Anne-Marie & Reuben Cycle EuroVelo 7 & 9: Day 26 - Cycle Dresden to Torgau, Germany

As we cycled out of Dresden we again hit peak hour cycle traffic on the Elbe river cycle path. With very little wind and energy from our chicken and salad rolls and apple strudels we were cycling fast. We spent an hour getting around shoals of cyclists trying to avoid head on collisions with others coming the other way.

After one near miss with an oncoming cyclist a guy in front of us swore in German, a man cycling beside us translated. "He called her a cucumber." I cracked up later Anne-Marie put it together, "It's like calling someone a dill!".

Picturesque scenery with vineyards surrounding us followed. We stopped for lunch at a beautiful "boothaus" on the river and were so impressed by the German cycle way, clear signage and beautifully surfaced paths. But then after lunch things changed. Back to crops and flat land there were less cyclists and signage deteriorated. We missed a poorly signed detour and wasted over an hour as we tried to cross a farm before realising we had to go back. The river cruise we had passed prior overtaking us as we stood amongst the corn fields.

Arriving in Torgau at 8pm the "zimmer frei" signs we were accustomed to seeing were all saying "ausgebucht". Anne-Marie always preferring to book accommodation ahead was a little worried. Starving we thought we would find some dinner first before the last place serving dinner in town closed for the night. Several beers and wine later we had googled most of the accommodation in town and were coming up negative.

Eventually some little old lady lead us on a car chase ( we chased a car) to a funny German couple that had a spare room in the basement. they didn't speak a word of English, but we hand signaled our way through. On the plus side it was only 13 Euro each.