Hoya, and a Weekend

Friday is of course the first weekend of the day.  We were invited to the Bürger Park (our Central Park, though we are not New York) to dedicate a tree to a friend's son who died last year.  It was of course sad and happy.  The weather was wonderful, we had a good time with friends, and it was such an appropriate remembrance, but sad to remember a death of one too young.
After coffee and cake with the group, we biked home to Vegesack, about 20K.  We'd  thought to have dinner along the way, but it was too early!  So, a brief break for a beer and back to home.

This is one of our favorite trails, and it is all in my head, so I don't take pictures. I should.

Saturday: The weekend weather looks great! Where shall we go?  We'd thought a trip to Harriersand, a popular site north of here. But they're doing work on the rails, so the partial trip by train isn't workable.  OK, let's go to Hoya.  We took the train to Verden, an hour by train, and then started on our trip to Hoya.

Along the way, we passed a field where so many storks were feeding! Look for the white spots - there are the storks.

We've been to Hoya a few times. It's is about 20 kilometers from Verden, so a pretty easy ride.  Never forget, we live in the Flatlands, so biking is usually easy.

What a day!  We had four or five days of gray coolish and wet, which were welcome and needed, but we're still happy to have the sunshine and warmer temps.  We're not willing to let summer go, not just yet.

Off we go!  Like I said, we have been here before, but somehow not on this particular way.  Or our memories fail. Either way, it is such a nice path.

Over the Weser  - we did that more than once on this tour. I wanted a pic from both sides of the bridge over the Weser, but the bike path is only on one side, so I held up the camera and snapped the other side before it could focus.

Interesting.  Werner said it reminded him of Gerhard Richter, the artist whose paintings are sold for millions here in Germany and who influenced the works of the woman we'd recently seen at the Kunsthalle. OK.  I like it.

Here's the near side - a lovely row of trees we don't know the name of.  Silly us.  They aren't poplars, popular along the rivers, or oaks, or elms or birches.  I give up.  They're nice.

We'd had a simple breakfast before heading out - cereal with lots of fruit - but I get hungry.  We had to stop to eat some of our picnic before you'd think. First, ham on rye.  YUM.

I'm no longer surprised, but still impressed, when we come to a village and there's a church, a CHURCH that just overwhelms the place. This one looks like a place that could seat a couple of hundred when there are only 50 in the village. So it is.  Of course we try the doors and of course the doors are locked.  But while we ate our second little sandwich on a bench in the shade of the bell tower, a man came and let himself into the church.  Shame on me for not being bold and asking to go in with him.  After a minute or two, we heard the organ!  He was practicing for the Sunday service.  Oh what a treat it would have been to sit in that lovely building and listen to the organ.

Back on the road we passed fruit trees, some in gardens and some just on the side of the road.  Here, some plums!!  They were so good - better even than the ones we get at our fresh market. If you enlarge the pic, you might see the plums.  They are hard to see, but I have eagle eyes when it comes to foraging fruit!

Ah, so.  We reached Hoya and again found it hard to get a beer.  Weird.  Isn't this Germany???  Saturday afternoon?? And then, because it was so hot (for us) we opted out of the side trip to Bücken and just headed off to Eystrup and our train home.

So, later, leftovers for dinner and a shower before bed. Biking = sweating!

Sunday, after pancakes and bacon and sausage and fresh blueberry syrup for breakfast (yes, my husband is totally spoiled), we biked to one of the local parks where there was a weekend music event and listened to a local band playing Irish and Scottish tunes.  Germans can be so "reserved" or NOT!  One guy got up and danced a jig while band played.  He got a rousing round of applause with the band!

On the way back home, we biked through the park and passed the stone chair where we'd taken photos of Hunter and Hannah more than once.  So we took a pic of us for them.  Look how the trees have grown - not to mention H+H.

Later we got together with Peggy and Andreas for catch-up and food.  It was a weird summer all around what with the weird weather and such.  But we enjoyed rehashing it all and especially while sitting at the harbor in the sunshine looking at the river roll by.

Full weekend!  Fun weekend!  (Though I was conflicted about the UF-Miami game.  Who does a real FSU fan root for in that game?! Well, Miami, but too bad for them.)