The Aller Bikeway

The Aller River flows into the Weser south of Bremen near Verden, so that's where our Aller Bikeway trip started - at the end of the river!  192K we did, according to my bike computer though the map says it's 174K from Verden to Wolfsburg.  I think we added a few wiggles, did a little bit of exploring and probably got off the trail a time, or two,  LOL.

Day 1 Verden to Hodenhagen -  49K

Five days, four nights, everything packed to go on the bikes.  We get the 11:30 train from Vegesack to Verden. The weather is warm and sorta hazy and a bit windy, but it's a tail wind. Lucky us!  

Here's the Aller in Verden with the cathedral in the background. The beginning of our trip but almot the end of the Aller! 

 Our first stop was lunch!  A nice view of the river and you can see from my hair how windy it was.

Really small villages today, and that'll be the case most of the way. In Westen there's an interesting church (established 1219) with an unusual round tower. Almost all the churches in north Germany are protestant and so almost all of them are closed unless there is a service going on.

In Hülsen, there is a Schafstall Viertel, a grouping of barns for sheep. The inside stalls were lower than ground level so the sheep droppings could be collected to fertilize the fields.  I was trying not to imagine the aroma.

And in Rethem there is a restored mill by the river.

And Hodenhagen was busy!  Where did all those folks come from!?  You'd think it was the night before Christmas. We locate our B&B and clean up for dinner and some end-of-day refreshment. Dinner was too much food (what else is new?) and we save some for lunch the next day even though we still have a sandwich left over from lunch!

Day 2 - Hodenhagen to Celle  - 62 K

We take a quick look at Schloss Ahlden.  For some reason, we've received brochures from them over the years about art auctions.  I suppose there are still private apartments there since we weren't really supposed to have been wandering around the place (oops!), but we took a few pictures of the exterior and then made our way down river.

Even though it's sunny, it's a lot cooler today and we're wearing most of what we brought.

Lots and lots of fields today - and hedgerows.  They're not as old or as tall or as trimmed as the ones we saw in Wales and England, but definitely hedgerows.

In Bothmar we wander a bit and while deciding where to go next, a stranger offers help and advises us to avoid Schwarmstedt (there's nothing there, he assured us) and go through Essel.  It was nice, dappled ways through the woods.  

Lunch wasn't nearly as picturesque - we sat on a pile of bricks at the empty sports club in Bucholz, but compensation was a toilet!  Those were not easy to come by any day. 

Windmills, on the other hand, are all over the place.

And of course a church in every village.

Just before arriving in Celle, we passed a stand with an "Honor Jar" for the bounty of the garden.  I wished for a kitchen to cook up some of those squash.

Our little hotel was amazingly tacky, but clean and best of all right in the middle of town. Celle is full of old half-timbered buildings. 

Day 3 Celle to Gifhorn - 50 K

Headwinds! The whole day! 

We spent a little time looking around Celle including the church, open! The interior was beautiful and ornate but I should not have been surprised since the Hannover princes have had a major seat in the town for generations.

 

Just off the city center is the palace of Prince Ernst August and Princess Caroline of Monaco.  Neither live there, and they haven't lived in the same place for years.  The young prince seems to be keeping it going.

We were on every kind of road imaginable today - from single walking paths through the woods to busy highways without bikeways!  Yow!  I don't like those.

First stop was Cloister Weinhausen, though we could only enjoy the outside.  There are still old nuns and sisters there and so it has been closed to the public for months now.  But we'd been there before and visited the lovely and ancient tapestry they own. Maybe I'll get to see it again sometime.

After over 4 hours in the saddle we arrived in Gifhorn to stay in a too-big hotel.  There was no question of getting back IN the sadddle, so we ate in the hotel in a room almost to ourselves.  Good thing.  

Some group was having a do in another room, singing!  We just shook our heads.  The infection rate here in Germany has been slowly inching up again and that sort of event makes no sense to me at all.  We kept our distance.

Day 4 - Gifhorn to Wolfsburg 29.5 K

Saturday morning and the awful news was the first thing I saw and it is still a pall.

Since it was a short biking day, we went to the International Mill Museum - a really unusual and interesting place with mills from all over the world, either moved there or reconstructed according to original plans.  Right down the street from the hotel. Very cool.

We did not visit the bizarre Glocken Palast (Palace of the Bells) which has exhibits devoted to the trades and a small island in the lake that sports a peace bell.  

Off to Wolfsburg and the signage was a bit of a disappointment (read: we got on the wrong trail).  A really sandy stretch, though next to the river, was hard to manage and afterwards we got advice from another biker on the best way to get to Wolfsburg (also not on the map!). 

We picnicked at the Elbeseitenkanal, which we'd seen a few weeks earlier.  Here, we biked UNDER the canal. W E I R D.

Everything worked out great and we arrived not really worse for wear to a lovely surprise: a room with a tub! And a fan!  After dinner it was great to have a long soak and then be lulled to sleep by the whirr of the blades.

Day Last

Scheduled departure was 2:00 PM to be taken home by train, so there was time to check out the Wolfsburg Schloss.  The castle was not as ornate as many, but still big.  The interior hasn't been preserved in it's original form, but rather converted into exhibition space. We had a guide though the current show because you'd get lost without one.  It's like a labyrinth, albeit covered in folded silver lamé. There were installations and paintings and objects by the artist placed here and there though, like most modern work, the concept was lost on me.

And our last look at the Aller on this trip.  We'll have to find time to finish it up from Wolfsburg to its source near Magdeburg.

That was it!  We headed to the station, got a snack at the bakery to tide us over and looked at the folks paddling in the water around the VW plant.  

Fun trip! Maybe if the weather holds for a bit and the virus stays in check, there will be a chance to sneak in one more trip.

Warming Up

 Yes, the weather, but also us.  The whole weekend was lovely and through the week it's getting warmer, but Sunday was also a little warm-up for our short bike trip.

So, about 35K. 

We wanted to check out the exhibit at the small art gallery in Lillienthal (Valley of the Lillies) we've visited before and lucky for us, it was the first day their little café was open after the long Corona pause.

But first to get there!  The wind decides whether we take the train to or from and today was an easy choice as it was really windy from the W/SW.  First bike.  Then ride.

Along the way,  a little church we've passed more times than I know was actually open, so we stopped to look.  It's very plain inside; the woman there told us this branch of the church didn't much go for pictures or decoration, but rather concentrated on the message of the pastor.  But there was some painted decoration on the ceiling, done several hundred years ago and a bit faded now. (I still want to paint the beams in our front room, so I'm always on the lookout for inspiration.)

 The pulpit was pretty plain as well.  But see that little wire cage off to the right?  That was for the hourglass so the preacher was reminded when to quit talking.

We passed fields and happy chickens. Werner tried his chicken call on them and they came running till they figured there was a fence.

We arrive none the worse for wear and have a bit of tea and cake before our culture.

This exhibit featured two women artists, with quite different techniques, both of whom lived and worked in this region. It was nice, though the still lives with dolls were a bit disturbing. Creepy, even.

We biked back to town through the Bürger Park, always a pleasure, and always a pretty view.

So, we're set.  At least as set as we ever are.  See you on the trail.

A Farewell Party

There are good ships

And there are wood ships,

And there are ships that sail the sea.

But the best ships

Are Friendships,

And may that ever be.

After 20+ years, I decided to hang up my hat with the Platjenwerbers.  We've had a great run, but it was time to "retire."

Corona put the squeeze on us a bit, too.  We all have one risk factor in common - age - and then you can pick from a wide range of things to add to that for each of us+. So, it would always be a bit risky to keep meeting.  That said, I know all these folks are very, very careful and all are really good following the rules.  We stopped our regular classes last March when most everything shut down and though there have been a medical issue or two in the group there's been no Corona in our midst.  That's good news.

But we needed to say good-bye in an organized way, so we had a little get-together in a safe way.  Rüdiger offered his place - they have a lovely, large garden and a nice "Wintergarten" so that was our locale.  No masks, you'll notice, though we tried to keep our distance.

The evening started out sunny - coolish, but not wet.

We took a stroll around the garden and admired all the plants and flowers and veggies.

The obligatory group picture.  Unfortunately, two of our regulars couldn't be with us.

Then we ate.  We're good at that and have had lots of practice, especially with our annual Christmas feast.  

There were toasts and a nice speech from Detlef and a response from me.  And some gifts - a little plaque with each of their names, a collection of pictures over the years, and a fragrant rose bush with a blossom for each person there.  How thoughtful! 

Each of them got a gift from me as well:  a home-made potholder in a US flag design.  I'd tried to be fancy and back it with a Bremen flag, but that got a bit complicated.  No matter, they were all very pleased with a little remembrance from their favorite English teacher - me!  

What a funny and fun-loving and just plain nice group of people.  We'll get together again, but we won't talk grammar!!

P.S.  Blogger has changed their interface, and it seems either they still have some bugs to work out or I have yet to figure out some of the controls so excuse the stretched pics and the occasional formatting glitches.