Happy Canada Day!

Great weekend here in Germany - I went exploring the Hamburg-Bremen Hanseatic bike route in the rain.

Kids colouring a grey day in Buchholz

I biked 65 km after work Friday to a little town called Zevin, where I discovered some of the friendliest people who even bought me dinner, then another 22 km to Scheeßel after I discovered the train doesn't run along the bike route tracks (or stop at the Zevin Bahnhof).

I missed the last train by 10 minutes, but the locals there are so accommodating that even though the inn in this wee town was full, the local donair shop guys put me up for the night. Then I met a couple locals at the train station who split on a ticket with me (Sundays 5 can travel for the price of 1!) and we had a hoot riding into Hamburg practicing German and English.

Dave and Jannes - the Scheeßel connection

I woke Christine up with fresh coffee and a croissant and we spent the whole day shopping with breaks at the Food Festival, eating Sauerkraut (pickled cabbage), Spätzle (dough noodles), champignons (the Germans have co-opted the French for mushrooms) and some Erdbeeren (strawberry) liquid that had a surprising amount of alcohol. I have now reached the language level where I can have an entire conversation about whether Schinken (ham) is a vegetable (almost makes me homesick for Strasbourg).

We spent Saturday and Sunday walking around the old town and harbourfront, where the old shipping warehouses have been converted into restaurants and theatres, like an enormous Gastown.

Happy Canada Day!

Hamburg is a beautiful city, but hard to leave ... literally. The signs all point downtown, but none toward the next town. Took me almost 2 hours to find the Elbe Tunnel for bikes and pedestrians under the river (hidden behind construction) and the path to Harburg in spite of a sign turned the wrong way - thanks to a friendly bus driver who gave me a lift into Harburg and directions to get out the other side :-)

I made it to Buchholz in der Nordheide before sunset, 20 minutes ahead of a train to Hamburg - and watched a terrific downpour as we rolled through Scheeßel - lucky I didn't ride any farther tonight!

In all, I biked 134 km, or almost one way to Hamburg.
Thanks to Google Driving Directions for mapping my trip (without the offroad component) and my 47.6 km route from Hamburg to Buchholz - only 36 km if you follow the highway (turn on the satellite and zoom in).