Potsdam rest day

 Ride details

Decided we needed to stay a night in a hotel in Potsdam so we did a ride into town, verified we had a room in a large house that has been converted into a very nice hotel. We are on the fourth floor with a shared bathroom . We left our bags since it was too early to checkin and did a ride around the city, found a bike shop to pump tires and a grocery store. REWE is pretty big and sells some products I can eat.



Good traveling food to spread on bread or crackers.
Has started raining so we came inside to do some refining to our bicycling plans. Cozy comfortable afternoon. I'm enjoying this vacation and with this afternoon's time for thinking...home comes to mind. David is riding to the beach today. Good wishes.

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Day 9: Potsdam

54.3 km
Berlin is full because of the holiday. So we walked around in morning and had to checkout by noon. Thursday was a national holiday so lots of people make it a four day weekend. No place to stay in Berlin, so we rode on.



Ride details

Continued riding to Potsdam Warm Showers host in a small village on the edge of Potsdam. Anne and Thomas have two young children and a busy household. They were generous to let us stay, at so short notice.


We ate out in the village nearby.  Really appreciated the no-alcohol beer.

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Berlin

Rode to train station in the village of Bad Wilsnack on unpaved sand road that bisected a forest that looked like a tree reforestation project. Tough going, even for my wide tired bike. Wish I had a picture to share, since it was a memorable experience.
Ride? details.

Train to Berlin to a Warm Shower host who wasn't home because she forgot we were coming.

So we got a hotel adjacent to Tier Park.
So can't say this was our best day, but still interesting. Berlin looks very live able.




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Day 8: Kleinow

84 km  Ride details

Breakfast was not until 8 and the ferry at 9, so we had to start later than we preferred but we still arrived earlier than expected. Wind at our backs and flat road without the hills at the end that we had expected. My Garmin worked great getting us to our Warm Shower hosts in Kleinow. A small village. Paul and his Japanese wife, Mihoko work at a nearby dairy farm. Their home is a 200 year old farm house in the midst of a 10 year remodel. They do bits and pieces as they can.  Sounds like home to me.
It's beautiful inside.
I was fighting a cold, so I didn't socialize much.  We had a great outside meal, then to bed.  Mary visited the dairy farm where they work nearby.









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Day 7: Hitzacker

68.9 km    Ride details

I sure prefer flat on a loaded bike. The end of our ride had rollers from 4-8.5% up and one 13% down. Very hard on a loaded bike.



Hitzacker is a small village with old buildings making it a popular stop along the Elbe for tourists. Lots of places to stay. Ours is a clean, cute old building with new interiors.
We are hoping for cooler weather tomorrow, since 30 C. Was a little too hot.


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Day 6: Barum

58 km  Ride details

Spent the morning getting a German SIM card for my phone, visiting a pharmacy and a grocery store called Veganz. So now I can use Google for routing, have ibuprofen for Achilles tendinitis and some snacks I can eat with abandon.

This was supposed to be a short trip do we could have fewer miles the next two days, but a couple of wrong turns added more miles than we expected.

We arrived to a dinner of spaghetti and homemade sauce and salad with a homemade dressing. Fun to talk to all these Warm Showers hosts. Suzanne and Christian were beyond generous.


I'm learning so much about the lives of people Germany.

Suzanne is a talented quilter.


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Rest day: Hamburg

We needed a day of rest so we rode a train to Hamburg.
This is where one branch of my family ancestors boarded a ship to come to America in 1876.
The train system with support for bicycles is exactly as I had read about. Easy on and off and cost only €4,5. (about $5.) for a bike. Modern, clean, comfortable and fast.





It's a bit odd we are seeing people that look just like us yet are speaking German...

Life so far

Dutch and German homes have doors closing off each room and narrow spiral stairs. No central heating. Wood or gas stoves. Most don't have clothes dryers. They all have handy folding racks to dry clothes overnight inside or outside on a no rain day.

We stop at grocery stores along the way. We get fruit and veggies that travel well. Lots of cheese and bread to be found. Occasionally hummus. Mary likes candy that I've been helping her eat. I miss Lara bars. Haven't seen any Kale.
Salads are rare.

Foliage is much like Oregon.
We rode on Alpenrosestrasse (Alpenrose Street). There were lots of Rhodedrendrons. Maybe it means alpine rose?

People dress the same as we do. Lots of jeans. Skinny jeans.

Mary's blog is:
http://nonnainbici.blogspot.com

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Day 5: Bremerhaven

115 km   Ride details.

Arrived at our warm showers host in Bemerhaven tired and dirty. Manuela and her Dutch boyfriend Jong welcomed us with food and showers, and a chance to wash clothes.
Our final few kilometers included a ferry.



Sprinkles and threats of rain, but missed the worst, a downpour while we had dinner.

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Day 4: Bakemoor, Germany

89.8 km  Ride details

Good-bye Holland, hello Germany.

A lovely 1909 cottage owned by two teachers. We had tea, a warm bed and breakfast. We had so much to talk about we stayed up till after 10. Ziggy rode the first 5 km with us to get us going. He did some drafting with Mary, they call it "wind shadow". . I'm a bit exhausted after lots of riding, not enough sleep.


Sylvia and Ziggy

So fun to stay with people and learn about their lives.

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Day 3-Groningen

90 km. Ride details.

Made a couple of bicycle shop stops, kick stand, water bottle and small front bag. Mechanics kindly installed and adjusted my front derailer.
No rain. Partly cloudy.



I have my buff and a great lightweight warm jacket (gift from David) to put on when it is cool. Mary is warmer than I am...I get cold, even with the wind at our back, which it luckily was.
We went through the town of Leeswarden, very picturesque.


Our warm Showers host was Liv a student at the large university. 50,000 students and 1/4th the cities population. She and her flat mate "Romeo" (Romke) shared their couch,  mattress, and a very tasty dinner.



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