Day 10: Cycling from Berlin to Athens

Day 10

Sedlcany > Kostelec > Tyn nad Vlatavou

90km

5 hours 30 mins

1,448m elevation gain

Hills, hills and more hills... still beautiful countryside but we had to cycle up and down to see it all day. I had thought it would be more on the flat side today as we were "following" the river down, but this was more of a direction than actually cycling along the river. Lovely small Czech villages and where we stopped for lunch, Kostelec, we sat on the cafe terrace as the locals went about their business in a friendly way. Everyone knew each other and most of them enjoyed a beer at the cafe.

Champions of the hills!

Up and down all day long

The bridge over the River Vlatavou

We only got to see the River Vlatavou about 30km into the day but when we did it was dramatic. We came zooming down a busy road and then arrived at the huge bridge crossing over the river, far down below. The river was very green in colour and looked beautiful in the sunshine.

The River Vlatavou below

Our bikes enjoying the view

Accommodation

Today was the first day we weren't able to stay where we had planned, the guesthouse we were aiming for was booked out and so we had to travel a further 5km to try out a campsite. This also didn't have a bungalow for us so we had to cycle on another 6km to the main town, our legs were almost falling off as this involved more hills. We managed to get a room in an average hotel in Tyn nad Vlatavou. There's a view of the river though from the balcony, which is pretty nice!

Hotel balcony view

Sights of note

• A big truck full to the brim with carrots and then a little further down the road, two squashed carrots
• A pigeon hopped out of the way of Shanky's bike, only to be squashed by an overtaking car right next to me

A nice lake from today