After leaving the comfort of the flat and smooth cycle paths of the Netherlands, we entered Germany. These days, crossing a border in the EU is anything but exciting. There is no border control, no gate, infact if you are looking down at a map or fiddling with something you may miss it all together. The change from one side of the border to the next is far from dramatic, but it is noticeable and is more like a different shade of the same colour. The bicycle path continued but was not as well constructed on the German side. The architecture changed slightly, most noticeable was the difference in roof tiling! The first few days it was a similar story with the terrain. The flat smooth roads continued into Germany.
Our first night was spent with a lovely warmshowers host called Englebert who had arranged for an interview with a local newspaper about our cycle trip! We were a little caught off guard and camera shy when the young reporters began their interview. You can read the article and watch the interview online HERE and HERE, we don’t speak German but we have been told we were a little misquoted in both. For the record I am Canadian. Claire is English. Although unexpected this made for an eventful start to our time in Germany.
During the past week or so my Rohloff hub (for those of you who don’t know, a Rohloff hub is an internal geared hub with 14 gears, so all the bits that make it harder or easier to get up a hill are in my wheel) seemed to have been leaking and instead of trying to go to a shop which would have shipped my wheel to the Rohloff factory, we decided to change our route slightly and cycle to Kassel to the factory instead!
Our deviation south saw us moving into hilly territory for the first time on the trip, as we said farewell to the plains of the North we passed through Osnabrück where we had a wonderful rest day with some lovely new friends Christian and Ania in the nearby town of Hilter. The day was spent recharging our batteries both physical and electrical and enjoying good company and good food! We were lucky enough to be in Osnabrück for the local wine festival, where we sampled some of the local vintages. After narrowly escaping some bachelorette parties we snuck a peak at the city from the mediaeval walls and saw some of the World Cup match. Christina, Ania and their magnificent hound Luna escorted us out of town and in the direction of Kassel. We cycled much of the day on rolling hills with some unforgiving climbs on some far from direct roads! Having acclimatized to the roads of Holland and Belgium we quickly abandoned the ‘b-roads’ and slipped onto the highway. This decision proved to be fruitful, but was a little bittersweet. We were humming along in no time as the road to Kassel was downhill most of the way. However, the highway was under construction as we got nearer to the city and the hard shoulder disappeared, meaning that as we were happily speeding along we were often holding up traffic. It was an exhilarating bit of road compared to the previous days of cycling and also a testament to the patience, respect and kindness of German motorists to their fellow cyclists as we received no honks or shouts at all on the road. Something we will no doubt miss in the near future.
Kassel
We stayed with the wonderful Dehlingers (4 in all) for who cycling is truly a family affair. They spent six months cycling to and around the UK. After a nice home cooked meal and some rest, the following day was a day of repairs. First it was off to Rohloff. Peter (our host) luckily has a friend at Rohloff who showed me around the factory after the seal on my hub was replaced. I saw how a Rohloff is born and how it is tested. There are about 10 workers on the factory floor, so these hubs are truly a hand crafted product. I was lucky enough to try out a prototype twin thumb shifter system from Tour Terrain that works with the Rohloff, which would be great for those of us out there who want to ride with drop bars and a Rohloff. After saying thanks and farewell to the good folks at Rohloff we went back to the apartment where we put the wheel back on the bike. Upon closer inspection of my chainring and a spin of the cranks it was clear that there were a few more repairs to be conducted.
Peter and I rushed out to a local bicycle shop where I bought a new smaller chain ring (to help with climbing those pesky mountains) and a new bottom bracket was installed on my bicycle. A big thanks to Pedalwerk for their help getting me back on the road so quickly. If you are ever in the neighbourhood and need a quality shop that know their stuff, these are your people. After fitting a new chain and tightening up my headset I once again had a bicycle in tip-top shape.Claire and I set out to squeeze in some sightseeing with the remainder of the day, and scurried up the hill towards the Hercules in Bergpark Wilhelmshöhe a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We cycled into the gardens, parked our bicycles and climbed the more than 200 steps to see the Hercules. The weather was against us as we didn’t have much of a view over the city. As the weather began to turn we planned our route over dinner at the pub while watching the semifinals of the World Cup. We decided to flee the hills of the south and head to Hamburg by train the next day. It was a good idea to do so as the heavens opened up that night and the rain persisted the next day. After some farewells we headed with an escort to the train station only to discover that our train had been delayed by 3 hours! Swizz! We persisted and took a longer route and got to Hamburg with a little less day than planned, but a little more money in our pocket as Deutsche Bahn refunded us half our train fare!
Hamburg
After arriving in the city late, we still had some time to explore a little before we needed to meet our hosts. We cycled around the lake in the centre of the city, lazed around for a while and saw a few of the different neighbourhoods. The following day our very kind hosts showed us the sights of the city, including the huge port, old warehouse district, riverside beaches and the best ice-cream place! Hamburg had a great vibe and we wished that we had more time to spend there, alas the open road was calling and we set off along the river Elbe which would be our new stomping ground for the coming days.
The Elbe
The river itself runs through Hamburg out to the North Sea from its source in the Krkonoše Mountains of the Czech republic for some 1000km. There are fantastic cycling routes which hug the riverside nearly the entire length of the Elbe, which makes for some spectacular cycling. The route is well signposted and maintained, it is flat and smooth and the scenery is beautiful. The route is marked with the symbol ‘e’ for the Elbe (obvs.), there are numerous other routes that overlap the Elbe route, and there seemed to be at least half dozen routes with the symbol of a stork in one form or another. The stork symbol was extremely fitting as the Elbe marked the entry of our route into stork territory. The Germans seem to be absolutely enamoured with these birds. They have plastic storks on their lawns, on their houses, in their windows and they make these fantastic nests high above the ground on old chimneys, hydro posts, rooftops and anything else that you can fit a stork sized nest on. It was great to spot the storks on our ride, and being back on the road and in the ‘wild’ was a good feeling. Over the next few days we camped along the river in some of the most picturesque locations of the trip. It was worth the return to our constant and unwavering menu of salami and cheese sandwiches for lunch and pasta for dinner. every.day.
The weather had been a bit tenuous for our days on the river, often threatening to storm only to pass without a drop, or raining overnight. However, eventually on one particular day our luck ran out. It was grey, rainy and miserable as we continued south east along the Elbe venturing further into East Germany and the day got worse. As we were cycling along a couple were preparing to walk their dogs, one of their furry beasts snuck off, ran up they dyke and silently sidled up behind me, and before I knew it. CHOMP. I had been bit by a dog! Now we were worried about the prospect of dogs on the trip, but never thought we would have a problem in Germany!
Not very pleased with the situation, I got off my bicycle and used it as a barrier between me and the beast. The owners were not particularly helpful and after abusing their dog and apologizing they went on with their day and walked their dogs by the riverside.
So, in the rain in the middle of nowhere (this is the least populated area of Germany), bleeding from a dog bite we cycled further south. Unfortunately, it was a Sunday, this is a particularly important detail as everything apart from a kebab shop is closed on a Sunday. Everything! We made it to a small town and searched for a doctor or the police, only to discover that both were closed on a Sunday. You read that right; the police station was shut on Sunday. After cleaning the wound as best as we could we limped into a terrible city called Wittenburg and still the rain was coming down hard. Tired, wet and with one of the team suffering a dog bite we decided to treat ourselves to a night in a cheap hotel. Unfortunately we seem to have stopped in the most unfriendly and unpleasant town we had yet to come across. After an unsuccessful attempt to find dinner and watch the World Cup Final we settled on instant soup cooked on the floor of the bathroom in our hotel room followed by bed! Not the best of days.
However, things got better and over the next few days we stopped into a few cities along the river including Tangamunde to celebrate Claire’s birthday with some internet time and an ice-cream. Did you know! Germans love ice cream? Well they do; and it’s pretty good at most little ice cream shops. And it’s cheap to boot! Internet however is damned near impossible to find anywhere in Germany! We were truly perplexed by the instant change in internet lockdown across the border, but we were soon schooled by one of our hosts that each person is responsible for all traffic that goes over their network, so people keep things locked down. If you are looking for free wifi in Germany, your best bet is McDonalds and Burger King.
Next up was Potsdam and then Berlin and you can read more about these adventures in Germany in the next blog post – HERE!
For more photos of our time in Germany click HERE
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