Chain Pain

Pacov to Telc, Czechia -- 43.3 mi, 12.1 mph, 2890 ft

We, unfortunately, felt a lot more “chain-pain” today. No more jamming, but my chain snapped once and Meg’s chain twice! We’ll definitely be getting new chains at the next “cyklo” shop we run across… hopefully tomorrow. Dex was particularly annoyed when the chain broke on his and Meg’s bike the first time, less than four miles into the ride. “What if it breaks on a busy road and we fall over?” That would not be good of course, so we'll try not to do that.

After I removed a link and reassembled the chain… just a little bit shorter now, Dex decided he really didn’t want to ride anymore. “The bike keeps breaking!” He refused the offer to ride on the green bike instead and then decided he really just wanted to go back to Pacov where we'd started. Never mind that we had just made arrangements for the next three towns, which includes three nights in Vienna starting on Sunday. Arguing with him when he’s in a foul mood is rarely fruitful and this time was no exception. After 20 minutes or so, we were back on the bikes. You can imagine how chipper he was when the chain broke a second time a quarter mile later! The same greasy process, one more time, and away we went.

Fortunately, Dex’s mood improved greatly after that. The scenery today was outstanding. The route was almost entirely on small, single lane back roads through fields of flowers, wheat, or hay interspersed with the occasional forest of trees. There were plenty of big puffy clouds on the horizon and every five to ten kilometers, we’d drop down into a small town, zig-zag along a few narrow streets, then start climbing out on the other end. Komoot, our phone bike route app, has been great. Although, I do sometimes feel that it chooses the steepest, roughest, and rockiest path it can find to start a climb. I’m all for getting the climbing over with quickly, but that assumes you can actually keep your balance and momentum going to make it up the hill.

Lunch was had sitting outside a teeny, tiny Coop market. There was hardly anything inside -- a little bit of candy and a few drinks. The woman behind the counter was very nice about trying to help us. She seemed certain that Meg and I would want some beer though. At one point, I’m pretty sure she brought out a case of grapefruit flavored “alcohol free” beer... still no takers.  The next box she opened had frozen watermelon popsicles that Dex and Kylie were quite willing to accept.

The rest of the day was fairly uneventful (except for my broken chain). We were into the outskirts of Telc and at our hotel by 3:00, although the check-in process, in an office a ¼ mile away, took another 45 minutes.

Our home for the night

Once we cleaned up and walked into town, we were amazed at the town square. On each side of the wide bricked square were colorful buildings with fancy Italian Renaissance facades. We’ve been impressed with how new, neat, and clean so many of the Czech towns have been. Often the buildings look to have been recently constructed and painted not to mention the amazing and labor-intensive brick roads and plazas.

We enjoyed a nice dinner outside.  Kylie ordered schnitzel that was so good, we ordered another one to be sure it wasn't a fluke the first time!  Our food budget is inching up lately.  As per our habit, we played cards at dinner.  Dex and Kylie have come up with a great way to determine what game we'll play.  The Jacks of every suit are taken out and placed face down on the table.  Kylie chooses, and depending on the suit, we start a tournament of that game.  For example, if Kylie chooses the Jack of Hearts, we play a game of Hearts (up to 100), Jack of Spades means that we'll be playing Spades, etc.  It's been a great way for us to keep the peace, and it is always a nice way to finish the day and wait for our food to arrive.  Inevitably, we get a couple rounds in, and voila! here comes dinner.  I know, we're really roughing it.