BREMEN
2020
Tuesday,the 23rd of June 2020
The car is packed tight (2 bikes and full luggage), the picnic is made
and off we are to Holzminden (Niedersachsen), +- 600 km. It is a hot and
sunny day and driving turns into a rather sweaty thing.
Arriving at the hotel
“Hellers Krug” we are happy to get a spacious room and the promise that we can
leave our car at the hotel’s parking lot until we are back from our tour. A
quick shopping for the other day at the local supermarket, dinner at the hotel
( very nice) and sleeping like a log after all that business.
Wednesday, the 24th of June 2020
Breakfast at 07:00. The entire hotel is having breakfast that early, we
are all bikers. Then loading the bikes with the bags and here we go, starting
our first cycling day! We follow the river Weser,
lovely countryside with fields of wheat and hay. We pass “Münchhausen’s” birthtown, ….then a
nice castle right on the riverbanks, with onion bulb -topped towers.
A bit later we cycle through Hameln,
where the famous “rat catcher “ seduced all the children out of town.
Still following the river, we end up in a place close to “Rintgen”, a
monastery right in front of the hotel. Dinner at the “Biergarten” .
95 km
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| Hameln |
Thursday, the 25th of June 2020
7:00 breakfast and leaving early.
Today is a simple pedalling day, along the river, passing endless
fields, going over countless bridges and crossing many streets. We end up in
“Nienburg” in Hotel Mexicana and get a nice room. Dinner in the main street and
then a leisure walk through the old town: red brick houses, giant red brick
church spire, old half-timbered houses, very nice. High on a chimney we see a
stork’s nest, with 3 storks in it. People tell us that baby stork had fallen
out of its nest the other day, firemen restored the animal safely back under
its parents' wings. 93km
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| Nienburg |
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| Verden |
Friday, the 26th of June 2020
We get breakfast at the baker’s (the hotel doesn’t provide any), and
leave. We are still following the river Weser
and come to a town, Verden (Aller) , have a snack there and cycle on.
On our way we see 2 big stork’s nests, with
full-grown babies in them. On and on it goes, a nice landscape drifting by with
half-timbered houses, some ponds and little lakes, channels and red brick
houses, all very “nordish”, could be Dutch, too. We finish the day’s ride in
“Achim”, the “Bootshaus Hotel”: here we get a great room, just above the tiny
harbour, with our own balcony, perfect. Nice meal at the hotel. 80km
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| Achim |
Saturday, the 27th of June
The weather forecast sounds horrible to us: storm, rain, thunderstorms,
hard winds, anything but pleasant for a cyclist. We decide to cycle the small
distance Achim-Bremen (35km), get an hotel there, visit Bremen (although by rain) until the bad
weather has travelled on. Arriving in Bremen
we get an “H+H hotel” (after some trouble), and park our bikes for the first
time in a bicycle park house. (not very easy to handle, the machines only take
coins and no foreign credit cards…), but in the end the bikes are safely locked
up in a box.
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| Bremen |
Sightseeing of Bremen, see the Bremen town Musicians,
the impressive Dome, lovely marketplace and squares, all quite in a fairground
atmosphere. Böttcherstrasse, a nice
pedestrian passage, then a thunderstorm again, we walk to the river, “Schlachte
Embankment” with a couple of 3 mast ships. From here it is a classic to walk to
the “Schnoor”, Bremen’s
oldest district, a little maze with small houses, lining the alleys like pearls
on a string. Café, restaurants, galleries, arts and crafts, you name it.
Dinner at Fischerman’s, not far from the hotel. We decide to get an
early start tomorrow and adapt our plans to the weather conditions.
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| Rollercoaster Hamburg |
Sunday, the 28th of
June
We try to get off early, but unfortunately my bicycle stand breaks and
we are delayed. It is a very easy exit of Bremen on a quiet Sunday morning.
We find the first signs of the cycling path and follow it,
actually all the way to Hamburg
(15 km out of the centre…). Here we get a “B+B Hotel” and a very funny dinner
at the “Rollercoaster Restaurant”. 130km.
Monday, the 29th of June 2020
Very modest breakfast at the “B+B’s” and for us an early exit from Hamburg. It takes a
while to leave the outskirts of Hamburg but
the cycling path is nice, trees aligned along the banks of the Elbe, we have the feeling to cycle through a green
tunnel. Soon we come to the dam and the path is not so breathtaking anymore.
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| Hamburg |
We
get some heavy rain and cycle on, fully dressed in our raingear. We end up in
the little town of “Bleckede” , the “Elbhotel”, unfortunately a bit run down, but
we put up with that. In town I saw a bike shop, call them and get my bike
repaired on the spot: a new bicycle stand makes life a lot easier for me.
Dinner with some Flammekuchen, a walk and a rest. 90km
Tuesday, the 30th of June 2020
Late breakfast hours in the hotel, so we hurry off quickly after the
meal to catch up on time. We follow the river Elbe
at the beginning, but since the winds are very hard we are grateful to discover
a kind of “tunnel” path in the forest that provides some protection from the
wind. It is also a much better track, solid and paved, not like the gravel and
cobblestone at the beginning of the day.
We reserve an hotel and cycle on through a beautiful countryside, all
Shire. The path winds on along the river, past many cornfields, high grass and
wheat. There are uncountable little ponds and lakes, all surrounded by high
common reed. The ferry we planned to take is out of order, so we have to cycle
a detour to get to the next bridge.
At one point we see a field full of storks, actually the largest group
we’ve ever seen.
The bridge is very narrow and long, we are very tense with concentration
while we cross it, we don’t want to make a wrong move and have a crash….
We finish in “Wittenberge”, “Pension Tivoli”. Here we have a little
cabin and the friendly landlord arranges dinner for us in the “Brauhaus”, an
old historical and restored building. 106 km
Wednesday, the 1st of July 2020
Leaving Wittenberge by rain. It also cooled down noticeably. We know we
are facing a hard day and brace ourselves against rain and hard winds. The rain
showers come down constantly but the landscape is stunning: right in the Shire
countryside we must have seen 20-30 deer, many storks, egrets, hares, it is
amazing! They tell us there are even otters and beavers, we watch out for them
but don’t see any. The river splits sometimes up into different little arms,
creating lakes and ponds, large fields of beautiful summer flowers and reed,
all eye catchers.
We end up in a lovely old
guild town ”Tangermünde”, “Hotel Schwarzer Adler”. We get dry and clean again, take care of our
gear and take a long stroll through the town to take pictures. Very nice
buildings, red bricks and half-timbered houses, all in the typical northern
style. Dinner at a pizzeria and rest. 82 km
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| Tangermünde |
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| Tangermünde |
Thursday, the 2nd of July 2020
We leave Tangermünde without shopping for drinks and snacks with the
expectation to buy something on the way, but wrong thought, there is not a
single supermarket in all of the little villages that we come across. Luckily
we find a little “bakery van” in a village with 2 friendly ladies that sell us
some drinks and some pastry. Teaches us a lesson, not so easy to get food and drinks in the middle of
nowhere.
But we still feel encouraged since there is no rain. Following the Elbe we intend to take a ferry but it is on hold for a
while (lunchtime break) and as we lack the patience to wait, we stay on the
same side of the river trying to find some options (cycling paths or roads…).
We are pleasantly surprised by the sheer endless paths that we detect and make
good progress towards Magdeburg.
Just shortly before Magdeburg we cycle
over a kind of “super” bridge: the bridge carries a channel right over the
river Elbe, funny feeling, water going over
water! It takes a long time to get to Magdeburg’s
centre, get a posh hotel, the “Maritim”, a treat after our 80 km.
We get settled and visit the city: the impressive Dome over towers it
all, beautifully restored buildings in the old Eastern
Germany style, the “grüne Zitadelle von Hundertwasser”, the
fortified wall etc…
Dinner at “Alex’” and back to the Maritim.
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| Grüne Citadelle |
Friday, the 3rd of July 2020
We leave Magdeburg
on the “Elbe Radweg” , cycle through many villages again and along the river.
Near Calbe we take a small ferry, but too bad, we chose the wrong way, so we
cross back with the same ferry giving the ferryman a good laugh! Tourists!
The trip goes on towards Bernburg, hotel “Fürsteneck”.
We get our stuff sorted out and hurry to visit the little jewel of a
town. Nice castle on the hill (in the evening sun) and many old buildings.
Thill Eulenspiegel has a story in this town. The cycling path along the river Saale was so nice that we consider to cycle it back the
coming day to go on with our planned tour.
Lovely Indian dinner and rest. 85 km
Bernburg
Saturday, the 4th of July 2020
The landlord/lady of the hotel are from Croatia and we have a nice chat
with them…breakfast is delicious and we really like this hotel.
We get out of Bernburg cycling over the bridge and riding the river Saale upwards. Then we change on to the “Eurovelo3”.
The wind is very, very hard in our faces and cycling extremely
strenuous. In plus we are very disappointed by the “Eurovelo3” : so far we had
reasonable cycling tracks, but now the good quality of the paths is exchanged with a lot of rough dirt tracks, all
the villages (street AND pavement) only get hard cobblestone, it is dreadful.
With the poor paths we get another problem: the vibrations have loosened the
screws of Gaston’s back wheel, it comes off when he lifts the bike on the
stand. We have to fix this and now irritated AND dirty we continue…. Our poor wrists hurt with the non-stop
vibrations while the wind is constantly blowing our heads off. Exhausted and
discouraged we end up in Quedlinburg, hotel “Acron”, 95 km. Too tired for
anything serious dinner wise, we shop some snacks to eat them in the hotel
room.
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| Quedlinburg |
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| Quedlinburg |
But then Gaston gets terrible cramps and we decide to walk a while to
loosen up the muscles. Lucky decision! The town turns out to be Unesco World
Heritage and is a jewel on its own: old, old half-timbered houses, gables
hanging crookedly into the alleys, marked by the history of hundreds of years.
This takes us straight back into the middle ages, with picturesque windows, balconies,
old wooden gates and doors. We are transported into the time of “Grimm’s
Fairytales” . we continue to stroll around until we are just too exhausted to
enjoy it any more. Tired but glad for the visit we return to the hotel.
Sunday, the 5th of July 2020
Leaving Quedlinburg with grey skies and a hard wind again. The plan is
to be sensible today, to fight the wind for as long as we can put up with it
and then get a hotel on booking.com.
We get into another Unesco World Heritage town, Wenigerode, we try to
get into an hotel, but it is fully booked. We decide to cycle on and reserve a
place in Ilsenburg, the “Ilsenburghof”.
Checking out the area we find out this is the region around the “Brocken”, the witches’ domain. In the town of Thale we read a sign
“Hexentanzplatz”, but the hill that leads up to it is so steep that we loose
interest. We find the different villages all filled with mythology (Germanic)
and legends. The Twilight of Gods (“Götterdämmerung”) when the world will be
submerged in water and only a few in heaven and earth survive, all Norse
mythology and the closeness of the “Brocken”
puts it all into a “Witchy” context.
Nevertheless cycling here is a challenge and quite hard, this is the
“Harz-Gebirge” after all, mercilessly hilly and only dirt tracks! Get to the
hotel
ILsenburgerhof, 56 km. Chinese dinner
Monday, 6th of July 2020
Leaving Ilsenburg already shivering with cold. Again grey sky and hard
wind. But we do warm up quickly since we have to climb pretty steep hills,
immediately and constantly. Again lousy cycling paths, so we make slow
progress: sweating going up the hill and freezing to death running downhill.
The weather forecast is a disaster: heavy rains announced plus winds up to 75
kmh!! We decide spontaneously to stay in Goslar,
another Unesco World Heritage place. “Gasthaus Graul” has a room for us, we
book it after modest 30km, but we are quite fat up with the weather. So we try
to enjoy the visit of Goslar,
visiting a town by rain is way easier than cycling through the pouring rain!
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| Goslar |
People talk to us in the street, asking where we are from and where we
are up to…
We stroll through the old town, climb the dome’s spire to get a nice and
airy view…it is raining quite hard and really cold, we are glad to have stopped
early…
Dinner and back to the guesthouse.
Tuesday, 7th of July 2020
Nice breakfast , but late. So we hurry off quickly, it is a long way to
Holzminden, where our car is waiting for us. It is cold and we wear double
layers. We agree that when the weather turns into something unbearable, we
shall try to get on a train. Of course we have the same procedure than the day
before: sweating up the hill, freezing downhill. You feel like constantly
wearing the wrong clothes…All morning we spend on a “Rollercoaster”, going endlessly up and down, accompanied by hard winds, ONLY dirt tracks, it is quite
depressing.
Finally, early afternoon, the landscape changes, the hills flatten out,
but the winds are persevering and killing us.
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| Einbeck |
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| Einbeck |
“Einbeck”, a lovely town, old style again, we can’t resist to have a
quick stroll through it, pushing the bikes.
The break was nice but we continue with the same headwind, we feel like
despairing!
Not giving up and sneaking on a train, we safely arrive back in
Holzminden! Our car still waits for us at “Heller’s Krug” hotel. 101 km
1156km in total.
Tomorrow we shall put down the bikes, pack up and drive some 600 km back
home!
