Brandenburg to Berlin, Germany

From Brandenburg to Berlin was supposed to be my "easy" day, only as I woke up I still had a bike without a chain to deal with.

Diana and I ate breakfast at a bakery nearby our hotel, then she caught the train to Berlin and I went to the Cube Store bike shop which opened at 9:00. 

Not only was the shop able to look at my bike immediately, they even invited me to brew a coffee on their fancy coffee machine!

The bike mechanic had devastating comments about my bike and the shape it was in, and was very critical of the Dutch shop for renting it to me. In fact, they insisted on writing a note on my receipt that when translated to English says: "The bicycle is not roadworthy and should not be issued as a rental bike. The drivetrain is completely worn and dirty." Likely there is truth to this, but to be honest I also feel the ride from Helmstedt to Brandenburg had been especially hard on the bicycle. Really, an Amsterdam commuter bike is not designed for what basically ended up being off roading in sand and dirt in the rain . . .

Anyway, today there would be no off roading. I returned to the hotel to load up the bike and check out, then headed out. Given that my bike was working again, Diana was going to rent a bike in Berlin and take the train back to Potsdam, and we would meet there and finish my ride together.

It took me a couple of hours to ride the roughly 40 kilometres to the Potsdam train station, and sadly it began pouring rain before I arrived. I wheeled my bike into the station and found a spot to get some lunch and just a few minutes later Diana joined me with her e-bike. We ate lunch together and then dawdled for awhile before deciding we had no more excuses and we headed out into the rain. 

Potsdam is a lovely place, but likely much more enjoyable when you are not drenched and cold on a bicycle. From Potsdam to central Berlin is 30 kilometres, and it rained badly for at least the first five or so of those kilometres, but finally it did stop and the sun came out. After 15 kilometres Diana needed a washroom, so we stopped at a restaurant patio and enjoyed cappuccinos and dried out a bit. Then, we carried on, through Berlin until we reached the Brandenburg Gate, which seemed a fitting place to consider my ride finished!

I was super happy to see the Brandenburg Gate and even more excited to ride through it.

It was 16:00, and with the 70 kilometres I rode today, that concluded 790+ kilometres of riding over the last 7 days.

Diana and I spent a wonderful evening in Berlin, which I will blog about on my travel blog.

Helmstedt to Brandenburg, Germany

It was quite cold this morning as I started out of Helmstedt, but not raining, although rain was in the forecast. I was anticipating a 133 km ride, but before I really got going, I wanted to visit the old East Germany border control point which is just outside of Helmstedt. My first stop was down this trail, past what looks like a century-plus-old guard tower . . .

. . . to find this decades-old East German guard tower.

Further along, I came to the Marienborn German Division Memorial where much of the border crossing infrastructure is preserved. 

You could definitely spend quite a long time here, as they have exhibits and so on, but they do not open until 10:00 and anyway I had a lot of kilometres to ride so I was not about to linger. I was, however, very cold already, so I drank a coffee and warmed up in a coffee shop here. Then, I set out, back into rural Germany.

Eventually I joined a road alongside a canal, again.

Unfortunately some bridge construction forced me to detour, past a herd of sheep.

Near a village called Burg bei Magdeburg construction got me again and forced a much longer detour, this time adding something like 15 kilometres to my route. It was a nice day now, thankfully, but I was definitely not making good time!

Somehow I ended up on a dirt, actually, sand, road and needless to say this did not make for rapid progress! I literally had to push my bike on sections of this. 

In fact, I was progressively losing faith in my Google Maps directions. Yes, this is scenic, but not the sort of road I want to spend much time on when I am trying to cover close to 150 kilometres in a day.

Late in the afternoon, with the sky darkening, I passed this map and decided to follow it instead of Google.

Really, this did not help as it took me along more dirt roads, and then when I emerged back onto a highway at a village called Parchen the rain had started. I still had nearly 40 kilometres to ride and it was already 16:00. The rain was quite hard for awhile and there was a nasty cold wind, and I was getting very hungry as I had not eaten lunch. I sheltered under a tree briefly and ate a lot of my nuts and dried fruit, but mostly I just carried on.

Once I reached the outskirts of Brandenburg the rain stopped and I removed some of my wet clothing with just about 15 kilometres left to ride. I began reaching decent speeds, finally, but then there was a construction crew on the bike path. One of the crew was oblivious to my ringing bell and as I geared down approaching him, my chain snapped.

It was a really crappy way to end what had been a rough day, but at least I only had about 6 kilometres left to go. As I pushed my bike I was checking on my phone to see if any bike shops were open, but all seemed to close at 18:00 or earlier so I was not going to be able to get my chain fixed tonight. May as well just head to the hotel. 

As if my "ride" could get any worse, Google let me down again and took me up a dead end overpass that used to cross railway tracks, forcing me to backtrack and detour. 

Finally, at 19:00, after a 10+ hour day covering 147 kilometres, I reached the hotel. 

Thankfully, Diana was waiting for me with some warm take-out to eat. I showered, then borrowed a bike she had rented to ride to do laundry, which I very much needed to do after the rainy, sandy, dirty day. After laundry we ate a proper dinner in the Neustadt neighbourhood of Brandenburg. Neustadt translates as "new town," but it seems quite old, at least by Canadian urban standards! 

Anyway, mostly I did not get a chance to see much of interest in Brandenburg, other than what I walked by on the way back to the hotel from the restaurant. But, after what had been one of my toughest days cycling ever, I was too tired to mind much. 

Hannover to Helmstedt, Germany

We ate breakfast this morning in Hannover at a cafe near our hotel and I hit the road around 9:20. The ride out of Hannover was surprisingly quick, and it was back along canals for a significant portion of the route this morning. Given the gravel it is difficult to move particularly fast on these roads but they are scenic and mostly relaxing for sure.

Just past the intersection of the Mittellandkanal and the Stichkanal I ended up in a funny situation in which was I trapped between the canal to my left and a fence to my right. In this case, it was not a relaxing place to be! Eventually I needed to backtrack and then push my bike and crash through a dense hedge to escape. But, escape I did, and a few minutes after that I was in Braunschweig where I ate lunch. 

My afternoon ride was a really lovely 35 kilometres from Braunschweig to Helmstedt passing through the Naturpark Elm-Lappwald, and I reached the hotel at 16:16. 

Diana had already arrived by train somewhat earlier so we were already checked in at the Parkhotel Helmstedt. 

Helmstedt is a small town and not necessarily well known, but for several decades it was the most significant border crossing point between East and West Germany, "Checkpoint Alpha." It may also be the most picturesque German town we have stayed in so far. I am happy for the late evening sunsets because it gives us plenty of post-ride time to walk around and explore.

The building in the centre of the photo below is Helmstedt's town hall, and it has a restaurant in the basement.

It proved a pretty cool place to dine!

White asparagus is in season and has been advertised all along our route, so it was time to try some. In this case, you order asparagus and then chose a protein to go with it. I do not know if I have ordered a vegetable as the "feature" item of a plate before with meat on the side! The asparagus came with a generous serving of hollandaise sauce and it was wonderful. Also, I never see asparagus that thick in Canada.

I was very amused to find out that there is a bowling alley attached to the restaurant. We had a chuckle thinking about the municipal public servants enjoying games of bowling in the town hall basement. 

Osnabruck to Hannover, Germany

For the vast majority of my route on this bike trip I am entrusting Google with navigating. I am well aware this is not always ideal, but it became particularly laughable this morning when I ended up on this "trail" between two farmers fields!

Still, for 139 kilometres today (and many more in days prior), Google took me where I needed to go, even if occasionally it may not have been the smoothest or most direct route. But, of the riding is perfect, like this bike path along the highway (and in this case over the bridge)

For about the last half of my ride in the afternoon I was riding along the Hannover-Linden canal.

Largely this road was unpaved, but not bad, and certainly it was straight and very quiet and very scenic.

Once I left the canal I was in Hannover, and then it was a matter of navigating urban bike paths (which were not quiet at all) into the city centre.

I met Diana just before 18:00 at the Kaiserhof Hotel, just across from the train station.

This was our view from the room, down onto the Ernst-August-Platz and the train station behind it.

Just like we found in Almelo and Osnabruck, Hannover has lots to see, and perhaps even more so since it is much bigger than either of those two. A poster in the hotel shares some of the tourist highlights.

This, for example, is the "new" city hall!

The city hall has a large pond and park behind it. 

And this is the "old" city hall.

I am not certain what this building is . . .

. . . but this is the state opera house.

We were back in our room before the sun was entirely gone. The hotel mini bar is complimentary, so I enjoyed a beer while looking out over the platz as the night closed in.