Last night we decided we would follow the well established Euro Velo 3 to Bremen today. Hopefully that way we would see more, it would most certainly be longer. After taking our time over breakfast we packed up and headed out. The owner/manager was at the front door to wish us a safe journey; obviously a family owned business. A beautifully maintained and run hotel/restaurant.
The sun was bright and already warm at 8:30am, but a very pleasant morning just the same. As usual we were straight onto a lovely bike path and, unlike yesterday, pretty well into the countryside almost immediately. One of the first things we noticed was that there was no wind, neither a head nor tailwind which was fine by us. We rode past many a wind turbine and none were pumping out any electricity as they were all dead still.
Now that the wheat crop has been harvested, about the only crop we saw still growing today was corn and that is looking fairly advanced too. Saw a few dairy and beef farms but most of the dairy cows were under cover in huge sheds like battery chooks. Apparently they produce more milk that way so you can’t blame the farmers for opting for the most efficient method. We just like seeing cows outside eating grass. Each farm has its own silage making system and you can often see them burying fodder or taking it out and heading for the barns. It smells like molasses, but that is mainly due to the fermentation process that occurs once all the different types of fodder are buried underground. We get the impression that the German farmers do very well thank you very much. As you ride past the big sheds and barns you see immaculate gardens and huge houses that are all very well maintained as is the whole village. There was also the odd, very smelly piggery, and a few smelly truck loads going off to market, perhaps?
Not a great deal to stop for today again, just once for a cuppa at Winkeldorf, and then for a bit of lunch in the middle of a forest near Fischerhude. We arrived at Bremen about 1:30pm and just to kill some time before check-in opened, we pulled over at a bakery and had a cool drink and a bite to eat.
At this stage we were less than a km from our hotel so we thought we would give an early check-in a go. At 2:15pm we were in. We were given directions to the parking garage and where to park our bikes, but no instructions on how to get back into the hotel, or so we thought. If we had bothered to read the back page of the parking instructions, we would have been in the room a few minutes earlier!
After some washing and admin we went for a walk to explore the neighbourhood. The hotel is located directly opposite the main railway station so there are a lot of disadvantaged people hanging around which makes for a bit of concern. There was no trouble though; so far that is. This is the “New Europe” and we’ve got to accept it or stop coming here, these are the only options for us. The police here do keep a high profile but unlike France they don’t have soldiers patrolling the streets armed with automatic weapons, so that’s good, or bad depending on which way you look at the situation.
Because we have a kitchenette in our “apartment”, we decided to get meals to heat up and they were both quite delicious. After a post dinner walk for Greg, we settled into the night time routine. We are here for three nights, and will start exploring tomorrow.
