04.-07.09.2017 Zwonitz-Karlsbad-Vikletice

As the final stage in Germany, after a short detour to Gera, which was not worth mentioning, we continued to the Ore Mountains to Zwonitz. In the mountains of the Ore Mountains, besides an incredibly beautiful landscape, the borders of Käthe became evident on the mountains. At times we fought comfortably with 30km/h through the mountains. It is decelerating and there is time to admire the landscape. The overnight camp and destination was the brewery in the mountain town of Zwonitz, where we visited the brewery after a rather mediocre meal. In addition, we were allowed to spend the night in the courtyard and even got a key to the sanitary facilities. After the rather mediocre or disappointing hospitality in Thuringia for me as a Thuringian, this was a striking highlight.

The next day we headed to the Czech Republic via Obwiesental. The first excursion was to Karlsbad - Karlovy Vary. An outrageously beautiful city, almost kitschy. For me, the mineral springs were a childhood memory that come out of the ground at 60°C and the people of Karlovy Vary celebrate them with strange handle cups. The taste is quite unusual, but it is definitely something special when warm drinking water, which smells slightly like fart, comes out of the ground and you want to drink it because everyone does and you wait for it to do something really good for you.

However, after 3 hours in the city and the upcoming trip to Prague, we decided to go back to the countryside and continued along the Eger River to Vekletice. The landscape remains unchanged beautiful, but the villages in the interior are noticeably more dilapidated. The country roads are often not passable at more than 50km/h.

Vekletice is an abandoned village on Lake Nechranice. The panorama was characterized by the contrast of the 800 MW lignite-fired power plant, the lake and the incredible play of clouds. We found a small campsite where we were probably the first foreign guests for a long time. However, we were warmly welcomed in German, my purple leggings under my shorts couldn't be categorized properly.

I took advantage of the windy evening for a bike ride and explored the mining region and the dam. It's not much different from Cottbus and the surrounding area, the neighboring villages are made beautiful by the energy giants to make life in the region more livable. I am still moved by the possibility of discovering so much in such a short time.