August 23, 2010
Bleckede
We thought today would be a very easy day and we would make great progress. We were wrong. It was raining when we left and had rained fairly heavily much of the night. The rain was light though so we didn't bother to put on our jackets. Soon we were into forest with many ups and downs and an unpaved track so that was pretty slow going. At one stage I was confused and took the wrong track following a runner rather than Ken. Panic for about a quarter of an hour or so but we both backtracked and were very pleased to see each other. This forest trail went on for about 15km then we came to a road and followed that coming to 'Checkpoint Harry' and our entrance to East Germany. The museum at the checkpoint was closed but the little town at the bottom of the hill had a very fancy café with enormous mugs of coffee at an enormous price.
After this the track is lonely and desolate with water on each side of us. The Elbe was in considerable flood with many pastures under water and the tops of fences sticking out through it. It was always a relief when another cycle tourist passed us gojng in the opposite direction. There were no day trippers today just serious looking riders with good looking wet weather gear which they had sensibly put on. The rain now started in earnest and it sounded as if our helmets were being peppered with pellets from a slug gun. Foolishly we still didn't put our coats on thinking surely it must stop soon. After what seemed an age we came to a road end with cars and bikes lined up for a ferry. We joined them and put our coats on to prevent hypothermia, then over to the other side. As we sailed into Bleckede we could see flooded roads near the river and a bus stop underwater but apparently no problem for the houses.
Bleckede is a very pretty little town and we felt that we had really had enough for the day so with the help of the Apotheke we found this lovely place. It is in an old farm with the most beautifully done up rooms, our room is 'Storchennest' and our hostess rightly proud of it. A hot shower and dry clothes do great things. We had noticed a bike shop in town so in we went as my poor bike seemed to have got a buckled back wheel in one of the crashes of yesterday. All fixed now and ready for tomorrows adventures Distance today 57km
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Today's ride: 57 km (35 miles)
Total: 493 km (306 miles)
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