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I had done 70 miles through tough terrain the day before and I was feeling cocky. "Oh, I can do another 70, not a problem. Remember: I'm a tough guy".
I set out into a beautiful Moravian morning, admiring the endless vineyards.
The Czech Republic is primarily made up of two distinct regions. Bohemia, the western, larger part, and Moravia, the eastern part. I was traipsing along the southern edge of Moravia, making my way through a very rural and hilly part of the country. From the looks of it, they too had some flooding and rain issues, and it wasn't too long before I found myself faced with a none-too-pleasant proposition.
There was no getting around it, I had to wade through this muck. When I got to the end of it, my shoes were filled with garbage water and ants. As I was walking through it, I spooked a number of frogs and they scattered before me. I had heard stories of bike tourists getting leeches from bathing in streams, so I was on the look out for black things attached to my ankles.
Once the puddle was forded, I stopped at a lunch place and asked for some local wine. The sweet waitress brought me a pitcher, just for me, at noon. The church bells were ringing, and I decided that drinking a pitcher of wine on my own in the middle of the day was the right thing to do.
And it was, for about 2 hours. Then I hit a wall at around mile 45, dragged my ass another 5 miles to the Hotel Satov, run by a Czech man who has an uncanny resemblance to Sean Bean from Lord of the Rings. I passed out around 8 from the exhaustion and the heat.
When I paid my bill the next morning, he was already tippling the Pilsners at 9 AM with his hotel partner on a Saturday morning. I think they have a different party schedule than I'm used to.
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