പ്രസിദ്ധീകരിച്ചു: 13.08.2020
The border area was so beautiful yesterday that we want to take another round here today. Start is in Bayerisch Eisenstein. By the way, the Bavarians are much more thrifty than us, or how do you explain that they don't even write their place names on the signpost? Bayr. Eisenstein... Please, if you say so.
We don't have the tour as a map but only a description in words and Mario is of the opinion that there must be signs according to the description and therefore there should be no problems. We have water and a few Debrecziner sausages with us, unfortunately we forgot to look for a bakery on the way to buy bread rolls, so we still get some butter cookies at the train station kiosk (otherwise there were only cigarettes, wafers or ceramics, which makes even less sense as a snack... butter cookie with Debrecziner is still the best option).
The path is fun right from the start! The route is varied, sunny and shady on asphalt and gravel. The special thing about the route is that you switch between Germany and the Czech Republic several times. There are many meters of altitude and that makes it really interesting. One possible variant is described as follows: "from here the last 1.7 km lead to Falkenstein very steeply uphill, the detour is only recommended for extremely trained mountain bikers". When we reach the mentioned junction, we decide to just try it, if necessary we can turn back, we are glad to have tried it because it is really no problem with the eBikes. It was not certain what the ground would be like and since Petra only has a touring bike, that could have been a problem. But the gravel path is great. We are surprised at the top because fortunately there is the Falkenstein shelter at 1315 m and today there is Kaspressknödelsuppe (cheese dumpling soup) as the daily special! Lucky us, there is even a shady spot for us. The sun is shining relentlessly again today and it is only bearable in the shade. A few more meters on foot to the summit cross, enjoy the view, let's continue.
On a high plateau, there are very special trees that could immediately play a part in a Harry Potter film.
We go up and down constantly, when there are signposts at intersections, we stop briefly, look, and continue riding. At some point we lose our orientation and realize that we must be wrong. Turn around. Back to the last intersection and instead of turning left, turn right. Again, we go a long course downhill. Damn it. The path ends. Only a footpath continues, but that can't be right. Searching for the next point on our route on the navigation device is impossible because there is unfortunately no internet in the forest area. The only logical thing is to turn around again. Go back up the hill and back to the intersection where we thought we made the wrong turn earlier. We didn't. We were right the first time and only got confused because it was further to the next waypoint than we expected. The mood is a bit tense: when you ride much more uphill than planned, the battery calculation is no longer accurate. In the distance, thunder can now be heard for the third time and we are still not 100% sure that we are on the right track.
Fortunately, we meet a worker in the forest whom we ask for directions, and he confirms that we are on the right course. Although Mario explains to Petra exactly that the cloud that looms threateningly large in front of us and builds up quickly is a classic thunderstorm cloud, Petra decides to stop occasionally to take pictures anyway. It's so beautiful here and you have to capture it!
The approaching thunderstorm becomes more and more threatening, but since we change direction very often, we cannot estimate whether it will hit us or not. In short, we have good luck in bad luck. Our last "ascent" to the saddle "pod polonem" is accompanied by light drizzle. The black threatening thunderstorm front is far behind us. Now begins the final rapid descent from 1180 m above sea level to 724 m above sea level, during which the drizzle turns into a true downpour. But there are worse things than getting wet at the end of the tour!
At home, we go under the warm shower, actually going swimming in the lake one last time was still on our plan, but we don't feel like it anymore.