Little Grey Balls…

Day 26 – 25th July 2020 – Austria to Czechia via Germany

Well this morning was a trip! First of all I put my contact lens in and went to dispose of the packaging and found the bin full of rubbish, including fag butts, not best pleased… I suspect the room wasn’t cleaned after the last guest, I just hope the bed was changed.

Then in for breakfast… there was enough food to feed a blooming army for 3 days.. just total overkill… must have been 20 different jams and honey, several types of bread, meats, cheeses etc. etc. I mean in terms of choice it was fantastic, but with corona no one is staying so there must be tons of waste… anyway I have my usual small portion and then go and pack up the bike.

The young man comes out and asks me to settle the bill… ok no problem… €60… oh… that’s more than I was expecting, the room was €28 so that means I have paid €32 for schnitzel and chips, a small beer, 1 bread roll, butter, jam and a coffee… expensive I think. I tell the young man about the fag butts, he seems surprised, but he doesn’t really say anything… well, he’s got my money now.

Off to Passau to get my washing done…

 

not much to say really except the drier seemed expensive at first, wash €3.50 not too bad, drier also €3.50 ouch… there are two levels both the same price… 1 hour hot or 40 minutes less hot. I opt for the less hot as have some delicates that might perish in the hot cycle… normally one takes things out as they dry leaving the thicker stuff like jeans in longer but these machines are fixed… it says don’t open the door during the cycle otherwise you will have to pay another €3.50 so I think it’s better to finish drying my jeans on the back of the bike than melt my enduro tops.

All done and the jeans are actually almost dry, but I tie them and a few other dampish items to the top box to finish off in the sun, so worth the money.

I put Klatovy in Czechia into the sat nav as a place to head for but I seem to be in Germany a long time…

the bloody sat nav goes doolally when there’s no wifi signal and so before long I’m lost and having to turn around… a lot… I almost end up back in Austria!  As I stop to faff around with the directions… again… I see across the road a McDonalds.. yep time for lunch

the food is crap but the coffee is excellent.  I look at booking some accommodation and find a place in Krasna, an alleged 3 and a half hours away… well we’ll see.

I eventually cross the border into Czechia or Czech Republic at Vseruby and the first thing I see is a duty free shop… hang on, isn’t Czechia part of the EU??  Oh well, I stop for a look.  I pick up a couple of tins of travel sweets and take them to the counter.  The woman serving couldn’t be more austere… doesn’t bode well for me I think given I do not have even one word of Czech!!  I give her some Euros, she gives me the change… not a word, she never even looks at me really.

Back on the road and I pass through several small towns and villages

This is the first large town, Domazlice

Lots of green stuff

More towns

This is Bor

and then Plana

Trstenice

and the major town of Cheb

I also spot a couple of these on the way…

Eventually I arrive at my overnight stop over in Krasna…. it is up a steep slope… but of course.

I am met by a young guy who doesn’t speak very much English and of course I have zero Czech so we sort of get by with gestures and my Germish! He asks if I want to eat and I say ‘Ja bitte’.  My room is in the loft, I mean could this day get any better??  I have to drag my bags up 4 flights of stairs and then up a wooden spiral staircase to my room.  The room itself is very nice, no problem.  I immediately jump into the shower before dinner.  As I am drying off I hear heavy footsteps coming up the spiral staircase and then there is a knock at the door, I say yes.. the man says, hello and tries the door handle… so I am standing there in the nude and this man is trying my door handle… WTF!  I shout, ‘NO I am in the shower’, in English so of course that was a waste of time, he tries the door again and says ‘You must come’ ‘No I am not dressed’ again in English, another waste of time, he says ‘You eat now’ I say ‘Funf minuten bitte’ he says ‘Ok’ and goes away… thank fuck I always lock my door.

I make my way down to the dining room.. I think there’s no point in trying to speak to him about the above incident, the communication isn’t good enough, but it does make me wonder if this is deemed appropriate behaviour here.  I look for a table, they are all empty so I gesture to the man where??  He points to outside and sort of waves his hands at me to say sit outside… Normally I don’t like to eat outside in the evening.. too many bugs.. but he seems very insistent so I comply.

He then comes out and plonks a bowl of soup and some bread in front of me… ‘Gut’ he says… so looks like I’m not getting a menu then, I mean this tour has just been weird food wise.  The soup has noodles and what look to be bits of veg and 3 grey balls of some sort of meat.. I try the broth, it’s ok, but I’m not touching the meat…

It’s a really poor quality photo, but I wanted to capture the grey balls…

The man comes and asks what I want to drink, I say ‘klein pils bitte’ he brings a huge litre bucket… I say ‘oh too big’ he just smiles and shrugs.  He takes the soup away and comes back with a plate of meat in a thick brown gravy with thin slices of white bread on the side… ok so I’m all for trying the local food.. this is ok, there is too much of course, but better than nothing.  He then plonks a plate with a small cream filled pastry on it.. oh there’s dessert too!

He says ‘fruhstuck’ (breakfast) and gestures 9… so that’s quite late, but I’m ok with it.

At this point he tells me he is going.. he gestures with both hands like throwing a rugby ball and makes a whooshing sound.. he then walks over to the window cill and gestures for me to eat and leave my plates on here when I’m finished.. this is accompanied by more rugby and whooshing, then off he goes.

I finish what I can and leave my dishes as directed.

It does look quite grey and damp so not boding well for the morning…