Geoff Jones

Cycling Day 8 on The Elbe – Tangermünde to Mödlich

Weather wise an amazing perfect biking day especially with the wind coming from the South when I’m travelling North!

Breakfast was an OK buffet so I was soon on my way to make a quick stop at Lidl and stock up on Rita chocolate and energy drink plus the obligatory banana. The first section was on quite a busy road but I was soon going around fields with the hedges smelling divine with wild roses, I couldn’t resist stopping at the beautiful inn in Buttnershof where they dealt me the most amazing Apple Strudel 🙂 I was going so well on the left bank I totally missed going over on the right bank to see Havelberg 🙁

The ride was reminding me of The Danube riding along the top of the flood banks with good views all around and at a good pace. I finally managed to cross over the huge railway bridge into Wittenberge once home to the Veritas/Singer sewing machine factory all now defunct of cause. I was going to stay in Wittenburg but it was still early (because I had ‘missed’ Havelburg. Also the place didn’t appeal to me; run down and I hate signs outside cafes that say don’t leave bikes on their wall.

So with the good wind and write up in the book, I decided to head for Lenzen. Lenzen turned into a disaster with the Wassermuhle Hotel derelict, Hotel Burg Lenzen allegedly full even though no cars or bikes parked there, TheHotel Scutzenhaus not condescending to open till 5pm apparently. 🙁 So I rang (Yes you can use the iPhone as a phone) the Hotel Alte Fischerkate in Mödlich, they had a room in their annexe so thats where I am now.

Still no 3G networks & the hotel WiFi is appallingly slow. The front tyre has had a slow puncture all day from the poor repair I did the other day but hopefully I’ve now repaired it again.

I managed 77.9 miles (although at least 5 of them was messing about in Lenzen today which you can see on Strava here a few pictures are here.

Lazy day in Tangermüde

The only biking today was pedalling around the corner to take it into the Gerike bike repair shop to get the front light re-fixed after my small accident, actually they put it on in a much better position, and also to see if they could reset the rear derailleur as it has started to move two gears at a time etc. Tomorrow will tell if they have succeeded! Although I’ve now downloaded the bike repair app as recommended by DC Rainmaker 🙂

It was a glorious warm sunny day so it made sight seeing very pleasurable, combined with the vast numbers of bakeries, ice cream cafes & pubs which made it into a big weight gain day. No wonder there are so many tubby folks around.

I discovered all the little bits sticking out in the river that so fascinate my sister back home. My only theory is that they narrow the river thus making it flow faster and maybe deepening the navigable channel but really I have no idea. Here is a picture of what she means, any theories welcome in the comments!. [my good friend Christopher found the answer in this paper “The effect of groynes on rivers”

In the evening I went for a massage at the Schloss hotel, bit pricey and I find it interesting that their order of doing the massage is the reverse of Sally’s whose I still very much prefer.

Tomorrow I continue down the Elbe – only about 400km to do now…

Some pictures of the day are here.

Day 7 on The Elbe cycleway Pretzien to Tangermüde

A much better start to the day with fine weather an OK breakfast and missing out one of the Elbe’s horseshoe bends finding myself on the outskirts of Magdeburg in just over 1 hour, so pretty pleased that I stopped in Pretzien last night.

I approached Magdeburg over the beautiful island park at Rotehorn on a perfect autumnal day cool sunshine with leaves blowing everywhere – and chatting to Sally over Facetime. O2 can only provide 3G coverage in major cities. Obviously Germany is a poor country that can’t afford the luxury of 3G in the country….

Magdeburg centre marks the halfway point on the Elbe River trail necessitating a change to Book 2 of the bikeline books, unfortunately it was deep in my packing 🙁 The centre is pleasant enough with an amazing gaudiesque building and lots of interesting sculptures dotted around including one for all the children murdered in the concentration camps.

Whilst pottering around the centre someone on a bike nearly crashed into me, I couldn’t unclip in time so down I fell, once again (after a similar experience on The Rhine in Dusseldorf) no one murmured a word or offered to help! Fortunately the iPhone stayed in its holder and the only damage done was my posh dynamo light bending its fixing 🙁 which needs fixing before I can ride at night. Wearing my heart rate monitor all day I got a bit of a surprise in the evening…

I left Magdeburg through its now defunct harbour with buildings awaiting conversion to luxury flats & museums. Further along I came to the truly amazing modern aqueduct carrying the canal from Berlin to the Rhine an incredibly vast structure that makes UK canals seem like toys.

The afternoon was very pleasant through small very sleepy villages with occasional magnificent views of The Elbe meandering in the valley below. I eventually arrived in the stunning walled town of Tangermunde and called it a day at the Hotel am Rathaus in the centre.

I did nearly 64 miles at a very sedate pace of under 10mph for the day.

The Strava for the day is here and the photographs are here

Day 6 The Elbe Cycleway Listerfehrda to Pretzien

After a much better sleep and my Snorelab snore score halved from the previous night I woke to a very grey day & heavy drizzle. My spirits were lifted by the magnificent buffet breakfast spread & excellent personal jug of coffee. I’ve found the Landgasthof Sonneneck a perfect small hotel, friendly & efficient and the traffic noise isn’t that bad as it stops in the night.

Five minutes after setting of I hit the first of many diversions most caused by works on flood defences, the cycleway is gradually getting further away from the river here! Just before Wittenberg I hit the Netto and stocked up on Ritter’s & fizzy juice drink. Wittenburg is very pleasant and would make a good place to stay (seemed popular with English tourists) the apfelstrudel was good too.

I eventually found the way on the left bank, although I suspect the right bank route has fewer diversions. I finally cracked, with Googles help out to get Gaia not to turn the screen of by going to Settings/General/auto lock and setting to Never. This makes it much easier to find the route especially with Gaia set to rotate the map so the direction of travel is always up on the screen with location auto centred. However, I then discovered that Strava had crashed hours ago 🙁

The two routes meet in Worlitz which caused me some confusion but eventually left through the massive gateway, this area is full of old huge estates.

Dessau was a bit of a surprise to me (OK I should be organised & read the guidebook) when I happened upon The Bauhaus (Walter Gropius also designed Impington Village College where my designer son did his sixth form art) – amazing how a plain box can be quite so elegant followed by the equally intriguing Fokker museum. I really should have stayed and spent some time here, but I pressed on.

The Aken ferry is a cool design too being anchored by a long rope in the centre of the fast flowing Elbe, by tugging the rope on each side a small amount the ferry can be made to swing to each side of the river, if the rope ever snaps I guess you would find yourself quickly in Hamburg :-). Crossing makes an interesting arc on the GPX file.

After the ferry you cycle through what seems endless pine forests, good training for Finnish biking I guess. It was getting late there was no internet on the phone to use booking.com. I was beginning to worry a little thinking it would be 8ish before I would arrive in Magdeburg. When I swung around a corner in Pretzien to find a very inviting Park Hotel. A welcoming place even if the internet is quite possibly slower than the old dial up.

I did over 74 miles today. The Strava route is here and more photos from the day here