Day 13: Did you know it rains in clouds? July 13 Philippsthal to Fladungen 38 miles After a pretty sparse breakfast, we followed an older couple also staying at our hotel towards Fladungen.We followed alongside railway lines past industrial plant (nice and flat). We found our way into horse country at Pferdsdorf (pferd means horse in German). There were lots of little picnic tables along the Ulster river as we followed the Ulstertal Radweg for a while I nto Geisa and a Netto market stop. Somehow we missed the turn for Point Alpha as distance suddenly increased when we got into town. Because we missed the turn off, we hard to walk up a massive hill up to Point Alpha where U.S. Troops faced off against GDR forces at the westernmost point of the Warsaw Pact. We toured the excellent museum on the Thuringian (East) side but they make you pay again on the Hesse (West) to see the US army base and observation tower... So we didn't go to the American side... Although there was more English being spoken over there which was so weird to hear after most two weeks of Herman all the time. We flew downhill back down from where we had just pushed up an hour ago back into Geisa. We had intended going up into the old center of town but we just couldn't handle another UP after Point Alpha... We then set out along the Ulster river through Schleid, Motzlar, Gunthers and into Tann. As the clouds started to drizzle we stopped at a cafe which turned out to be both a coffee shop and a handicapped art gallery. We had a nice conversation with the owner/artist/therapist and then off we went hoping the rain would hold off for another couple of hours. On towards Hillers where we stopped at a grocery store and second cafe for the day due to rain for an hour or so. Bruce got a wonderful treat from Andrea of Himbeer cake and coffee. We waited until the band of rain passed. As the final drizzles dried we headed out to get up the last hill of the day... Here is where the rest of the day happens... We hit a Massive great hill out of Hillers to the border on the ridge line. This hill just KEPT GOING UP! So much so that we actually cycled up into the clouds. This should be romantic right? Cycling into the clouds together... Well... We thought it had stopped raining... But did you know it rains in clouds? So, yeah, it started raining again. Even though the hill was very long and arduous it WAS better than the prescribed bike route that went up the same elevation in about half the distance and a muddy gravel path. Cycling in the mist and fog can be dangerous so we put in our tail lights, we put on our head lights and Andrea even put on her head torch to make us visible. We pushed and pedaled up that damn hill about 100 meters at a time until we reached the top and the boarder again. It was hard but we did it! We did it together! So it was kinda romantic ... In a way... We had a slight downhill into Frankenheim and we thought we might stop there if we could find a place to stay. Even though there were signs for a hotel and people gave us directions we failed to find it. We were soaked, it was still raining, and we just said screw it... We can push on to Fladungen where we knew there would be a hotel. Onto Fladungen, which was a massive drop in elevation through the villages of Leubach and Oberfladungen. Holy Moly! If you think pushing up a hill in the rain is hard, whizzing downhill in the rain is terrifying and exhilarating! Wow! It was insane! You just hold on, laugh histerically, and hope you can keep you balance and your breaks the whole way down. We found a guest house right off the bat in the centre of Fladungen and quickly started drying everything. I mean EVERYTHING! All of our panniers were perfectly dry except one of Bruce's which leaked a little due to a small wear hole :(. After HOT showers, we went downstairs into the Gaststatte which is the pub type area of the establishment. We had a hearty dinner of Schnitzel and beer and goulash soup. There is no internet at all in this town which will make posting this tricky. We think we need to take a rest day tomorrow to dry off and it is supposed to rain tomorrow again. We worked so hard today. We earned every mile. The World is Ours! Day 12: Another Successful Day! July 12 Probsteizella to Philippsthal - 44 miles Breakfast at the guest house next to the campsite was at 8am so we tried to get packed as much as possible prior to then. We had laundry up on the line and a tent to pack away. The laundry was still a little damp in places so we left that and groundsheet from below the tent hanging until after breakfast. They put out a good buffet for breakfast with lots of german cold cuts and coffee. We smuggled out a little liver pate for the cute yard kitties, that then promptly tried to bite Bruce's finger off thinking it was a sausage. After finishing up packing and break tweaking we started cycling at about 9:15am. We continued cycling along the Werra cycling trail which was sometimes on an old railway bed other times on dirt paths, pretty though. The path surfaces varied a lot today which is surprising as this is such a well used route by the locals and light touring cyclists. Sometimes the path is dirt single track with no signage other times the asphalt is pristine and the signage is top notch. This variety would be nice on a day trip but gets trying when you are trying to pick up some momentum. We passed through Spichra, Horschel before crossing from Thuringia back into Hesse and into the town of Herleshausen. Then downhill cross the Werra and a rebuilt bridge into eastern town of Lauchröden. There was a nice exhibit of pre and post border opening pictures. We took a bit of a break and admired. We made our own detour from Neustadt into Gerstungen as prescribed trail was dirt, longer and went up into the hills... Not gonna happen. Coming into Philliphstal, we see these huge flat topped white and grey mountains! These are actually man made, massive salt waste piles from potash mines. They are enormous, with huge machinery on top bringing more and more to the pile. While cycling along, we like to come up with amusing anglicized names for the german towns we can't pronounce such as "Dank marshmallow" for Dankmarshhausen. It is amusing and keeps us thinking while we pedal along. Andrea is pilfering cherries again.... since apples are not ripe yet... Getting there... We got a little lost in Heringen. Half way up a pretty steep residents only street an old local man who spoke English helped us and told us there was an open ice cream cafe 100m up the hill... What a nice guy! We made it to the top of the hill and to the icecream shop. A maxieiskaffee and maxieisschoko were ordered and devoured promptly. At the cafe we met up with Otto again who we last saw several days ago on the Elbe River. We chatted to him for a bit and we cycled together for the last few kms into Philippsthal. He was heading further on so crossed the bridge. We found a hotel just off our route and checked in. Then we rode the bikes unladen down to Vacha which was in the east. We saw the Unity Bridge built in 1342 which the GDR used as part of the border fortifications. Also the divided house which was partly in West Germany and partly in East Germany. The GDR part was bricked up for decades. It felt really strange and wobbly to ride unladen. Especially uphill over cobbles... Who knew you can actually pick up speed up hill? Then back to hotel for showers and dinner. The daughter of the owner spent a year in Vancouver so we chatted with her for a while until she got told off by her mom! Another successful day. The World is Ours! Day 11: Cute kitties, New born horses, and Cows crossing the Road! July 11 Arenshausen to Probsteizella - 45 miles Breakfast was fabulous today. Our hostess was excellent and laid on a fantastic spread! We felt like honored guests which really set us up well for the day. We were well fed and in great spirits we left Arenshausen. Right into an uphill out of the town unfortunately. The first 5 miles of the day were rolling, which is hard on freshly woken up legs... Then we hit a serious downhill over the former border and down to the River Werra valley. We picked up some speed and a few bugs on our sunglasses. Following the river we started passing a schloss (castle) on every other hilltop. All you see is little spires jutting up through the dense green tree tops. It is fun to imagine the different people who built them since every castle us different. As we can up from the river we passed a horse pasture, like we always do but in this one we saw a baby foal lying on the ground near a tree and a larger horse, obviously mom, near by eating... We knew it was a new born because it was so skinny and little but we thought it was maybe two or three days old, until the momma horse came over to check us out and we saw the after birth still coming out of her... Well...behind... So this baby had JUST been born!! It hadn't even taken its first steps! It didn't even quite have control over its head and neck yet. We were just amazed! So beautiful and cute and kind of gross but totally adorable! The remainder of the day was mostly spent on a lovely bike path next to the river Werra. We stopped in the beautiful town centre in Allendorf. Again, old buildings and a fountain. Andrea went grocery shopping in anticipation of tomorrow being Sunday and all the stores being closed. Outside of town we got a little turned around in Eschwege and then had an Eiscafe in Schwebda to make us feel better. We headed towards the town of Frieda (not quite Freda like Bruce's mom but close enough). The roadworks in Frieda were a little disorientating as they had built a new bypass that wasn't on the maps but it looked like a beautiful little town with cobble stone roads and houses with rose gardens. We headed back into more wooded county outside of Frieda into a sweet downhill when we were met by a heard of milk cows crossing the road... What are we in Romania?!? The farmers were laughing at us as we gawked and took photos. What do you want? We're tourists!!! Next, we passed through the town of Altenburschla that had celebrated its 1200th anniversary. Some of these towns have been around for centuries!!! We saw a regular house built in 1766, that house is older than the USA! Crazy... In the small square we saw the tell tale signs of a local gathering which turned out to be a performance of the local women's choir. We listened to them sing at a Biergarten there and continued down the path to a campground under the cliffs in Probsteizella. At the campground there was a lovely but very busy guest house and restaurant where we had to register. We found a very helpful waitress who spoke some English and had the patience of a saint to help us check in, get a Radler, and figure out the laundry card system so we could use the washing machine. There were some adorable kittens hanging around the guesthouse and restaurant that Brucie got to play with before we did a load of laundry, set up camp, and made dinner. Now we are just sitting in our awesome chairs, playing the Ukulele in the setting sun and choosing which photos to put up for this blog... We have just a few if you couldn't guess... The World is Ours! Day 10: Three Guest Houses and Hawaii Schnitzel Walkenried to Arenshausen 45miles Woke up at campground... This campground was not like other camp grounds... I mean, we still had a small site on grass with trees around but the bathrooms where a-whole-nother story...First, we think it is a thing that in Germany one must shower listening to Euro pop from the 80's and '90s in the mornings... Next, the ladies' shower had a three tiered bubbling fountain and a hair drying station with 3x and 10x mirrors... It looked like a Health club... We could have gone swimming in the indoor pool arena but we had to head off to make the most of our day. We made breakfast of scrambled eggs and peppers after sleeping late (yes, 8am is late now). We encountered many rolling hills, some were quite steep! We got passed by a spandex-clad father and son duo... Twice... At midday we took a break after a pretty awesome downhill in an old city called Duderstadt. The city center was a beautiful old down town with vibrantly painted wood/timber framed houses and buildings two or three stories tall. We had a warme schokolade mit sahne (hot chocolate with whipped cream) because it was a bit on the chilly side and we needed the sun and a warm drink to get us ready for the second half of the day. We have noticed that some German driving habits are strange to us. We love that they treat cyclists just like any other small vehicle and give room when passing or turning corners...but... We have also noticed that some German drivers do not want to let us cross the street at a non-crosswalk area... We think it is because we don't have right of way. But one guy almost hit the car in front of him trying to push is off the road/not let us cross in front of him. We have encountered this a few times before so we are starting to see a trend but hey, what can you do? They have more bike infrastructure than anywhere else we have been! Trying to get a room today was a bit tough... First we went to a guest house that was completely full with just one family... Andrea actually walked in on their family dinner which was a bit awkward but one of the younger family members directed us to the next guest house down the road. With a thank you we headed off for attempt number two... Next we tried the Relaxing Frog guest house but this one was for "eating not for sleeping". The owners tried to help us find a camping platz down the way, but that was the wrong way off our route and UP hill.. So again we left with a thank you and off we went down a sweet little bike path we saw towards Arenshausen. When we reached Arenshausen, we asked a guy sitting on his porch if there was a guest house in town. Turns out he was actually a guest of the guest house we were standing in front of... Again no signage... A very excited blond woman popped out of a hidden door and ushered us into a lovely room in the building next door. So now we think we are staying in a boarding house but it is clean although super IKEA and decked out in Americana. We are having dinner on terrace in small pub, which is also a guest house that is only for "eating no sleeping". We seem to be the only diners. Andrea had hawaii schnitzel!!! Mit beer! The World is Ours! Day 9: And then we went up... July 9 Ilsenburg to Walkenried 30 miles Today was Hard!!!! We gained over 1200 feet in first 4 miles of the day. Holy Moly! We had to walk the bikes at points but we just took lots of breaks as we climbed and climbed and climbed. Today was cool, so cool we needed jackets and long pants. The temperature made the climbs bearable, but only just. The beautiful scenery up in the Harz mountains also helped the long haul up into the mountains. Deciduous trees gave way to spruce and conifer as we gained elevation. Super pink hollyhocks were stunning in the high meadows. We also were expecting a regular town bus route going right up into forest... Literally we could have taken the bus up our route...weird...Then like an oasis, a cafe appeared high in the mountains. We had a coffee at a national park visitor centre on the way back down one of the few climbs of the day. We went through Drei Annen Hohne which we passed through on the train yesterday and then continued down to Elend, then of course had to climb back out of town before dropping down towards Sorge. On the way out of Elend, we saw a caravan being towed by a vintage tractor....Top Gear's ultimate nightmare!!! Turns out they were at our campground when we arrived... Too funny...From Sorge, the bike route climbs up ( and up) again along the old patrol road. We had to pass on this route, so we took the old road along side a beautiful stream and what felt like a primeval forest... Good choice! But The trail still went up but more gently than before. Did you know that rail road crossings take forever in Germany? We literally saw a woman walk her dog whilst waiting for a train to pass. We reached the town of Hohegeiß which was JUST in west Germany then we hit a majorly long downhill through Zorge to Unterzorge. This downhill was about 5km long and steep!!! Andrea's hat blew back off her head ( thankfully caught by her big bun). After losing all 1200 feet of elevation, we caught a tailwind into Ellrich which had us coasting at 20 mph!!! Sweet. Spectacular last 10km to a tough tough day. Lucky it wasn't hot today and at times it was pretty chilly in the high meadows out of the sun. We found a campground on the outskirts of Walkenried, napped through the afternoon rain showers, walked to the grocery store, and made a wonderful dinner cooked on our stove, took showers and then to bed to rest for another day... Phew! The World is Ours! Day 8 - Rest day Yay a rest day! We had breakfast at 8am then took the train to Wernigerode where we connected to the narrow gauge, coal powered, steam train one way to the summit of the Brocken ( the highest mountain in the region and a former forbidden zone in East Germany). It is actually the 2nd highest mountain in GDR and right on the border so it was a military restricted area with all sorts of soviet gear.riding up on a steam train was so much fun! Chooo chooo!!! Andrea nearly got smoked out when she was trying to take pictures and we went into a tunnel. The train was working hard to get up the steep gradients... Chug-a-chug-a.... Finally we reached the top and above tree line. It was very chilly and cloudy. We were glad we bought our fleeces.we had a snack before setting off on foot down the other side towards Bad Harzburg. The path was very steep on an old convoy road for most of the descent. We crossed into west Germany at a dam over a reservoir and we continued walking to see the Lynx getting fed at an exhibit about reintroducing lynxes to the German forests. The Lynx were hunted to local extinction in 1818 but are now being reintroduced. They had five in a compound and we happened to be there at feeding time, which only happens twice a week!!! After that we took the local bus back into Bad Harzburg and then a couple of short train rides back to our hotel. We had a fancy Italian dinner at Da Toni restaurant that tasted like the North End in Boston... Because it was run by a little Italian man Ned Toni!! very tasty!! After a quick food shop at Lidl, we did a bit of bike maintenance and laundry to rap up the night. Fun day but not sure if it was restful! The World is Ours! Day 7: 2 Eiscafes makes a Good Day July 7,2015 Hotensleben to Ilsenburg 42 miles We woke up and got out pretty quickly this morning. Just down the hill from our guest house was the old border set up the way it was up until the 1980s. One of the signs was in English, which was nice. So we had breakfast at the border and off we went. Next we encountered a HUGE Open cast coal mine. Andrea kinda wants one of the diggers to play with back home. We saw a lot of countryside today, following patrol roads and cycle paths all the way to Hornberg. Hornberg is an old beautiful town with timber framed buildings and narrow cobbled streets. We had an eiscafe at one of the little cafes tucked in the corner of one of those buildings. It started getting hot and we had to now go uphill on those quaint cobble streets... At least we had a caffeine boost. The route had us take on a path through the woods a ways out of town which got us totally turned around for a bit ... I think we missed a turn somewhere because we were distracted by the faces carved into he trees all along this path... so we had to take a longer way around to get back to our route. We took a break under the trees in Aberrode with our awesome packable chairs and ate some lunch. With about 4km left for the day we headed into a forest. Right on he edge of the trees there was a cafe. As we walked into the open air patio, we met some german backpackers who wanted us to sit with them. We all had ice cream together (we had another eiscafe) and chatted for a bit. Then we were off again to finish our day. We made it up the hill through the woods in the beautiful Harz national park. Such tall pines and deep rich smells of cedar... It was stunning... The smell of the woods changed a bit as we got into a bit sunnier area and obviously the wild garlic was in bloom... Wow is that stuff potent! But garlic and all, we made it to Ilsenburg. We came in at the top of this town on a hill and found the tourist info all the way at the bottom in the old train station building. But the lady was very nice and she called to get us a room. We found a Chinese restaurant for dinner. Yum! And right next door was a drink store, a"Getranke Markt" which had Radler beers for 40 euro cents!! We are taking a rest day tomorrow yay!!! Sleep, laundry, tub! The World is Ours! Day 6: July 6,2015 Brome to Hotensleben 50 miles German breakfast rocks! Hot hard boiled egg in a cute little metal holder and tiny spoon, salami and cheese and various other cold cuts, cucumbers, tomatoes, yogurt, cereal, coffee, juice, and various types of home made bread. We ate and paid for our beers from last night ( 1 euro a piece!!). We said good bye to our friends and the inn keepers and headed off to stock up for the day at the Rewe supermarket. It was nice. And off we went. We cycled down to Zickerie and Bockwitz which were almost one village until the border split them in half. Our trail took us to the border in the woods near these two towns where we met up with Philip and Berndt again and they explained all about the fortifications because Berndt had been an East German border guard in the 1970s. Wow! He told us all about the rotations of the guards and types of fences. He explained, through his son, all about what it was like for him patrolling up and down the border for hours. He luckily never had to fire a shot but his experience was powerful. We are so lucky to have met these two guys. We learned stuff that we would have never known otherwise from them. After our illuminating tour we traveled along following behind Philip ad his dad who travel much faster than us. We all ended up taking the wrong path down a farm track that wasn't even a farm track, past beehives and over some serious bumps. As we came up on Philip and Berndt stopped we realized there was a problem... A 6 foot ditch with a stream and a 6 inch board across it for a bridge... Phillip and Berndt helped us cross the ditch with our super heavy bikes after they had already gotten theirs across!!! Twice in one day they helped us without being asked!!! Then we traveled together down a slightly better path until we reached a series of downed trees from the storm last night... And I am talking about huge 50 year old beech trees. We all maneuvered around, under and through until we were back on track... Literally... Another farm track... After a pit stop, some bananas and nuts we all went our separate ways. We wish those guys the best with their tour! The rest of the day was also interesting... We got lost in Oebisfelde as the temperature started to climb... This is where we have to give a shout out to Joany, Andrea's mom, and her obsession with buying As Seen On TV stuff... Because one of her "gifts" actually worked!!! Joany bought us Enduracool towels that are neck scarves that are supposed to get cold if you wet them, snap them and put them on... And damn it they WORK!!! Thank you Joany!!! A way to stay cool in the sweltering sun! We got lost again in the woods between Beendorf and Marionborn because the signage in the woods was non existent! But we found our way ( of course because Brucie is never truly lost...) on a communist concrete Kolonnenweg road that shook us all the way to our fillings! When we got out of the woods we saw a Trabant (old East German car)on a stick about 20 feet in the air in front of an auto shop and 6 wheeled overlander for sale... Andrea wants the overlander if the Bus ever cuts out. We picked sun ripened cherries in the side of the road (fun)on our way into our final town, right before a major downhill on cobblestones(not fun)...But we finally made it to Hotensleben and after much pointing and garbling Germanish we found our guest house for the night... but no one was home... Then about 30 minutes of doorbell ringing and calling the phone number a man came out who used Google Translate to tell us that the Hostess will return at 18:00... It was 17:00(5pm)... The time it said to arrive on the website... After some waiting a car pulled up with a lady who we thought was the hostess... She was actually a very nice neighbor who we pretty much accosted with questions about a "zimmer frei"(free room). Once we realized our. mistake embarrassment ensued, but the neighbor called so we could have a room. Then we found out there are no restaurants in town so after settling into our room we walked to the Netto market for dinner. Turns out we made a lovely dinner on back patio of guest house of sausages and peppers with all sorts of goodies from the market like "kartoffel salat" (potato salad) and pickles. We finally passed out and slept well in our two twin beds... What a day... The World is Ours. |
Where in the World
are Bruce and Andrea oUR pLANNED rOUTE
Click on the map to see an enlarged picture of our route.
Archives
August 2015
Categories |