We woke up this morning at 6 am to a silent countryside and the fireflies were overpowered by the sun just getting up, coming over the mountain. My clothes were heavily dampened by dew and the tent sagged in the middle because the ground was too soft to lay the pegs properly. I realized only at this point in the trip how much I missed coffee. I was too groggy to even think but I managed to locate the tent after drowning my head in a nearby brook and wake up Emmanuelle.

She is always happy to see me in the morning but this morning she met me with a grunt. Her muscles were probably too sore and the short nights nap probably didn’t do much justice but I think that it is safe to say she wasn’t so happy to see me this morning.

Nevertheless we packed up quickly and took a coffee in the nearest town of nuenberg or nurnberg or something similar to the last town’s name. That’s why I always get lost, the towns all sound the same here except for some subtle change like an "e" or an "a" or sometimes it is the exact same spelling but two different towns that are placed painfully 30 long kms away.

Anyway after coffee we did a circle with a diameter of 4 km or so through the mountains and ended up at the camping spot again. This is of course another way to see the same name twice but contrary to what I explained before, it has another frustrating feeling attached. Anyway Emmanuelle made it 41.3 km before her arm was too tired so I parted from her just after the border of republic of Czech.

The roads aren't exactly as well defined as in Switzerland nor are they as well mapped as in Germany but the countryside to Plzen was unbelievably beautiful. The people seemed nice but a little reserved and I didn’t get much of a chance to talk to many of them because the road didn’t exactly cross any people today. I had a chance to eat a local dish of steak (which I hadn’t had for about four years) and a potato gratin, which turned out to be the best meal that I have had in a long time.

Anyway tomorrow is Prague and I need desperately to rest my muscles and my mind.