Monday, August 18, 2008

Across the Vah River Plain

Day 327
Trencin to Dolna Streda
Time: 5:31:00
Distance: 98.3 kilometers
Avg Speed: 17.8
Terrain: Flat
Location: N˚ 48 16’ 19.4”, E 17˚ 44’ 49.6”

After a night in simple accommodations, we took one last look at the castle and rode on to the southwest. The clouds were still hanging around and it still looked like rain. We kept the wet weather gear handy and headed towards the bike path along the Vah River.
It didn’t take long to realize that we wouldn’t be riding the path at all. The storm that had rolled through the previous days before had uprooted just about every large tree along the river bank. There was no way to go through and so we turned around and found our way back to route 507, our friendly road for the last few days.
We stopped for groceries at our new favorite store, Kaufland’s. I spent quite a bit of time there yesterday – it’s quite the store. Chris spent even more time today. The store has several rows dedicated to sweets – you can see why we prolong our shopping experience. It’s a fascinating world of wafers, biscuits, and chocolates…
Lunchtime found us at our first café. We’ve been trying to self-cater as much as possible, but our appetites are getting stronger and we wanted to fuel up on something other than fruit and crackers. We stuck with some basics; soup, vegetables, and cappuccino. Our waiter was very good (quite formal for a café) and spoke great English. In fact, most people in Slovakia know a little English. In Poland we used our trusty language book a lot more.
After lunch we headed out for 40 more kilometers. In an otherwise flat ride, we stopped for a great view after climbing a hill above the town of Hlohovec. From the scenic rest area we could see far across the Vah River plain. The most striking feature on the landscape was the nuclear power plant.
We finally rolled into Sered and found no campground as indicated on the map. We soon figured out that the sign pointing to Ku Campingu was a road name not directions to our accommodation. While I staged a silent sit-down protest, Chris rode around town but found no other place to stay. There was nothing else to do but get back on the bikes and hope for something down the road. It wasn’t a great feeling, but I think we knew something would pop up. Sure enough, about 1.5 kilometers down the road we found Penzion Mlya. It was like an oasis – new building with plenty of rooms and a well stocked restaurant. We celebrated our long day (and a good friend’s birthday) with a nice cold Slovakian beer.

Happy Birthday to Jennie,
LK

2 comments:

JennSean said...

You guys are the best!! Cheers to you from the USA!
-JH

. said...

HEY GUYS...HOW'S THE SQUIRT HOLDIN UP? SAFE TRAVELS!
lg