A slightly ridiculous tour, starting with epic gravel but ending on roads.
A mixed gravel and road bike tour through a hidden part of Germany and Czechia
This is a bike tour, completed on a gravel bike. The route is part gravel and part road. The tour stops at hotels for overnight stays.
I don't know why I had the idea to tour the "lesser known" part of Germany that is this East Corner of Saxony. To the south, Czechia, to the west, Poland. I had no idea what to expect but found some beautiful views, great gravel trails and some of the best - and some of the weirdest - hotels I've ever found.
Saxony Switzerland needs more actual mountains, but has some beautiful valleys!
Getting to the starting point
I travelled by train from Berlin to Bad Schandau the night before the start of the tour. This was the start of Germany's much famed "9 euro ticket" so I took a regional train from Konigs Wurstehausen all the way down to Bad Schandau via Senftenberg and Coswig. You can learn more about taking bikes on trains.... when I actually finish writing that page.
Until then - let's begin. The tour starts in Bad Schandau, in the "Saxony Switzerland" region. Bad Schandau is surrounded by steep cliffs, with the Elbe river running pretty much through the middle of the town so I wanted to find a way up and out of the town that didn't involve a hard slog up a road or a "straight up" route that would most probably involve steps.
Day 1 - Gravel roads, gravel climbs, forest gravel, valley gravel!
Probably the best day on this tour - day 1 featured the best scenery and best surfaces, starting in Bad Schandau, the tour winds itself through the valleys and over hills into Czechia. With multiple town stops (or atleast drive throughs) this is a great day ride that is a little bit on the hard side if you're not used to climbing. The downside of this route is that the end of it is a hotel on top of a hill! The upside of this is a beautiful sunset in the evening.
Day 2 - Adding some distance in Poland.
The start of the second day was.... WET, constant drizzle and a climb (ish) were the start of the day, the windmill on the top of the hill was the marker for the top of the hill and, upon arrival, the sun actually arrived (briefly). Today's route is a bit more road riding, but the quiet roads that make up a lot of the "country lanes" in Germany.
Just before Gorlitz the route passes a pretty massive mining machine and heads into some sketchy trails and bridges in the forests. Gorlitz (the Hollywood of Germany, apparently) was the lunch stop and then continued on along the Oder Neisse cycle way to get some kilometres under the wheels.
Day 3 - Painful hands and a lot of road.
I really had got the setup of the bike... wrong. By day 3 my hands were killing me and I really could not figure out how to solve that. But... carried on - today was 90km following the Oder Neisse cycleway so mostly on the road. A small stop in Bad Muskau (and cycling through some nice parkland that honestly reminded me of most British country estates). The day ended at the weirdest hotel I think I have ever been to.
Day 4 - short and over
So my first long bike tour was nearly over, and I really wanted it to finish more quickly because.... bike fit. I had done *something* very wrong and the bike was absolutely killing me - and I was having a sense of humour failure over it.
The ride finishes at Frankfurt (Oder) where you can catch a train back to Berlin.