Day 22 – The Last Dash to the Border: Tharandt to Görlitz

Day 22 – The Last Dash to the Border: Tharandt to Görlitz

Monday January 26, 2015, 119 km (74 miles) – Total so far: 1,889 km (1,174 miles)

Day 22: Tharandt to Görlitz – 119.2km

Looking over Google Maps the night before I knew I had 290km to cover to Wroclaw in Poland where I was hoping to have a rest day. With the wind set to be behind me again I decided to try and put in a big day to reach the town of Görlitz which sits right on the German-Polish border. This would leave me with two relaxing days to cover the 170km still left to Wroclaw.

With the plan set in motion I got up a bit earlier than usual. I was unable to get any food the night before as it was a Sunday night meaning all the shops were closed. All I had on me were two croissants so I ended up having to space these out over the entire evening/night. After the long day of cycling I was ravenous but unfortunately this was all I had. This cycle touring isn’t glamorous business! The next morning breakfast was devoured very quickly indeed!

I stopped at a shop on the edge of Tharandt and ate even more food there before continuing on towards Dresden. Like most cities in Germany, Dresden was very easy to get through, the GPS on my phone was really helping out when crossing these cities. There were some impressive buildings in Dresden but unfortunately most of them were on the other side of the busy bridge I was on so I wasn’t able to get any decent photos of them.

Once out of Dresden there was a long arduous climb ahead of me. It was tough work but after finally getting to the top I had mostly plains between myself and the Polish border. I continued along these plains passing through villages that were starting to take on a more Polish appearance the closer I was getting to the border. In addition to the change in appearance the signs entering villages had changed so that they displayed both the German and Polish names of the village.

At this stage I was speeding along the road with a good tailwind behind me. I had some AC/DC playing on the MP3 player as I powered along towards the Polish border. It’s a fantastic feeling to be covering distance across a country like this with a great soundtrack in your ears and a huge tailwind behind you, it feels like you’re really covering ground and making some serious progress.

Later in the day I reached the charming town of Bautzen. I was checking my phone on the edge of town when a German man stopped to see if I needed any help. He told me that the back roads I were hoping to take to Görlitz weren’t great and that I would be better off taking the main road which went slightly out of the way to Lobau before cutting back to Görlitz.

I trusted his advice and it ended up being a great decision. The main road had a perfect tarmac cycle path alongside it pretty much all the way to Lobau.

After Lobau the cycle path disappeared so I was back on the main road. It was getting quite late now, the sun was starting to set behind me so I got a move on and cycled pretty much flat out all the way from Lobau to the edge of Görlitz. It was getting dark as I arrived into the outskirts of the town. Thanks to the tailwind and good roads/cycle paths I had made it into the town just in time.

I headed for the youth hostel in the centre of the old city. I was the only guest in the entire hostel so yet again I had an entire room to myself. I did nothing for the evening but relax after such a long day. It felt great to have finally crossed Germany. In the end it had taken 10 days to cross the country. In France my days were rarely over 6 hours long but in Germany this was a regular occurrence as the snow and off road cycle tracks slowed my progress.

The snow and cold temperatures had made Germany a bit of a challenge but I had really enjoyed my time in the country. After a bad start going through France I felt like I was getting into the swing of things now and settling into the routine. The great cycle paths of Germany, the nice snow covered landscapes and being able to converse with people really had a great effect on my mood and I felt a lot better here than how I had felt after crossing France. Poland lay ahead tomorrow and I was looking forward to cracking on with it and seeing what it would throw at me.