Day 3 - Onwards and upwards

I started my ride at eight am, enjoying the delicious smells of the nearby bakery.

I noticed the day before that there seemed to be a lot of rattling from the front end of the bike, but I chalked it up to the terrible road conditions. When I looked this morning, I noticed that one of my fender bolts had vibrated out. That was an easy fix with a zip tie!

I had much better road conditions today. Except the detour...that road was a little sketchy. It is not very motivating to see road detours when you are riding your bike so far. But I had some nice views of the Czech countryside.

At one point I was back on the more trafficked roads, when I sped past one of those circular "prohibited" signs. I have seen these before as divided into thirds, with a picture of a tractor, a horse-drawn carraige, and a bike. Except this one didn't have a bike picture. I thought to myself "well, I guess it is OK..." but in reality I was going that way regardless. Within a few miles, I saw the police setting up at a speed trap pointing the other direction. I figured they must have seen me, so I spent the next half hour just waiting to get pulled over. 

By lunch time I was running a bit low on water, and it was starting to get a little warmer and sunnier. I stopped at a "motor rest," only to realize it was closed on Mondays. So I then was looking for the closest place that would actually sell water...which turned out to be a butcher shop. I was not in the mood for sausages, so I bought some water, two wafer bars, and a liter of peach nectar and sat down on the carved tree bench out front.

Lunch of champions. That peach nectar was delicious!

The building complex also had some kind of environmental bureu, which I think is why they had all these carved tree sculptures next to the parking lot. Some of them were a bit strange.

Then it was more up and down and up until I hit the Polish border.

My hotel is a wellness spa, so I made sure to go swimming in the healing waters of the pool. It is seriously pretty here. They had a buffet dinner, so I had my fill of lots of meat and veggies.

I was a little nervous about how much climbing there was today, but I made it through OK. I felt better today than after yesterday, and I think that just speaks to how much going downhill on rough roads will beat you up.

Speaking of going downhill on (I'm guessing) rough roads, that is the plan for tomorrow! Wish me luck!

Current total after 3 days: 344km/206mi, 16:45 of riding