The morning felt very autumnal for the first time, I was even wearing my cardigan in the morning. This was the last night camping with Elsa, the goal for the day was Braunschweig station, so Elsa could take a train back home, and I could pick up Phil to spend the weekend with him in … Read more
Today was the day of poor, and therefore tiring, bike path/road surfaces. It started with a very badly tarmacked path through the first moor of the day and ended with a cobblestone road leading up to the campsite. We followed the greater part of the ‘Nordhannoveranische Moorroute ‘ to learn more about this very important … Read more
Slept really well in the private garden, had eaten all our non-cooking food in the evening, though, so had breakfast st a bakery in the village. The route to the Steinhuder Meer took us through Loccum with its apparently famous monastery. As Elsa still takes a lot of pictures, our progress is comparatively slow – … Read more
Adventurous day, although it started grey (weather) and slowly with breakfast on the campsite. The first few km were also still uneventful, if undulating. Then we found the river Werre and followed that until it flowed into the Weser. Going through Porta Westfalica was great, especially the view once we were through, looking back. Shortly … Read more
Picked up Elsa at the station and cycled off to Oerlinghausen to see her aunt. Quite a climb, but we managed. The last time I saw Elsa’s aunt was 39 years ago, when we two 14-year olds cycled from Holland via Hamm to Oerlinghausen and stayed with her. It was a bit of a surprise … Read more
Said goodbye to all the family and left earlier than expected, at 10:00. The route leaving Hamm was still very familiar, after a while even the names of places became less and less well known. For my first break I had bought plums at a farm, my second break was in the gardens of a … Read more
Got off to an early start and therefore had to pack up the tent wet again. Cycled through the school traffic in Lüdinghausen, holidays are definitely over here. Got myself some vitamin juice and a croissant on the way and looked out for a good breakfast spot – I think I found the perfect view: … Read more
Somehow I only realised I was in the Münsterland when I was already there – so I changed my plans for the route. Not the shortest, but partially along the 100-Schloesser-Route. Managed to see quite a few of the castles. Cycling was great on little by-roads and Fahrradstraßen, I hardly noticed the height gain of … Read more
It was really quite hot again today, I took my time with everything. The border was quite close to Nieuw Amsterdam, and very noticeable – the bike paths, especially in villages and towns, are much worse in Germany than in the Netherlands. For every driveway it goes down and up, the kerbs are not very … Read more
Next weekend there are big celebrations in Groningen for ‚Gronings ontzet‘ 350 years ago, so I learnt the citizens of Groningen defended themselves successfully against a ten-times bigger army sent out by Bommen Bernd, the archbishop of Münster. What better place to head to than the direction of Münster. Getting out of the city was … Read more