Yes, more bikes.

 I'm not nervous. I can do this 7-day tour coming up in a few weeks. We have e-bikes, for heaven's sake! What can be easier?? But, a little bit a training ain't bad, though I don't think we have done any back-to-back-to-back-to-back trips lately.  

In preparation for our trip today, I told Werner I was not cooking dinner. So there. 

There's an app - there's an app for everything! - for local bike or walking trips. I get suggestions every week and this week they suggested St. Dionysius Church.  In Holle. It is about 25K from here and since our upcoming trip is about 50k EVERY DAY, we thought that would be a little training trip. 

It started out so nice, this day. Sunshine! Sorta warm temps! We went to the market so we'd have something to eat over the weekend. LÖL. Werner made yummy sandwiches, we boiled eggs, I made my favorite watermelon/tomato/mint/goat cheese salad (it's yummy, believe me!), tea and cakes and water and all the emergency stuff (band-aids, extra tubes for the tires, a knife for cutting food or random wild flowers). Go!

We biked a bit before taking a short water break, and here, just across the street, a Union Jack!  Who lives there who flies that flag?

Along the way, happy cows chewing cud. 

And lovely landscapes.

These geese were happy eating the grass in the field but (sorry) they are being fed for our tummies!

But what a great fence!!! I'd love to take a bit of it home.

And in the village, a bit of the old road that's been exposed under the new road. 

We saw more birdies - storks! They were feeding in the newly mowed fields. 

And, boy, were the tractors and the farmers out in force today!  So much hay to be harvested. It was loud wherever we were. 

But it was also simple and quiet.

We arrived at St. Dionysius,

It was founded in the 13th  c., renovated a number of times, most recently in 1947 after WWII. That's easy to identify there in the front. The other sides show the wear and tear of centuries.

And the front door. That's gotta be old. 

We spread our table cloth over the bench next to the front door and laid out our feast - sandwiches, boiled eggs, a watermelon and tomato salad. Though we started in sunshine, it had got cloudy and noticeably cooler. 

But there was a bit more to see. Yet another waterway.

These small waters that feed the rivers aren't ever blue and clear, but rather colored by the dirt of the region, but nevertheless pretty to our northern German eyes.

And back home!! Noon to about 5:30 with a nice lunch break and, going home, a head wind! But we had our e-bikes and we were really happy for that!

P.S. We  had lots of wind, so we used the "tour" gear a lot to the church and the "sport" gear going back home against the wind. It was a windy, windy day! Got home with two bars on the computer. It would be interesting to see how far we could have gone to run out the battery.  But not sure I ever really want to do that.