After our first mountain stage the day before we decided not do too much on our rest day. It costed much energy to beat the ramps, so we slept very long and relaxed at our nice apartment. Hanušovice is a very small town, so there was not that much to do. In the evening we went to a local restaurant and had some pizza (because we were too late for anything else). Afterwards, we went to the supermarket and bought some supplies for the next day. Before we went to bed we did some stuff at our notebooks. We checked the next kilometers on the Eurovelo 9 and find out that the path to the next bigger city called Olomouc should not be too hard.

A pleasant start

Like always when we slept in apartments we did not stand up too early because we did not have to disassemble the tent. So after breakfast in our room we dressed up and packed our bags. Afterwards, we prepared our bikes and around 9:30 we were good to go. The first kilometers we cycled on a minor road which led us through a forest area. The temperature was perfect on that day, not too hot and not too cold. We followed a the small river Morava and often had brilliant views to the mountain range around us. We also saw some damages from the former storm. After some time we met a french couple, that was cycling in the same direction, also carrying some bags. After a short chat they told us that they were going to Praha and did a round trip through Czech. Quite interesting was the recumbent bike of the woman with a french flag on the back.

On the following kilometers we passed a lot of villages and small towns. Cycling was pretty easy because most of the area was flat. There were just a few small ramps we had to climb. Also a lot of cyclists were on the roads. In general cycling in Czech Republic is convenient. There are a lot of signs which show you the way. Also you have many rest places for cyclists. Most of the time we cycled on bicycle roads but even when we had to turn on main streets it was not too busy. When we came to Mohelnice, there were road constructions going on and we had to take a detour. By chance, we passed a supermarket on our detour and bought some food for lunch. When we were back on the Eurovelo 9 we took our chance at a rest place in Moravičany and had our lunch. After some minutes there was happy music and a female voice from a speaker nearby. Crazy, probably some advertisment for a local potatoe sale 🥔.

Enjoying Litovel close to Olomouc

When we continued our stage the sky was very cloudy and we expected some rain. But there were just a few rain drops so it was still fine. We already booked a hotel in Olomouc during our lunch as there were no good camping alternatives. After some kilometers through open land and a forest we arrived in Litovel. The path led us through the beautiful center with very impressive buildings. At a park with lake next to the beautiful “Gymnázium Jana Opletala Litovel” we made a rest and enjoyed the view. When we left the city behind we cycled through the “Litovelské Pomoraví”, a protected landscape area, in the floodplain of the Morava river. There was a lot to see and also we had some adventures path to cycle but it wasn’t hard.

Welcome to Olomouc – lonely planets number one “hidden gem” in europe

After this we entered the city of Olomouc. After a view kilometers we had to left the bicycle path Eurovelo 9 and used the navigation to cycle to our hotel. On small and not so easy to cycle paths along a river we came back to major streets and shortly after that we arrived at the hotel. To our surprise we were asked if we have a Corona test result or a document for vaccination. We did not have either, but the staff gave us a self-test kit. For the first time we had to use this, but everything was okay and we could stay in the hotel. After a shower we went into the city and had a cheap and excellent dinner at an Asian fusion restaurant. Afterwards we went to a bar and had some delicious local beers. It was quite late when we went back to our hotel and felt asleep like stones.

Route

The total distance can be viewed on the “Sabbatical 2021 – Europe” page.

Download file: Sabbatical2021_033_Hanusov_to_Olomouc.gpx