2022-10-09: Day 09 Bischofsgrün – Cheb (73km, total 732km)

In the morning I drove 1km to the Ochsenkopf Nord cable car, which I took to climb the hill in the lazy manner. At top I went first to the stones marked as Ochsenkopf, but I didn‘t see anything that looked similar to a head of an ox. Maybe the name comes from something else. There was a small tower (Asenturm), from where I enjoyed the beautiful panorama. The weather was perfect, sun, blue sky and no clouds. Only far away were some regions in fog.

I started my hike to the Weissmainsquelle but already made some additional meters to see the Goethefelsen. Goethe painted this rock once during his first stay in the Fichtelgebirge in 1785. But for a long time it was unclear where the painted rock is situated. In 1986 the according stone formation could be recognized.

During my way to the Weissmainsquelle I also logged a few geocaches. Then I was there! After 600-700km along the Main I finally reached my Main goal of my bike tour: The spring of the (white) Main. I took a sip of the water.

Afterwards I hiked down to the cable car station. Just a little bit above is a ski-jumping hill, that is also used in summer. Impressive, if I imagine how they usually jump and then fly for 100 or more meters.

I ate lunch and the started to bike. It continued as it ended yesterday. It went up and up and up. Meanwhile I was already at 850m above sea level and since only 200m in height were missing, I decided to make a small detour and drive the whole way up to the Schneeberg. The Ochsenkopf was only the second highest point with 1024m a.s.l. The Schneeberg is with 1051m the highest hill/mountain of the Fichtelgebirge and also from north Bavaria. The rocks and a small tower of the highest point are called “Backöfele“. A few days ago I was in a restaurant with the same name. The US army used the mountain during the cold war until 1992.

I biked down, but didn‘t follow exactly my planned route at Komoot because I there were no bike signs in that direction and I saw that the other way is maybe more bike-friendly. Suddenly the EuroVelo 4 route came into my path as well. It looks like the route at the webpage of EuroVelo is different than the real one that seems to go from Bischofsgrün to Fichtelberg and then to Tröstau. In Tröstau were some obstacles in the streets and various Johanniter (accident assistance people). There was an ongoing Rockman Run. Many years ago I did one in Thun.

I followed the Brückenradweg for some time, then I biked to Hohenberg an der Eger, where I walked around the closed castle. My way went further to tha last village in Germany and then I crossed the border to the Czech Republic. In Cheb (Eger) I will stay over night. Again almost 1000m difference in height (cable car excluded) I did today.