hour delay. Fortunately, we were familiar enough with the area to realise there was a viable alternative route via Sebnitz to the border at Dolní Poustevny. The trusty SatNav was called into use one last time as we got a longer than expected look at Saxon Switzerland which was just as beautiful as its Czech counterpart. I celebrated my pleasure with clicking one last speed-camera just before the border (the limit was a totally inexplicable (and probably “money spinning“) 20 kph) and then we were back on home soil.

We enjoyed a cup of tea and a rest with Lucie’s sister at the cottage and then wended our way, in the warmth of early evening via Mladá Boleslav to our home in the Golden City.

We agreed it had been three wonderful days.