Continued on the route of the Stästepartnerschaft, which turned out to be quite undulating, I climbed 750 m in the end. There was also definitely more headwind than I had before, but still dry, good weather. Went through little towns and villages all day, that all had interesting aspects and history.
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My highlight on the route was Marienborn, the former German/German border crossing on the motorway. The only time I had been there before was 1989, during my work placement in Braunschweig I went across to Berlin with a friend in his car, for me the whole experience was really frightening. This time I had the chance to look behind the scenes, very interesting!
As I have not seen any markets or farm shops since Sunday I had not bought any more food and went to a restaurant in Eilsleben for lunch (sitting outside of course). The only other guest was ‚Tommy‘, who was slowly getting sloshed on his beer and chaser. He told me quite a few interesting things about the area and himself, like he has never been to Western Germany, although he lives so close to the border.
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The Börde is named after the extremely fertile soils here, but all I could see was dust. The sweetcorn here has not grown as well as in many other parts I have cycled through, either. Some of the route had very poor paths as well, glad I have my blue bike!
The approach to Magdeburg was magnificent: I could see the minster from miles off! Unfortunately it was Monday, and I also saw the Monday protests of the ‚Querdenker‘, which are huge here.
I picked up my pin for having completed the bike ride and gotten all the stamps. As I had never been to Magdeburg before I decided to stay in the centre, so not on a campsite. I headed to the youth hostel, but unfortunately they did not have any bed left for me, neither the next hotel I went to. Then I got (extremely) lucky: the magnificent Hundertwasser-house here also contains a hotel, and I am staying there! Cool!
Cool hotel!