... and I have not spelt As correctly; it has a funny accent over the s and in German is Asch. Anyway, we left Hochhoh in good time, cycled back through Modlareuth and on to a string of villages all close to where the border used to be. Getting close to the border, George f9und a quite excellent coffee and cake establishment.
It is important to remember that one very importand reason to come to Germany is the coffee and cake; a day without it is basically incomplete.
After this bit of indulgence, we arrived at the "border triangle". Crossing over was somewhat bizarre; we went down a lane to a soldier's grave, went on a path across a field and came to clearing in the woods with various information boards. It was very peaceful, and this belies the local history. Before going down the lane, George spoke with an old woman who said she had been born across the border but her village had been destroyed. He said her accent weas difficult to understand, but we wondered if this had happened at the end of WWII, long before the border was "fortified". There was resentment of the Germans by the Czechs, particularly after Hitler's invasion and Nazi rule. Had locals done this after the defeat of Germany, when ultimatley the area was under Soviet control? Once over the border, we saw remains of houses knowcked down and some information boards suggested there was triving, if small scale, iron mining activities.
Anyway, we continued on the only (dirt) road out of the spot. Came to various junctions and followed signposts to As. We ended up on forest roads that ran dead straight for considerable distances through hilly forested country - the roads just went down and up and the surface was not good enough really to enjoy the down. Well, we got to As, and the other side of town was the Goethe hotel with our reservation. Rooms fine, except the lighting was quite dim. The restaurant was closed, we were too late, and we went to a kebeb place over the road where they all spoke good English and knew London, and sold us enormouse pizzes that lasted well into a subsequent piknik.
The next day, on south east towards Cheb. This started on the same sort of Forest roads as before, but these ended up in the village of Liba, where we continued along a good main road with not much traffic. This got us to Cheb in good time and we founf our B&Bs quite easliy. Cheb is an impressive place and we enjoyed wondering around and had a good meal in a restaurant in Spalicek at the end of the main square.
Coming back to progress earlier in the year, we left our B&B in the Ulster valley and embarked on what the route guide called a very long push up, difficult for the ordinary cyclist. It was. But we got to the top and were rewarded with a suberb downward run thatb took our breath away. The weather was good, the road sloed down, there was very little traffic. Etc. At the bottom, it was up again, made worse by me finding the wrong route. We revoered from this ands continued through several villages to one with a quite extraordinary sculpture park, on the border and quie bizarre.
It is important to remember that one very importand reason to come to Germany is the coffee and cake; a day without it is basically incomplete.
After this bit of indulgence, we arrived at the "border triangle". Crossing over was somewhat bizarre; we went down a lane to a soldier's grave, went on a path across a field and came to clearing in the woods with various information boards. It was very peaceful, and this belies the local history. Before going down the lane, George spoke with an old woman who said she had been born across the border but her village had been destroyed. He said her accent weas difficult to understand, but we wondered if this had happened at the end of WWII, long before the border was "fortified". There was resentment of the Germans by the Czechs, particularly after Hitler's invasion and Nazi rule. Had locals done this after the defeat of Germany, when ultimatley the area was under Soviet control? Once over the border, we saw remains of houses knowcked down and some information boards suggested there was triving, if small scale, iron mining activities.
Anyway, we continued on the only (dirt) road out of the spot. Came to various junctions and followed signposts to As. We ended up on forest roads that ran dead straight for considerable distances through hilly forested country - the roads just went down and up and the surface was not good enough really to enjoy the down. Well, we got to As, and the other side of town was the Goethe hotel with our reservation. Rooms fine, except the lighting was quite dim. The restaurant was closed, we were too late, and we went to a kebeb place over the road where they all spoke good English and knew London, and sold us enormouse pizzes that lasted well into a subsequent piknik.
The next day, on south east towards Cheb. This started on the same sort of Forest roads as before, but these ended up in the village of Liba, where we continued along a good main road with not much traffic. This got us to Cheb in good time and we founf our B&Bs quite easliy. Cheb is an impressive place and we enjoyed wondering around and had a good meal in a restaurant in Spalicek at the end of the main square.
Coming back to progress earlier in the year, we left our B&B in the Ulster valley and embarked on what the route guide called a very long push up, difficult for the ordinary cyclist. It was. But we got to the top and were rewarded with a suberb downward run thatb took our breath away. The weather was good, the road sloed down, there was very little traffic. Etc. At the bottom, it was up again, made worse by me finding the wrong route. We revoered from this ands continued through several villages to one with a quite extraordinary sculpture park, on the border and quie bizarre.
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