Day 51: Thu 7 Aug - Wittenberge to Bleckede, 112km

13-24 deg C, cool in the morning, to quite hot when in the sun

Ride: 112km: total time: 8h34m: ride time: 6h12m

Ride total G: 1,620km

Ride total W: 1,583km

Walk G: 3km; total: 393km

Walk W: 3km; total: 353km

A very interesting day. We thought we had the route all worked out, cross over to the other side of the river, then follow what we considered would be a fairly straightforward ride, albeit a longish one. None of our nav apps had picked up the fact that the Germans were currently in process of building a great big highway which cut through the route in a number of places around Wittenberge.  Okay, so we recalibrated and we thought we had found a pretty simple solution. Off we went until a few hundred metres down the road old mate in his flash merc pulled us over and with a lot of shouting and pointing made it quite clear that we should not be on that road. (We later realised that although he had good intentions, he didn’t have a clue where we were going and why we were on that road, which was marked for bicycles and cars). Long story short we recalibrated again, and in a very round about way we got back on track, but added at least another 10km to the ride.

There were no more dramatic turn of events for the day and in fact we really enjoyed the ride. Instead of being on an isolated bicycle path we actually used minor roads and went from village to village. Even though there wasn’t anything particularly spectacular to see it was definitely worth the experience. We did notice that this region’s housing seems to be, on average, the oldest we’ve seen on this and other tours we’ve completed in Germany. The lack of widespread bombing during WWII may be a factor, not sure. 

The 112km was certainly not easy, a 14.2% hill was a bit of a challenge as were a few others which weren’t quite as steep, thank goodness for e-bikes. We were given the privilege of riding these hills because we did not want to cross the river and find another set of issues we didn’t know about. In the main the paths were pretty good with a lot of the minor roads having a path off to one side. There were also a few gravel/dirt sections but they were fairly smooth and not too long. 

We arrived about 5:15pm, 15 mins after check-in opened, and were very relieved to be here after a longer than expected ride; with all the recals we did, we added another 18km to an expected 94km day. While it doesn’t look like much in paper, when you’re riding it, it is!

The hotel is quite basic, but we have a large bed, our own bathroom, and a shed to lock the bikes in. It is  only for one night.

Some of the paths we traversed today

This bridge path was at least 1km

Mornos stop at Pollitz, Greg picking wild plums right next to the shelter 

Lunch stop at Bömenzien

Beeeesaaaauuuuuuuuuutifull

Medieval house/barn, converted into house

Square at Hitzacker where we stopped for an ice cream, just before the 14% climb

Elbhotel am Hafen, Bleckede, room #2

Ride route and stats

Views of a tributary of the Elbe, the Bleckeder Hafen, across the road from our hotel

Our hotel

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