Germany almost done

Well its been a while since I sent an update, I thought I had done one more recently that what i have.

 

Last time I wrote I'd just started into Germany, and got as far as Wuppertal.  Since then I've headed up further north than I'd originally planned, as I was told the lakes area above Berlin was worth seeing.  It was very beautiful.  On the way there I passed through the tourist area of Möhnesee and picked up my new tent fly and stove parts from the Dix's in Bückeburg. 

 

I've gone to sleep with the sound of machine gun fire and shelling near Bergen. And been forced to do a military detour the next day.  And I'm not in one of those so called "scary" places yet.  NATO have been a bit busy here doing exercises.

 

Europe has finally had some rain, since last I wrote. 

Rinteln

I've managed to avoid a bit of it when sleeping under a real roof in Wuppertal & Buckeburg, and also by taking short breaks during the day at selected places.  I've only gone really wet once, and that was because I rode on with a group of school kids touring when I should have waited for a little while for the shower to pass. (They were already drenched and were heading home having cancelled the trip early).

 

en-route to the lakes

Steinhude (not those lakes yet)

 This says sleep here get shot

 

 My first restaurant (pub) meal since starting 2 months ago.

 

 one of the activities that occur on the lakes on a public holiday

 

After touring around the lakes area up north I headed down to Berlin for a quicker than intended stay there. 

 this road near the lakes was made before the war (no doubt) then only ever got patched, and hasn't made it onto the post-reunification priority list yet.

 I was in the lakes area on a Thursday public holiday and lots of people had gone to the lakes to fish, kayak, or just drink.  this meant that I'd get to Berlin on what many would take as a 4 day weekend.  This worked very well in Brussels a few weeks ago as the city was nice and quiet with everybody gone on holidays.  Berlin was a different story, where in Belgium everybody left the big city, in Germany everybody came to the big city.  There was no accommodation anywhere, and I had planned to spent at least a couple of days there.  I did the rounds of a few backpackers and eventually stumbled across a few girls who had been searching all day and only found one hotel with a room available (at €300/night).

 

 

One of the remnants to remind you.  this is the east, apparently the western side was painted (I didn't see)

 

I elected to go for the bush, but to fly around the must sees before I did.  That was a good day of riding that one.  I was on the road at 7am and finished about 11pm - in Wansee a southern outer-suburb of Berlin for a suburban bush camp.

 

I then had a couple of nights in a hostel at Wittenberg catching up with clothes washing, me washing etc, as well as looking around the old town that is quite involved in German history, and especially in the church reformation with Martin Luther and the formation of the protestant churches.

 

Wittenberg was my gateway to the Elberadweg (or the Elbe River Cycle Path as we would say.) and how I will get to the Czech Republic and Prague.  A few lazy days cycling the Elbe with its lack hills will be good before I hit the hills to come.

 

One day from Wittenberg to Torgau was memorable because I had company for the whole day.  Instead of Annette ruling over a group of 6 she had a tag along, the sole male of the group, me.   I got to enjoy some good German and Swiss (thanks Vera) hospitality, taste the local delicasies and enjoyed the first swim of the trip. (Its been quite hot the past couple of days and the swim was a great way of getting out of the worst of  the midday sun.)  The girls had a few days of getting away from home (mostly between Hannover and Berlin) and were riding up the Elbe.

 My company from Wittenberg to Torbau

 

I'm now in Dresden and looking around the historic city of lovely old buildings and tomorrow will head toward the Czech Border for the next stage of the journey, another language and a new set of money.  Quite amazing really to have riden through 5 countries so far, all with the same money no border checks, passport and visa requirements

 

Well its time I headed off for some more sight seeing.

 

until next time...

 

Jeff

--
www.whereonearthisjeff.com

Into Germany with a new web portal.

Thanks, to all those that responded with contacts or suggestions regarding the replacement tent fly, I have been told that I can expect it to be in Bückeburg, Germany waiting for me in only a couple of days from now.

It looks like it is time for the new fly too.  After 6 weeks of blue skies Europe has decided to change its weather pattern to something more normal.  The next 3 or 4 daus are all forcast for rain - and it has been raining reasonably lightly today whislt I have been warm and dry in Wuppertal with René and Silvia (whom I met in St Etienne, France)

Tomorrow night I'll find out just how important that seam seal tape is and how much water gets through when there is none left.  (But at least they are replaceing without any hassle)

I have today ordered some replacement parts for my MSR Whisperlite stove, to replace the temporary fix I did.  (which works well but does lose a little fuel out the bottom of the priming cup when starting it up - so it needs to be on bear ground not a flamable surface).  They tell me that these parts should be waiting, in Bückeburg tomorrow too (Although I wont be there for a few days yet)

My Fix

 

I had a wonderful few days with Sue & Pierre, Latitia & Coralie  (I hope i got that spelling right because I have already posted back to Aus the book where I wrote it down) including an unexpected extra day with a broken tooth, patched before I left Brussels (Grez-Doiceau) - it hasn't slowed  or decreased my eating at all.

Since then I have explored a little further south and found the industrial heartland of Belgium, around Leige, although the central city and river banks are really spectacular there. (see photos)

Leige

From there it was up across the German border into Aachen, Köln and Wuppertal, where I have spent two nights enjoying the hospitality of René and Silvia, Sarah & Tim.

From here I leave to head through the central north of Germany to pick up my tent and stove parts in Bückeberg, from the house of a  friend of Grant & Wendy Nichol (one of their other volunteer families from Zimbabwe back when they lived there in 1995/1996) then on towards Berlin.

Another special thankyou here to Matt (T) & Dave at Haliplex who have got my new web presence happening.  You can get access to my Photos, Group mailings, Email Group Subscription and Map at either the old addresses or from www.whereonearthisjeff.com
Just one easy to remember URL for everything now.

From the new portal webpage www.whereonearthisjeff.com you can see my progress using google maps.   Zoom in or out as far as you like and see my route on either maps or satellite/aerial photographs or both. 

Quite a few people have commented about camping spots and how I go about finding them, where I camp etc.    If you are at all interested in this go to the google map, zoom in on one of the green tent icons then select Hybid or Satellite.  All but a couple have a photo of my camp attached to the icon and you can see in the satelite photo the exact patch of forest, how big it is and what is around it.   At this stage the end points for each line (each days ride) are as accurate as I can possibly make them (zoomed right in), only the first couple of days have actual route shown in great detail when zoomed in.  This probably wont change in a hurry but I'll try to add a few extra points to assist in route identification as I do new updates.

If you haven't seen Matt's handy work check out my new webpage here.

 

Jeff


--
www.whereonearthisjeff.com