OTR

August 7 Route Map

The rain from yesterday continued unabated all night long and into this morning. The clouds were still low and the sky was a dark grey color in all directions – it didn’t look good. I was seriously considering riding the 13 miles back to Wernberg in order to catch a train all the way to Munich today. But at 8:30 am it stopped raining and I could see some definition in the clouds, so it looked like it could at least stop raining for most of the day. I packed up my wet gear and headed off toward Munich. Fortunately, about an hour into my ride, the clouds lifted higher into the brightening sky and all chance of further rain for the day disappeared.

I called Walter Welsch on the phone when I got to the town of Amberg to let him know that I would arrive in Munich soon. Leaving Amberg on the south side of town I had the great fortune to ride a wide, smooth, mostly flat road that followed a river valley downhill, with a bit of a tailwind, and no rain! Talk about all the elements finally coming together in my favor. I was able to average 25 km/h on this section of road for about 50 kilometers, making it the most enjoyable ride so far. At one point however, my GPS wanted to route me on the shortest distance to Munich, which would have taken me away from the nice road and up into the hills. I was enjoying my quick ride and wasn’t too keen on taking a much slower route, so I switched plans and decided to go to Regensburg, which is slightly out of the way from a direct line to Munich. But it’s been six days since I was able to check my e-mail and post updates to OTR, so I figured I could get a hotel room for the night, check e-mail, post updates, recharge GPS and computer batteries, and dry my wet gear.

I’m now about 140 kilometers from Walter Welsch’s house in Munich. I’m going to try to make it all the way tomorrow, but I’ll need more flat, fast roads like the one today in order to do it.

August 6 Route Map

After a dry day yesterday, it started raining last night at 8:30 pm and it continued all night long and into this morning. But unlike a few days ago when it did the same thing, it did not let up at all today. The clouds were into the treetops with a dark sky in all directions, with the rain coming down hard. My plan was to ride 120 kilometers today to Monte Kaolino, but the weather killed my motivation. So instead, I resorted to Plan B – ride 10 kilometers to the nearest train station and take advantage of my Eurail Pass. I found the train station in Plauen, and after much examination of the train schedules and experimentation with the automated ticket machine (which was in German only, no English) I found that the closest I could get to Monte Kaolin via train was to the village of Wernberg, 13 kilometers east of my destination. I couldn’t use my Eurail Pass at the automated ticket machine, so I had to go to the ticket agent. She gave me my tickets and informed me that I had to change trains in Weiden in order to get to Wernberg. There was one minor problem though – the train didn’t go to Weiden; it went to Nurnburg instead, about 100 kilometers west of Weiden. So I purchased a 17 Euro ticket to go back the way I had just come. When I finally got to Wernberg it was still raining hard but at this point I was only 13 kilometers away from Monte Kaolino so I put on the raingear and rode as fast as I could. Fortunately the road I had to take was flat all the way, which made for a quick ride. My riding distance today was only 23 kilometers, but the train detour added another 335 kilometers to the distance traveled today.

August 5 Route Map

Today was all about ups and downs – up one hill and down another, over and over and over for 85 kilometers to a campground at a lake named Talsperre Pohl. The weather was perfect for biking today – partly sunny and not too hot, with a bit of a breeze to help keep cool. The countryside is still mostly farmland (wheat and corn) with the occasional patches of shady forest.

My Black Diamond Megamid tent is perfect for cycling. It’s big enough to put my bike inside it, and since it doesn’t have a floor I don’t have to worry about getting it all dirty. The campgrounds have well manicured grass lawns, so it’s actually quite nice inside. And unlike Alaska, there are virtually no mosquitoes to worry about. Combine that with the showers, restrooms, and restaurants at the campgrounds here, and camping is quite a nice experience.

Not much else to report for today. I still have about four more days of riding until I get to Munich. Tomorrow’s destination is Monte Kaolino, a sort-of-resort built around a 150 meter tall manmade sand dune.

August 4 Route Map

I finally got into the hill country today. Up to now, the ride has taken me through the mostly flat northern part of Germany. It was nice riding through that area because I could maintain a pretty constant pace of around 20-25 kilometers per hour. But now the road rises and falls, so it seems to take longer. I like the downhills, but that just means there is the inevitable uphill that follows.

Today was an easy day of just 18 kilometers to Susann Buettner’s house. On the way there I spotted a skateboard park in the town of Colditz. It had a large asphalt surface and no one was there, so I took the opportunity to dry all my wet gear in the sunshine. That lightened my load by a couple of pounds.

As I was passing through the town of Geithain, a black car pulled up to me and the driver rolled down his window and said, “You look like Scott.” I had no idea who the person was, but it was pretty obvious that he was somehow connected to Susann, as she was expecting me to arrive soon. It turned out the driver was Susann’s brother, so he guided me to Susann’s house which was only about 300 meters away.

I had a very nice visit with Susann and her family (parents, grandparents, aunt, and niece). And the timing was perfect – Susann had returned home just yesterday from a year-long trip to Nepal. And what was even stranger was that, about an hour after I arrived, the postman delivered a postcard to Susann that was sent from the Juneau Icefield by Ronny Wenzel, one of the German surveyors. Ronny wrote on the postcard that I should already be in Europe (correct on that – I was sitting right there as Susann read it!).

Susann took me on a walking tour of Geithain, which included roaming around in the town’s 850 year old church. It was pretty amazing to see such an old building, especially since there’s nothing that comes close to being that old in the U.S. We walked along several sections of the old wall that surrounded the town, and saw several of the guard towers with keyhole windows that the guards would shoot arrows through at potential invaders – pretty neat.

Susann and her parents provided great hospitality – it seemed that we were eating non-stop, and in addition to the food, there was plenty of good German beer. We all stayed up till past midnight talking about various things, with Susann acting as the translator because I speak no German and her parents don’t speak English. Overall, a very good day.

August 3 Route Map

It rained all night long last night and was still raining in the morning. I definitely wasn’t looking forward to spending the entire day riding in the rain, so it was a nice surprise when the rain stopped at 8:00 am and the sky began to clear a bit. But it was not to be – it remained cloudy all day with intermittent periods of rain throughout my ride. Unlike yesterday when I was able to get to the campground and get set up before the rain came, this evening when I was within 3 kilometers of the campground I had the heaviest downpour of the entire day. It was coming down very hard when I got to the campground and I had to set up in the rain. Not a lot of fun. But 20 minutes later the rain stopped, and I got a hot shower and a meal at the campground’s restaurant – all better!

I departed Werner’s house today and headed into downtown Berlin. I wanted to take a ride up in the Fernsehturm tower to the observation deck, but the ticket line was two hours long – too long to wait, so instead I grabbed a big juicy cheeseburger, fries, and a beer, then headed out of town around 1:00 pm, a rather late start. Upon reaching the farmland on the south side of Berlin I found that there was no headwind today. A very nice treat and I made easy progress along tree-lined country roads. I made it to a campground at 8:30 pm that is about half-way between Berlin and Susann Buettner’s house. And the timing was perfect – although it was dry all day long, as soon as I put in the last tent stake it started raining. I quickly got everything in the tent and since it was getting dark, I got a quick shower and went right to sleep.

I’ve discovered that I really like the numerous Total gas stations that are scattered along my route. They’re a quick way to refill the water bottle and grab a quick hot sandwich and ice cream bar. And it’s easier than a restaurant because I can just pick out what I want and pay for it without having to rely on my non-existent German language skills.

Today was pretty much a rest day. I got up around 7:00 am and was able to access Werner’s WIFI signal in order to finally check e-mail and get somewhat caught up on posting updates to OTR. After breakfast Werner and I rode our bikes to the nearest train station and purchased tickets for the eastern side of Berlin. After about a 30 minute ride we unloaded our bikes from the train and began a leisurely pedal through the center of Berlin back to Werner’s house.

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A section of the Berlin wall.

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We saw the typical sights that every first-time visitor must see – the Reichstag, the Berlin Wall, Brandenburg Gate, etc., etc., and stopped at a nice little outdoor café along the river to have a cold German beer in the warm sunshine, while watching an endless procession of filled-to-capacity tour boats passing by – very nice. At one point we passed by the Prime Minister’s residence – equivalent to the White House in the U.S. While there was a fence around it, I was amazed at how close it was to the building – only about 10 meters or so. I’m sure there were security cameras scanning the sidewalks, but there wasn’t the overpowering sense of being watched that you get when you’re near the White House, with it’s rooftop armed marksmen ready to takeout any potential invaders.

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A church in central Berlin.

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Werner and his wife Donia live in the northwest part of Berlin, in a very nice, heavily wooded area with numerous parks and bike trails. It was very easy to get around by bike, and all the drivers were very courteous to bikers, pausing to let us pass in front of them. This is something that would rarely occur in Anchorage.

Overall, today was a nice break from 10-12 hours on the road. Tomorrow I’ll head south toward my next major stop – Munich.

Most of the local roads are lined with trees on both sides of the road. This provides much relief from the sun on a hot day.

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My longest day yet – 150 kilometers, and 11.5 hours due to hot temperatures and riding into a 20-30 km/h headwind all day. It was more of the same as yesterday – wheat and cornfields, with widely scattered patches of forest that provided temporary relief from the sun and wind. Most of the local village-to-village roads that I traveled are lined with trees on both sides of the road – very scenic. There are also many wind turbines in this part of Germany, in order to take advantage of the constant wind.

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Wind turbines in the wheat and corn fields are a common sight in Denmark and northern Germany.

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View of a typical wind turbine. The towers are about 300 feet tall.

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I’ve gotten into a routine of riding through several villages until I find a Netto food store. Then I make a quick trip in to stock up on bananas, cherries, and sandwiches for the road. It’s interesting how they do things here. For one thing, all four wheels on the grocery carts spin around the vertical axis, unlike in the U.S. where only the front two wheels spin. As a result, the carts here in Germany are much more maneuverable, and it’s easy to move them sideways and to do a zero-radius turn – cool German engineering! Another thing the grocery stores do here is that they don’t bag your groceries. Everyone arrives at the store with their own cloth bags or wicker baskets, and then the customer puts their purchased goods into their baskets. They do have plastic bags at the stores, but you have to pay 1 Euro for each bag. There is also a cash refund for all plastic and glass bottles, so it’s common to see people arrive at the store on their bicycle with a wicker basket full of plastic and glass bottles to be recycled, then they use their basket to haul their stuff home. In this regard, Europeans are much more environmentally aware than are most Americans.

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The first sighting of a sign for Berlin, which is still about 75 kilometers away.

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After a long day riding, I arrived at Werner Stempfhuber’s house on the northwest side of Berlin, near the town of Spandau, at 7:30 pm. Werner and his wife Dunja were in the back yard tending to the barbeque grill and within 30 minutes we were eating grilled chicken and sausages. Very tasty after a hard day of riding.

I left Rostock at 9:00 am this morning and headed south toward Berlin. It’s a two day ride away, and I can’t help but think that what a car can cover in one hour will take me one day to ride the same distance. I rode local roads that cut through wheat and corn fields. I think I made a logistical error in deciding to ride from north to south, as the prevailing wind pattern so far seems to be from the southwest. Today’s wide was into a constant headwind and quartering headwind, which slowed my average speed by 5-7 km/h.

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Did I mention how bicycle-friendly Europe is? This is a typical bike lane in the larger cities. It's great how they use different paving surfaces and colors to differentiate between vehicles, bikes, and pedestrians. It's a great system. Why can't we in the U.S. do the same?

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My nightly destination was a campground (campingplatz in Deutsche) at a lake named Plau am See. Once again, I was surprised at the difference between European and U.S. campgrounds. The one I stayed at, Campingplatz Zuruf, had an outdoor stage with live entertainment by a duo called Schwarzblond, who performed a musical revue type show that is popular in Berlin. It was quite entertaining and they did several songs that had the German audience clapping and singing along. And of course there was the requisite biergarten that served up plenty of German beer, pretzels, and wienerschnitzel.

Today was a short, easy day for a couple of reasons. First, the manager of the hotel I stayed at last night told me that the ferry departed Gedser every two hours, starting at 7:00 am. He was correct about the 7:00 departure, but the frequency turned out to be every four hours rather than two. I had planned on taking the supposed 9:00 am departure, but instead had to wait till 11:00. It was a two hour ride across to Rostock, so that put me there at 1:00 in the afternoon.

The ferry system here is much more efficient than the Alaska Marine Highway ferries that I’m used to. One reason for this is that vehicles load from the bow and stern. In Gedser, the ferry docks bow first, and the entire bow of the ship lifts up to allow vehicles to drive on. It took about five minutes for the ship to dock, raise the bow, and lower the dock’s bridge to the ship, and as soon as that was done, vehicles loaded four lanes wide simultaneously. I don’t know exactly how many cars and trucks were loaded onto the ship, but it was at least several hundred, and the entire loading operation took only about 10-15 minutes. By the time I secured my bike and got upstairs we were already undocked and underway. Amazing.

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Waiting to board the ferry in Gedser. The bow is lifted up, allowing vehicles to load from the front and drive out the back upon arrival at the destination.

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After getting off the ferry I needed to find an ATM to get some Euros, but that turned out to be more difficult than I thought it would be. The ferry docked several kilometers south of the city, so I used my GPS to search for the nearest ATM, which showed one about 3 kilometers away in the downtown district. The problem was, the only way to get from where I was to downtown was via the highway, on which bicycles were prohibited. So I had to take a 20 kilometer alternate route which went in a big counterclockwise direction around Rostock. By the time I got to the ATM it was around 3:00 pm, so I decided to just get a hotel room for the night and see Rostock.

Tomorrow I head south for Berlin.