Lower Saxony
26th August, 2022. Bad Nieuweschans - Westerstede. 64.5 km
Back on the road. I'd been to the coop for some cash from the ATM and retrieved the bikes from unlit storage, by feel, by ten o'clock: something of a record for me. We did have to knock on the restaurant door to return the key (it didn't fit through the letter box), rousing the landlord who bid us farewell in his dressing gown.
It was an overcast, warm, muggy day with gloomy light. The border crossing into Germany was unremarkable. In fact, we had no idea where the border was but assumed that, after a few kilometres, we were now in Germany. And, even in Germany, there were windmills.
The countryside was not very exciting although better light might have improved it; flat, green fields with a few dairy cattle. After a couple of hours, we stopped for some lunch in Leer. Munching bread and cheese, overlooking the Ems (?) river, we felt pretty content.
We were following a route directly to Hamburg and didn't expect it to be particularly pretty but, during the afternoon, it improved. And continued to do so. We followed the river for a while; it was slow moving and I couldn't tell which way it was flowing. But the river, across the protective dyke, was on our right. And appeared to be higher than we were on the road. There was no traffic at all on the river. In the grassy fields to our left, we occasionally saw black-and-white storks; white on the front two-thirds of their bodies, black for the rear third. Unfortunately, they kept their distance.
We were riding, for the most part, on quiet, narrow, smooth roads with only the occasional vehicle; more cycles than cars, as we weren't the only seniors out enjoying the afternoon. We may, however, have been the only seniors without e-bikes. There were also occasional roadies out for a burn and a couple of groups of about six teenage riders with touring gear.
Following the route to our hotel in Westerstede, we ended up at the town square, opposite a large church. The Hotel Busch was ideally located and quite classy. Quite a pleasant surprise. Our first experiences in Germany were positive.
With the exception of Bev's phone, which has refused to work as anything but a phone since we crossed the border. A message is informing her that she has no data roaming since she had data roaming turned off when entering the country. Turning it back on now doesn't help. Very strange. What happens when you fly into Germany and are, necessarily, in airplane mode?
27th August, 2022. Westerstede - Sandstedt. 51.2 km.
Even stranger, this morning Bev and I swapped sim cards to see if the problem was with the Bev's card or her phone. Expecting either Bev's phone to work on data with my sim card (indicating that the problem was with Bev's sim card) or not work (indicating that the problem was with Bev's phone) we were surprised, and confused, to find both phones working. Swapping the cards back, Bev's phone was again not able to use data.
Today was another enjoyable day. Interesting red brick farms. Areas of woodland with quite mature trees. More trees in general. And tree farms, too, with different species of trees, some ornamental. Where the roads were busy, there was usually a separate bike path. Mostly, though, quiet bands of smooth tarmac led us through the countryside.
At day's end, we caught a ferry across the River Weser and checked into the campground on the east bank.
28th August, 2022. Sandstedt - Bremervorde. 53.1 km.
It was nice to be back in the tent, the temperature was perfect but it was a restless night. A slow sluggish start after a minimal breakfast on a bench overlooking the Weser, whilst trying to decide which way the river was flowing. It seemed that it should have been flowing left to right, north to the sea, but that didn't look right. I found that there were tide tables for Bremen, further 'upstream,' so there was definitely tide where we were watching; presumably the river was flowing towards its source due to an incoming tide.
Weary legs from the start today, for me (Bev was fine!). And the terrain seemed to be more undulating than we were used to, although it was still flat by most standards. More wooded sections, through dark forest. Elsewhere, corn seemed to be the main crop but much looked to be too dry to worth harvesting, even for cattle feed. There are a lot of hurting farmers in Europe this year. Worldwide, more like. The times, they are a changin,' as someone with a guitar once growled.
An assessment of my new decade
So far, we have been very impressed with the routes picked out by cycle.travel. Of course, this may be a function of the countryside we're riding through, and cycling infrastructure, which although not up to Dutch standards, is still very good. We haven't played in the traffic much at all. Mainly on perfectly smooth surfaces with the occasional diversion onto gravel farm roads. We had just commented on the great route, and lovely if not spectacular surroundings, when we were directed on to some sandy double track that had me, for the first time, wishing for wider tyres. To add to the interest, it appeared that this section of the route was today being used for some horses and waggon competition. One stern-faced gentlemen (who seemed like one of the stricter members of the von Trapp family) seemed none too happy to find a laden cyclist approaching him on the trail; his whip came quite close to my face as we passed. There was advance warning of the second encounter and we had time to pull into an avenue into the parched corn.
And, then, the Elbe!
Waiting for the ferry across the river where, hopefully, accommodation awaited. Just a few miles from Hamburg but no rush to get into the city immediately. We will deal with the traffic and exploring bicycle shops until tomorrow!
A first crossing of the Elbe. Hamburg is a major port and often the sunlight would be blocked out by a massive container ship passing us.
