Day 9 - Thursday, August 6, 2026

I did not find the idea of a swim in a lake full of weeds really pleasant - and I had a chore to take care of - wash my clothes. Not too far, next to remodeled Soviet-style high-rise buildings, I found a laundromat. Faith was pulling a joke on me - no cards were accepted and I did not have Czech crowns. I tried withdrawing money from an ATM, it took only local cards. There was a shopping center with a money-exchange booth, which opened only at 10 am, so I spent an hour running around like a chicken - when, at last, I managed to get some local currency.

I squeezed in a haircut with a not-too-friendly hairdresser guy, at the end (of the 5 minutes), he actually let out a faint smile and charged only 200 crowns (as vs. the 350 it was advertised at). Only around noon was it that I got back to Pilsen - if nothing else, I decided to visit the Great Synagogue. It was really impressive, with some sad individual stories of the faith of Jewish citizens.

After the visit, I climbed the tower of the cathedral, where the view of the city and its surroundings was spectacular.

It was in a north-westly direction that I left Pilsen, quite late, at around 1:30 pm. There were rather rural roads I was riding on, and saw storks and combine machines busy harvesting, in addition to some impressive rocks. I took some seemingly never-ending dirt roads over a hill, it was not the best idea, the cows were somewhat surprised to see a fully loaded bike rider crossing their pastures.

Slowly, daylight started fading and I was riding through some not-so-dense forests - and thought it pitching my tent. On the other side, having started my ride rather late, I was not all too tired. The next major place was the spa town of Karlovy Vary and I decided to make it there - still about 40 kilometers away. There was hardly any traffic on the small roads I was on - surprisingly, the pavement was excellent, apparently newly paved, with white stripes marking the edge of the road.

Daylight was fading fast - but thanks to a slight decline, I myself was not slow either. At one point, I did spot some lights up on a hill and dreaded that the last couple of kilometers would be uphill - but that was not the case. In fact, I looked it up with the tbanks of AI, it writes "Coming into Karlovy Vary from the southeast [and that is where I came from] is a substantial downhill descent. The historic spa center of Karlovy Vary sits nestled deep at the bottom of a narrow river valley at an elevation of roughly 380 metres. In contrast, the rolling plateaus and highlands immediately to the southeast sit much higher, at about 600 metres above sea leveL"

At round 10 pm, I reached town - and was up for quite a surprise. While the town was practically asleep at this time of the night, it was beautifully lit, especially the large Grandhotel Pupp. My friend AI writes "Founded originally in 1701, this Neo-Baroque landmark boasts a rich 325-year history and is world-famous for its cinematic elegance — most notably serving as the primary inspiration for Wes Anderson's The Grand Budapest [Ah! Budapest!] Hotel and filming location for James Bond's Casino Royale. I did not want to arouse a commotion, so I did not actually enter it, though I contemplated for a second staying there - however, the room price of about €250.

In fact, I left the question of where I would spend the night for later. There were many possibilities - and I went for one that would surely not strain my wallet. It was a campground on River Teplá, where a night would cost just €15 - granted, with some rather modest Google review scores. I had quite some trouble finding it (there was a small ramp leading to the river, which I missed twice), but it turned out that the rooms were booked out. Ouch, pitching a tent at 11 pm in so fun. It would not come to that. The caretakers were a young couple - with dreadlocks, tattoos - and they were stoned to the brink. Still, they were welcoming and offered to make me some sausages. Then the lady told me to wait - she then offered her larger tent for me to sleep in (alone, mind you), so I did not have to bother with setting up my tent.

Despite starting my ride only in the afternoon, I made 107 km that day, with 1,460 meters of elevation. A longer ride that I had anticipated, for sure...