Day 7 - Tuesday, August 4, 2026

Needless to say, the morning started with yet another swim.

I rode on and got to a pretty town called Veselí nad Lužnicí, which used to be a hamlet on a salt road between Prague and Vienna in the Middle Ages. Interestingly, the word "veselí" means 'mirth', 'merriment' in Czech. It was a frequent name of newly founded settlements, which were given this name to ensure that its inhabitants would always be happy and joyful.

Next was Soběslav, with a wonderful historic center and a castle, which now serves as a library. I actually entered - and ascended - both, as the church had a tall tower and the castle a platform with a small exhibition.

A true highlight was then Tábor, a town rich in history associated with the Hussites with an impressive main square.

Until then, I had been riding up north. For reasons long forgotten, here I veered southwest, then again northwest. I honestly no longer know why, I rode through towns called Horky, Dobrejice, Sepekov, Milevsko and Kovarov. Aaah, now I recall...I talked to a young lady at the information center in Tábor and she recommended this route. Granted, it was quite pretty, however, there was no real highlight I could tell you about.

In the evening, I got to Orlík nad Vltavou and crossed the imposant Žďákov Bridge, which crosses the Orlík Reservoir, where the Vltava River seems more like a large lake, due to the Orlik Dam. There I found a campground - it was a bit tough to get to: it was a dirt road, but made it. This was a rather outdated camping place; the bathroom had a socialist feeling to it, with coin-operated showers. Worse, two drunk guys appeared in the middle of the night and started talking loudly close to my tent. When I asked them politely to be more quiet away, they made fun of me, acting as if they would not understand English. Lucklily, my tent is quite mobile, so I just picked it up and it was moved it away.

The production of that day was 110 kilometers, with 1,100 meters of elevation.