Sunday Bike Trip

We are getting in shape for our trip around Lake Constance later in the summer, so that means bike trips.

After such a long hot spell and no rain, we've had a respite - a bit of rain and a pretty drastic drop in temps.  Thursday it was 88°, Friday it was 72°.  (All you Florida and Georgia folks, no joking about the temps.  We have no AC here.)

And with no demands on the calendar, we planned a trip.  This time, from Eystrup to Verden.  32K.  Ha!

It starts with the train.  Well, no, it starts with an early breakfast.  We are
n o t early risers.  Midnight is our usual bed time, so 8AM is plenty early for rising.  We pull ourselves out of bed, have our usual fantastic Sunday morning breakfast (this time, fresh rolls, cold cuts, Leberwurst, soft-boiled eggs, jam and honey) and hit the 10:30 train to Eystrup.  It takes a bit of time...

We arrive Eystrup.  It's pretty gray and not hot, maybe 68° but that's good for biking.  Off we go.  Where?  Around in circles till we find how to get to the other side of the tracks.  Geeze.

But then we are on our way.  It is so quiet!  Really, we are out in the boonies and the wind goes by my ears and I hear the birds and I hear no cars or trains or planes or machines.  It is such a strange sensation and oh so pleasant.

Fields of corn, wheat, barley, rye, potatoes, canola. I took some pictures, but somehow they didn't take.  But I have some pretty pictures in my head:  poppies and cornflowers at the edges of the fields, contrasting colors of the various grains. Sigh.

It doesn't last of course.  We are never far from all the noises of civilization. And then we are hungry. We find a table with our name on it!

What a feast - grapes, sandwich and leftover apricot tart, which was better than it was the day before, plus a surprise piccolo of bubbly that Werner sneaked into his bag.  Yum!

Off to discover newness.

First there was the memorial for the fallen soldiers from WWI and WWII in a small village - natural stones arranged around a larger one.  Twenty-one markers from a village of five farms.  The memorial is still well cared for.

Then, in another small village, a collection of sheep stalls, apparently a rare thing as sheep are not usually kept in stalls.  Here, they were protected in the winter from the wolves and their lambs from the cold and - important - their dung collected to fertilize the fields.  Then the locals discovered a local mineral to feed the fields and the sheds were left to rot.  There were 20+, now only nine.  I love these reminders, and we need them.

 Nearer Verden at Westen, there is a ferry across the River Aller, the second smallest ferry in Germany.  Though it's been operating since the 17th century, it's still small!  Earlier, it was a daily operation, now only on weekends in the summer season.

 And on our side of the river, an old church with a round tower.  That's pretty rare - this one is from the 13th century, originally built by the local lord to survey traffic along the river and make sure they paid their tolls!

 

We've reached our goal - Verden - and can take a panoramic shot of the town with its cathedral and the ever-present horses.

But we're on a short schedule now - the train to Bremen is only once an hour and we've got 20 minutes.  It would normally be a piece a' cake but they are having a town festival and it is PACKED!  We wander around and through trying to find a less-crowded way to the train station and finally make it with minutes to spare only to find the elevator doesn't work and we have to schlep the bikes down the stairs.

But we make it!!  Yeah for us!  An hour on the train (three plus hours on the bikes, 45K at a leisurely pace) and we are home.

Another very nice day in our little slice of the world.