A Short River Elbe Bike Tour

That's not an entirely accurate description, but we were along the Elbe for a bit. After a hearty breakfast on the Sunday morning, we packed our little bike packs to go on road for three nights and got the train at 13:35 from Vegesack.

Before we even got as far as the picture above, there was a hitch - a long wait from Vegesack to the city. As it happened, a couple sitting across from us had hearing problems; they were using sign language.  But the woman could speak and asked Werner about the delay.  He spoke to her, but she could not understand him so I told him to lower his mask so she could read his lips.  Problem solved.  Things you just don't consider with masks!!

We changed trains and got off in Harburg an hour plus later and wound our way to Ohlendorf where René, Rima and Amina call home.  That took almost two hours biking time though Google said one hour and my silly husband thought that was about what we could do---NOT!

First of all, we stop pretty regularly to check we are heading in the right direction (and about a quarter of the time, we are not).  Second, we stop to take pictures. Third, we stop to take a drink of water and whatevers.  Any way you look at it, one hour was a pipe dream.

We hadn't gone far before encountering a Confederate flag at a local bar.  Really.  I am not always sure that people here understand what that flag means. At least, I hope they don't.

Dinner at the Baums is lamb and lamb-- lamb chops and lamb steaks and everything is so tasty!
Amina has been doing a good bit of art work on her summer break, and a lot of sleeping as well.  She's a teenager after all.

We thought we'd had a hearty breakfast the day before, but Rima and René doubled down on that!

We took really full tummies as well as our loaded bikes on the road to Geesthacht.

The first thing we did was turn the wrong way about 300m from the house.  LOL.

It was a pleasant way though a bit boring (I know, we shouldn't complain).  Between Ohlendorf and Geesthacht there was really nothing to report on except pretty landscape.

However, arriving in Geesthacht was, well, interesting.  A really old acacia tree with fascinating bark was just outside of the St. Severinus Church

where just inside the door the visitors could sanitize their hands and cover their faces.

We pedal around a bit but it's a really small town and our hotel is still down the road a bit. By the river, through the woods, into the second Geesthacht but that's also not where we're staying! Then we discovered the place goes on and on and on. How confusing.

Finally, we arrive at the Geesthacht where we're  actually overnighting and arrive just in time for coffee and cake next door.

Dinner choices are the hotel and the hotel, so we book that and it's good! It's a great time of year for Matjes - cured herring, so that is what we order.

Herring as hearts.

And a sunset over the Elbe.

Day Next

Funny and not funny - bugs.  Little bugs.  Really very, very small flying things that don't bite but are everywhere.  Werner got the worst of it since he was next to the window - hundreds (thousands?) on the floor and the bed and he couldn't go on without a shower.  I understand.

Breakfast is fine and off we go to Lauenburg. It's a bit coolish and we wear our extra tops along the way.

And the town is interesting - we arrive at the top of the town and carefully go down to the river's edge and the old town (only to discover later that the town hall is in the upper town, so we missed that!)
The streets are narrow. lots of cobblestones which - no surprise - are horrid to bike on. We'll get even more experience of that.

There are some very crooked buildings here.

Lauenburg has been flooded many times, most recently in 2013 and it seems they are still in recovery mode in some areas. These marks show the floods starting in 1855.

This house looks like the bricklayer was learning how to lay different patterns.

Bye, Lauenburg.

Next stop:  Scharnebeck, a boat lift between two parts of the Elbeseitenkanal (Elbe Lateral Canal) . The canal is artificial of course and very straight and kinda boring to ride along.

So imagine that they build a canal starting from opposite ends and where they meet there's a 38 meter height difference.  Solution: build a boat elevator.  There are two lifts though one is undergoing renovations.  It's  quite the tourist draw even though you have to walk 182 steps to the observation platform.  For that, there is no lift!

On the left in the back you can just make out the side of the canal at the lower level.  The boat would be in that red part and get lowered.

Into Lüneburg.  We've been there several times, but it seems always on the way to somewhere else. On the outskirts of town is the Kloster Lüne.

It was first a convent, starting in 1172 and many of the buildings on the site today are from the 14th and 15th c. Today, widowed or retired single women live there and you must apply for a place.  There are of 

course many more applications than places. How incredibly peaceful.

There's a long tradition of handweaving and embroidery at the convent.  They still have an active weaving program.

Sadly, we missed the textile museum with samples of sacred embroidery.  I will just have to go again.

We never did find a place for lunch, so the first order of business was food!  Frankly I'd rather have had something not sweet, but it was too close to dinner for lunch, so it was tea and cake again.

The hotel was a bit out of the city and finding it was a bit of a challenge since the navigator led us to a different hotel.  Thanks, Google! But we got there and got a room in the back to get away from the noise of traffic and then found a simple place for dinner looking at the church.  And it was yummy - a Currywurst for Werner and a Flammkuchen for me.

It was still light when we finished eating, so we wandered around looking at the charming little crookedy streets on the way back.

Day Last

Breakfast was set out for us when we appeared - no buffet in order to avoid unnecessary closeness, and that worked great.

The internet at the hotel is poor, so we needed to get to the train station to check on travel home.  After arranging that, we had about 2 hours to wander some more and take in the ambience of the place.

It was market day and the place was teeming!  Everyone wore masks, I was glad to see, and the market was really nice - lots of variety, lots of stands, and lively.  That's always special.

The St. Michael's Church was open and worth spending more time to visit than we were able to spare.  It's a huge, huge brick structure which somehow seems more impressive than stone.

While Werner was inside, I noticed the ragged look of the corner and on closer inspection saw that the brick had been worn down by age and wind (?) so that the glaze was gone and the brick eaten away, leaving the mortar sticking out.  Wow.

We found a yummy baker who sold yummy sandwiches, so we bought a couple (and a little piece of plum cake) and headed to the train.  It was an easy ride back with no transfers and though we considered getting off in Bremen City and biking home, we nixed that and just stayed on the train.

That was a great little get-away and we'll do it again before the summer is out. Total: 110 K.