Ostrá

After overheating myself yesterday I decided to keep it short and so treated myself to a late start this morning. I'm not quite in my groove yet so packing up takes a while and after managing the potential for flooding last night things were all of a guddle.  The rain was, I think we can safely say quite torrential. The site was completely flooded, the only dry patch was that left behind by my tent.

What's a holiday without a pilgrimage site?  That's what I say.  I looked up Brandýs nad Labem-Stará Boleslav last night and discovered it was quite an interesting place. The site of St Wenceslas's murder no less so, after my slow start, I went to see the churches in the town square. The ornate baroque Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary - which I had to myself and the Church of Saint Clement where I may have accidentally crashed a tour to look at the frescos. After that I brought some crackers (in my contact lenses I need reading glasses - a whole new complication when trying to navigate new coinage) I decided against the castle and instead headed to the bike path along the Elbe. 

It turns out yesterday's weather really was quite bad. There were twigs and branches scattered across the path and trees down at various points. There was even an emergency crew with chainsaws on top of a roof. 

All this weather hasn't done much for the bike path and as the concrete gave way to a variety of gravelly surfaces things were decidedly muddy. That made for quite slow progress and less snacking opportunities. In muddy puddly gravel you need to keep all hands on the bike and all hands on the road. 

Not muddy but also not wide enough to cycle my bike and panniers down.

My campsite is friendly and the shower - once we'd managed to work out key deposits welcome but, the long drop seatless toilets leave rather a lot to be desired.