She is always happy to see me in the morning but this morning she met me with a grunt. Her muscles were probably too sore and the short nights nap probably didn’t do much justice but I think that it is safe to say she wasn’t so happy to see me this morning.

Nevertheless we packed up quickly and took a coffee in the nearest town of nuenberg or nurnberg or something similar to the last town’s name. That’s why I always get lost, the towns all sound the same here except for some subtle change like an "e" or an "a" or sometimes it is the exact same spelling but two different towns that are placed painfully 30 long kms away.

Anyway after coffee we did a circle with a diameter of 4 km or so through the mountains and ended up at the camping spot again. This is of course another way to see the same name twice but contrary to what I explained before, it has another frustrating feeling attached. Anyway Emmanuelle made it 41.3 km before her arm was too tired so I parted from her just after the border of republic of Czech.

The roads aren't exactly as well defined as in Switzerland nor are they as well mapped as in Germany but the countryside to Plzen was unbelievably beautiful. The people seemed nice but a little reserved and I didn’t get much of a chance to talk to many of them because the road didn’t exactly cross any people today. I had a chance to eat a local dish of steak (which I hadn’t had for about four years) and a potato gratin, which turned out to be the best meal that I have had in a long time.

Anyway tomorrow is Prague and I need desperately to rest my muscles and my mind.

We proceeded to continue our route towards Rotz then Cham, the only place where there was a train going to the Czech Republic. The road was nice through the forest. It was flat so it was not too hard to bike. However some 10 km later, we met a Canadian biker who basically told us we had just done a huge detour, a big loop according to the GPS. We could not believe it we were basically 1 km away from our last night stop!!! We were not too happy about that but we had no choice but to continue riding our machines in the heat until finally we arrived in Cham. Another surprise was waiting for me. I was told at the station it was not sure if the train was accepting my bike. It was ok until Funf im Wald but not sure to Plzen. I decided to take the risk; I didn't have much choice- riding my bike was out of the question. I had to give my arm a rest. I was lucky, when I arrived in Funf im Wald; I was told that it was ok for me to take my bike but that I would have to do another part by bus because the train rail was broken. I felt like I was in the Second World War when I saw the tiny little train that was going to take me and my bike to Plzen. It was a rollercoaster ride which almost ended because of a deer. The thought of the suicide in Biberach came to my mind again! When we arrived in the town where we had to take a bus, it was pouring rain. With the help of the conductor and some guy who had been my translator for the whole way, I was able to get on the bus with my bike. I contacted Chris to let him know everything was under control. I waited in Plzen, in the 4 star hotel which was next to the station and was recommended by the conductor. It was way too expensive for our budget but I was too tired to care and my sense was that Chris would appreciate it too; bonus there was an elevator!

Later in the evening, we went to a local restaurant where we had a delicious meal for 18 Swiss francs which included drinks and dessert!!