What a sunny day! Still too cool for T-Shirt only, but I caught the sun on my forehead.
For breakfast I had some of the honey we were given as a present in Hanover – well, it needs eating and gives energy.
As Bad Gandersheim is not directly on the Leine I took a slightly hillier route to Northeim. It was good to see I haven‘t lost too much of my fitness since last year. In Northeim I had second breakfast at a bakery and listened to the conversations of the locals, always interesting.
From there I followed the Leine again to Friedland. I did not go into Göttingen, as I was enjoying the fairly car-less environment too much. In Friedland there is a large monument for the men that came back after having been prisoners of war in Russia.
Here I left the Leine to join the Werra, but made the ‚mistake‘ of not following the route I had planned, but a direction sign for cyclists. Ah well, I saw more of the countryside… and also had a break in a very nice place along the Deutsche Wurststraße. Talking to somebody at my table they were going to have a big medieval dinner there that evening, but talking to the landlord it was a witches event (Walpurgisnacht). Wonder how he fared.
The Werra is beautiful to cycle along! But for the first time I rang ahead for accommodation. If I could not have had a room in Kleinvach I would have had to stay in Bad Sooden, as then there was nothing for a while. Here my bike is stored in the butchery, probably the strangest (and cleanest) place yet.
So in the end I cycled my first century this year, including over 800m of climbing.
Did you manage to get your bike out this morning?
Of course, the pigs looked after it well. There would have been an almighty noise, if anybody had gotten near it.