Not sure if that song (
I got no roots) is popular everywhere or just here, but I can't get it out of my head, especially when I'm riding my bike!
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| Bike Tour - day one, just outside of Dresden |
So, after the dreariness of the last post, I think I owe it to myself to be more cheery. And I am a bit cheerier so it shouldn't be too hard. We set off on June 5th, about ten days ago (which will be much more when I finally finish this post) on a trip along the Oder and Neisse rivers (the Oder-Neisse bike route) to the Baltic Coast. From the start, the river Oder provided me with oodles of nerdy word-fun with my limited German. The Oder is major river in Germany, and the word "oder" means "or" in English. It is also commonly used at the end of a sentence to convey the sentiment: "right?" or "what do you think?", or something like that. For example: That was a really good restaurant,
oder? (right?) Or, Maybe we should stop at the next camp site,
oder? (what do you think)? Anyway, goofy Judy had so much fun playing with my new language: "This restaurant has a great view of the Oder,
oder?" How about we cross to the other side of the Oder,
oder? AND, of course the traditional "or" meaning...."Which do you like better, the Oder
oder the Neisse?". Tee hee hee. Poor Matthias.
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| Swan swimming in the Oder. Nice, oder? |
We've had ten days of great weather, and the bike riding is fabulous. I find it incredibly awesome that we can leave our apartment in Dresden on our bikes and in about a week be on the Baltic sea. The bike route networks continue to amaze me. To get to the Oder-Neisse bike path from Dresden, I patched together a route from various local bike paths including the Saxon City Tour route, the Frog route (my fave) the Spree River route (it goes to Berlin....something for next time!) and the old coal mining route, which passes lots of lakes that used to be mines in the old East German days. With our E-bikes, GPS, Google maps, paper maps and some additional notes - finding the way to the next campsite is (relatively) easy. The additional notes have to do with how routes work here. In Germany (probably in all of Europe), they don't give directions or label streets with North, East, South, West; rather, you travel in the direction of the next major/small town. For example, you don't take the autobahn A12 "north" or "south", you take it toward "Berlin" or "Dresden". For smaller roads, you are always looking to the next town. So, my strategy when I don't have a detailed map (often) is to write down all the little villages we will pass on the way to our destination. That way, if I miss a sign and lose the way along the bike trail, I just follow the road to the next town on the list and find it again. Geek-out #2!
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| One of the signposts for the "frog" (and mining) route along with me doing a lousy imitation of the frog (click to enlarge and see what I mean). |
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| Riding along the Spree river |
And it's June in Northern Germany - so it's staying light until really late at night. I generally turn in around 10:30 and that's about when I can see the sunset. Then at about 4AM, it's light as day and the birds are screaming (I understand some consider it singing.) I don't know if I've ever heard a real Cuckoo before, but I hear them all the time now and they're driving me....well, cuckoo! Pigeons, crows and geese are also part of nature's alarm clock here. Then there are the swans, - they are silent, except for when they fly, when their wings make an awesome swooshing sound - we like them. Then there are the storks. We've seen quite a few, and Matthias says they're famous for making a clacking sound with their beaks - but I haven't heard that yet. (Update: I have since heard it.) Many towns construct platforms where storks build nests and then return each year after winter migrations to southern Europe and beyond (just like their human counterparts). It's believed to be good fortune to have a stork take up residence in your town.
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| Sundown at 10:30pm - on the Baltic Sea |
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| Stork nest |
The Oder Neisse route took us through a number of pretty villages along the Polish border, and we got to enjoy some delicious Polish food (and beer) at a restaurant near the border (it was in Germany, but owned/operated by Poles). Then, we actually stayed one night at a campsite in Poland - but it was just for convenience. Turned out to be free (nice, since we didn't want to deal with the different currency) and right on the river (Oder!), but it was juxtaposed to a discount shopping plaza, where busloads of people come from Berlin to buy cheap cigarettes, gas and alcohol. Not very classy, although I did score some cheap coffee for our stash.
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| A pretty spot to change a flat tire |
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| The free campsite in Poland |
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| The other view from the campsite in Poland - run-down shopping center |
Traveling around East Germany is also really nice because you don't see a lot of foreign travelers, so I very rarely hear any English, although hosts of two separate campsites boasted they had English-speaking guests from as far away as Australia - a family from Perth bike riding through Europe for a summer. I'm pretty sure they were both talking about the same family. Also, I'm learning lots of new German words, and my favorite by far is Trampeltier, which is a type of camel, but is also used to describe someone boisterous and clumsy - like an "elephant in a porcelain shop". Of course, I like it so much because as we were chatting with a group of cyclists at a rest stop and I told them I was from the USA, one of them asked how I liked my new President: the TRUMPeltier. (sounds like Trump-L-Teer). Yay. Now I have a new name for #45!
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| Our first campsite on the East (Baltic) sea. Swans like it here, too. |
One month later: Just now picking up this post a few weeks after finishing the bike tour - it was great. We reached the Baltic Sea after about a week of cycling. The Baltic Coast and Sea (which Germans call the East Coast and the East Sea - funny to me since they don't use directional terms for their roads!) is lovely in that it's really a series of bays, harbors and islands. And in most places the forest, hills and trees extend all the way to the sea. This is in comparison to the North Sea on the other (West) side of the country, which is flatter with more dunes and open spaces. My first introduction to the east coast was the harbor town of Uekermünde, which was lovely. From there, we rode onto the island of Usedom, where, after I navigated us onto a busy main road for a few miles (for which I'm still not forgiven) we found a lovely campsite on beautiful quiet harbor. The scenes - bays, fishing boats, sailboats, birds, rocky beaches, fish stands - made me think of New England in the States. Not that I've spent very much time there, but it's my impression. We then rode to and along the north coast of Usedom, along the Ostsee (East Sea) bike route, where there are wide beaches on the open sea. It wasn't as quiet or charming as the inlets, and there were tons more tourists, but it was still nice to follow the (busy) bike path that ran through the forest behind the beaches.
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| Sunset from campsite on the bay in Usedom |
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| From the East Sea Bike Path that runs along the coast. |
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| Bike path on the coast |
In addition to wonderful scenery, I really enjoyed the food along the coast. When we do a bike tour, our "routine" involves purchasing groceries from supermarkets (soup, bread, cheese, prepared salads) and eating at picnic tables along the way and at the campsite at night. We only go out twice a week (our "weekend") which keeps our budget (and to some degree our bodies) in check. Matthias is pretty strict on this point, but I am sometimes able to convince him to be flexible when there's a unique opportunity (like a town festival, etc.). Anyway, on the north coast, I had pre-negotiated an addition to our diet - a fish brötchen (fish on a roll) every day, when the opportunity arose. Fortunately, along the coast practically every town has at least one little kiosk, often in converted fishing boats, that sell 'em. A wide variety to choose from, including different types of marinated herring (Matjes - my favorite), smoked mackerel, eel and halibut, bay shrimps, salmon and fried filets with remoulade and some things I can't even translate. And of course all on fresh bread rolls. Fish heaven!
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My favorite lunch spot along the coast - shade and breeze on a hot day, and a little beach, too.
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| A welcome sight. Lecker = delicious! |
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| Stopping for fisch brötchen (with beer only on the "weekend") |
We made our way to the city of Stralsund, where we spent two nights at a campsite across from the harbor on the island of Rügen, Germany's biggest island and major tourist destination. While we didn't see much of Rügen (what we saw was nice), we were able to enjoy some fabulous weather as we ate and drank our way through Stralsund (it was our weekend!) The city has Unesco heritage status with an historic port and old town, and plenty of fish kiosks! In addition to grazing all day on delicious fish, we found a great spot to drink the local beer (Störtebecker, named after a famous pirate) and watch the sailboats come in and out of the harbor. Oh yes, we did also walk around the old town, learn a little about the history and appreciate the scenery - between meals.
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| Forget the bread, Matthias was happy with an assortment of smoked fish (and a beer) |
Stralsund!
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| Beer in Stralsund |
After the lost weekend in Stralsund, we continued westward along the coast, through a mix of quiet bays and heavily touristed beach areas. The weather was still good with a couple of downpours and some strong headwinds (where the ebikes came in handy!) mixed in. We decided to forgo a visit the large city of Rostock (we had been before and the campsite was located quite far from the city) and push on toward Wismar, another historic and beautiful port city, which we reached the following weekend. Perfect timing to enjoy the cuisine along with the sights (and more fish)!
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| Wismar old town |
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| Wismar harbor |
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| Street in Wismar |
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| Fish dinner in the tent - due to rain. |
At this point we needed to head back toward Dresden, as I had some major plans in July (more on that later). Although we had enough time to ride all the way to Dresden, we decided to get a train from Magdeburg (near Matthias' hometown) so we would wouldn't be rushed and because the weather was starting to take a turn for the worse. From Wismar, we traveled inland to the Elbe River, where there is a major bike route - the most popular in Germany - that leads through Magdeburg to Dresden. On the way, we passed through the beautiful town of Schwerin, but didn't stop due to the weather (we will be back!) Although there was quite a bit more rain (typical German weather), we were actually very lucky as we apparently bypassed some pretty severe storms (or they bypassed us). Along the river, we stayed at a few boat clubs, which usually include small campgrounds for use by people on kayak/canoe trips down the river, but also for cyclists. We met a few other bikers and boaters at these intimate venues, and Matthias' interest in a kayaking trip (using our folding boat) was renewed. One of the campsites was located just across from the historic town of Tangermünde on the Elbe river, which we had visited years ago, but somehow forgot how pretty it was - another plan to return.
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| Schwerin |
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| Tangermunde |
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| View of Tangermunde from our campsite (a boat club) |
The train from Magdeburg to Dresden with our bikes and trailer wasn't too stressful, but for the fact that there are no elevators at the Magdeburg train station (!) Although as I mentioned we did have time to ride all the way home (instead of taking the train), it was good to get home for a few days for a breather, and then we still had time to take a quick trip to the Elbsandsteingebirge (Elbe Sandstone Mountains) national park. It's located just a day's ride from our place and actually part of the reason we decided to stay in Dresden. We spent two nights at a campsite in Königstein where we stayed some years prior, and did a nice hike into the nearby hills. Then we crossed over the river and spent another two nights at Hohnstein to enjoy a different part of the forest. The weather and scenery were great, and made us fall in love the region even more. And there was no stress worrying about getting back to Dresden in time for my flight to ISRAEL. But that's something for the next installment,
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| Hiking in the sandstone mountains |
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| View from the top! |
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| Selfie up high |
