ELBE / RHINE / MAINE
GERMAN RIVERS
CYCLE TOUR AUGUST 2021
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RUTA DE LA PLATA
SPAIN CYCLE TOUR
SEPTEMBER 2021
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DAY 1
31 JULY 2021
HAMBURG TO DAHLEM
70 MILES
Another summer, another bicycle tour. Even in Covid times. Germany, cycling some of the grand rivers - Elbe, Main, Rhine and maybe a bit of the Danube. I should this year have gone to the USA to do the last of the big rides that I have in my plans for the US - the Southern Tier Trans America route from Southern California across the deserts of Arizona and New Mexico and then through a thousand miles of Texas to some of the southern states and then on to Florida. But that will have to wait for a while now. ...READ MORE ...
DAY 2
1 AUGUST 2021
DAHLEM TO HAVELBURG
80 MILES
From my lovely Appleslounge guest house I made my way back to the Elbe and then headed south along the western bank, heading for Hitzacker and then on to Schnackenberg, where I crossed over on the ferry to the eastern bank. ....READ MORE...
DAY 3
2 AUGUST 2021
HAVELBURG TO MAGDEBURG
80 MILES
One of my correspondents has questioned my mileage. Now, I do wonder what autistic and anal individual would bother to do that, and I leave you to imagine. The only explanation that I can give to his scepticism (and yes, it is a he !) is that he has been putting a search in on Google maps for as the crow flies. My ride follows various river bends and up and down Dale (not that there are many Dales here, it is rather flat) of the Elberadweg route, and that, let me tell you, adds many miles to the route between start and finish points. If anything I probably underestimate the real mileage, because I spend quite a bit of time getting lost and having to backtrack etc. My map reading was never good. As they never ceased to tell me when I was at Cranwell. Did I bother then, and do I bother now ? So there ! This individual will be having piglets when I post about cycling the Main later on, because the mileage from Bayreuth to Frankfurt in a direct line will be half of what it will be following the various oxbow bends in the Main. As Father Deasy, my geography teacher, taught me all those years ago, when a river meanders in such a way it is a sign that it is an ancient river that has scoured out its path over thousands of years. ....READ MORE...
DAY 4
3 AUGUST 202`1
MAGDEBURG TO LUTHERSTADT WITTENBERG
70 MILES
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Havelburg to Magdeburg was, well, more Elbe and lots of flood defences and dykes, and lots of little villages. Now that I am definitely in deepest darkest old East Germany, it is noticeable how less developed and prosperous looking is this part of Germany, even after 30 years plus of reunification. Magdeburg was a bit scruffy. Another thing I’ve noticed is that people of a certain age and generation in this bit of Germany, probably 50 and above, do not have any English whereas anybody younger speaks very good English. I guess the 50 and above crowd were taught Russian at school. Also, the older generation are more brusque and rude, especially those in shops. You can imagine how brusque and rude they must be, coming from someone like me who does a good line in brusque and rude ! Or so I’m told ! I kept coming across another cyclist as I cycled along - we’d run in to each other at ferry places across the Elbe - and he told me that the present day Germans of the old east are not a happy bunch and feel very much second class citizens, looked down upon by their western brothers / sisters. I guess it will take a few generations to fully ‘level up’, to use the Boris phrase. I do wonder if that is why Yorkshire people are so direct, aka brusque and rude ? I think I prefer Germany further west and south. More settled, more comfortable, more prosperous, and a bit more at ease with themselves. ...READ MORE...
DAY 5
4 AUGUST 2021
LUTHERSTADT WITTENBERG TO RIESA ELBLAND
75 MILES
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Another day of cycling along the Elbe and crossing back and forth by little river ferries from one bank to the other as either the route or the whim took me. Tonight I’m in Reisa Elbland, some 40 miles or so north of Dresden, staying in a very nice Mercure Hotel. I’m beginning to wonder if I’m gravitating towards a little more luxury on my travels, although I will be rudely brought back to earth tomorrow night when I stay in a T3 Budget Hotel in Zwickau ! ...READ MORE...
DAY 6
5 AUGUST 2021
RIESA ELBLAND TO ZWICKAU
75 MILES
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I left the Elbe and headed west this morning which meant some climbing out of the Elbe Valley over some hills and eventually getting to the River Mulde. Two sharp thunderstorms delayed me, and it took longer to get here than I imagined. However, my budget T3 Motel people are very friendly and had somewhere safe for my bike, had beers for sale, and phoned the local pizza takeaway for home delivery pizza for me. Something I would not ever dream of at home. I make my own sourdough pizza, of course !. But very welcome at the end of a long day. ...READ MORE...
DAY 7 & 8
6 & 7 AUGUST 2021
ZWICKAU TO MUNCHBERG 80 MILES
MUNCHBERG TO BAMBERG 60 MILES
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Day 7, Friday,I was moving further west and in to annoyingly undulating up and down territory, which might look pretty, but is frustrating when you are on a bicycle. No sooner do you go up a hill and make some height than you come down, only then to have to go back up again and then down again. It is pretty countryside, but it is hard work. So, it was a long and tiring day, and I was happy to get to my guest house in Munchberg. At some stage in the mid-afternoon I passed over the old East-West border, from Saxony in to Bavaria, the Franken bit of Bavaria. I did notice the difference in road quality, the houses, the cut of the place, and it is definitely more developed and refined on the western side. I think one of the things I have realised on this trip is that, even though it has come on leaps and bounds in the last 30 years or so since reunification, the old East still has some way to go. ...READ MORE....
DAY 9 & 10 & 11
8 - 10 AUGUST 2021
BAMBERG TO WURZBURG 70 MILES
WURZBURG TO WERTHEIM AM MAIN 70 MILES
WERTHEIM AM MAIN TO FRANKFURT 80 MILES
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The last three days have been cycling along the peaceful River Main, through typically Teutonic and ordered villages and towns, along the flat valley of the Main with high escarpments and terraced vineyards of Franken wine on either side. Along the river chug absolutely massively long canal barges bringing God knows what to where. ...READ MORE...
DAY 12 & 13 & 14 & 15 & 16
11 - 15 AUGUST 2021
FRANKFURT / SAARLAND / MOSEL
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I had a night by myself in Frankfurt before David arrived, time to get some laundry done in the Washerei / Laundromat opposite my Ibis Styles hotel. I realised I’d stayed here last year 2020, and the receptionist Marvin remembered me and my bike, and was very helpful in finding somewhere to store the bike securely. Because I was gong out of town for a few days I had to find somewhere else for a few days when I left the hotel, so I used a secure locker out at one of the suburban stations to lock it up and leave it. I did the same last year in Dusseldorf. I wouldn’t leave it anywhere near the Hauptbahnhof with so any dodgy and feral people about. Such are mainline stations in cities. Birmingham included. ... READ MORE ...
DAY 17 & 18
16 - 17 AUGUST 2021
FRANKFURT TO BINGEN AM RHEIN - 80 MILES
BINGEN AM RHEIN TO BAD HONNEF - 75 MILES
Tuesday 17th, David headed off to the airport for the hassle of check in and Covid documentation, and the flight home. I reclaimed my bike which had been kept safe and secure in its metal container, and started off along the Main westwards to join the Rhine and then to head north. The confluence of two huge rivers such as the Main and the Rhine at Mainz is disappointing. It’s just two huge but gentle rivers meeting, no big swirl or anything like that. ...READ MORE...
DAY 19 & 20 & 21
18 - 20 AUGUST 2021
BAD HONNEF TO AACHEN - 70 MILES
AACHEN TO LOUVAIN/LEUVEN - 70 MILES
LOUVAIN/LEUVEN TO BRUGES - 85 MILES
Bad Honnef was a pleasant and civilised place, and after leaving it I was back on to the Rhine heading up towards Bonn, the former capital of West Germany. The Rhine is still beautiful, but as you got further north you see quit a bit of industry along its banks. If you go further north it gets even more industrial around Dusseldorf. I was due to turn off the Rhine between Bonn and Cologne and start to head inland towards Aachen as I tacked northwestward towards Belgium and the Channel ports. I started to become aware of signs of the flooding that had occurred in July, along the Rhine itself but without too much signs of damage, I guess because they have the necessary measures and defences to limit damage. However, other places had evidently been taken by surprise by the flooding and there were road closures because of downed bridges and crossings, and signs of debris and detritus all over the place. ...READ MORE...
DAY 22
21 AUGUST 2021
BRUGES TO GRAVELINES / DUNKIRK
60 MILES
Sunday 22 was to be the final day, getting myself from Bruges the 50 odd miles to Dunkirk, only hampered by the wind in my face and some warm rain showers. The landscape was flat and for most of the time I was cycling along one of the many canals around here. The only excitement of the day was trying to find the DFDS Ferry terminal in Dunkirk, but it isn’t in Dunkirk, more like in Gravelines about 10 miles west of Dunkirk. Then, because of the long line of people checking in and having problems with the various forms they had to present - recent Covid test, passenger locator form, proof of double vaccination, evidence of day 2 post arrival test arranged etc. etc, I wasn’t able to get on the 6 pm ferry and have had to wait for the 8 pm, which with gaining an hour crossing to the UK will bring me in to Dover for 9 pm and then a late train up to London to fall in to bed after a long day. ... READ MORE....