Flirting with Austria

Today we find ourselves in another medieval renaissance city, Slavonice. Getting here was an interesting journey, crossing the border into Austria (for lunch) and then back into the Czech Republic. Most of the buildings in the historic square date from the 14th to 16th centuries, the oldest dating to 1545. The hotel that we are staying in - Besidka (http://www.besidka.cz/main_en.html) was the site of the first privately owned restaurant in Morovia after the end of the Socialist / Soviet period in 1990.  Beautifully restored, the hotel & restaurant are the epicentre of a cultural renaissance featuring the ceramics of Maříž. 

A few interesting oddities to share ...

• 3 out of every 4 dogs we've seen are beagles. Did you hear that Scooter? Most of them are fat though ... 
• This area of Morovia / South Bohemia is surrounded by the National Park "Czech Kanada". Apparently it got it's name because it's colder & gets more precipitation than any other region of the Czech Republic. Hmmm, guess that we should have read this info before cycling through the park and forest. We can now vouch for the wet & cold ...
• You can not find ANYPLACE to buy coffee in villages or towns along our route. There must be a business opportunity here!

Final story for today and one that we missed telling the other night. We were sitting having a beer and watching the hockey game (Czech - Canada) with a nuclear engineer (seriously ... a Soviet trained nuclear engineer! Who knew they really existed.) and sharing our cycling itinerary with him. At the end, when we tell him that we are cycling to Budapest, he looks at us and, in all seriousness and sincerity says ... "Why? You don't own a car?"

Hope that you all have a great Victoria Day long weekend. We'll be thinking of you while we "keep riding and keep smiling".