Day 10: Knock to Wittmund

July 28, 2013

The campground hosted a party last night, featuring one loud band, one bratwurst and pommes stand, and one beer stand. It was enough for the people to have a really good time. even the old Grampies found that if you are hungry enough, any bratwurst and any pommes tastes great. And while the loud band may sound tuneless and thumpy from a distance, standing in front of the speakers is lots of fun. The small crowd danced and clapped, until 3 in the morning. Grampies joined in until 7:30 p.m.. We are now early risers, eh.

The bikeline route, and all its sister routes, proceeds from here on the coast, by the dikes. As a hint, that is why the books we bought were called the North Sea Coast Route. However, we ar tired of fighting sheep and cattle grates. So we hatched the plan to "go commando" and head to Wilhelmshaven by a more direct route. First we had to get out of Knock, though. Knock is buried deep in the southwest corner of the peninsula we are generally trying to cross. Here is where Dodie's little compass helped out. We headed north east. Duh.

The first town up, though, was Rysum, more north than east. Rysum is a medieval town, centred on a church and a mill, and very pretty. From there is was through mustard and corn fields and by a few more towns, to a position back north of Emden. Here, in traditional Grampies fashion, we went beserk and jumped on a semi-major highway, the B210. Since this is Germany, the highway had a good quality cycle path beside it. On the other hand, it cuts straight across country and does not trifle with little towns. So the Grampies just booted it.

In the small town of Krummhorn-Pewsum, a little north of Emden, we found a small snack bar open. The proprietor, Peter Oortgiese, was baking croissants in a small oven. He put together some buns, cheese, and coffee for us, and this really hit the spot. Peter used to travel internationally for a company, and had experience in the US, as well as Asia. Moreover, when I asked him to translate a message sent by Fonic to our tablet, about firing up internet using the LIDL SIM I had just inserted, he not only could translate (to the extent that anybody can understand a message sent by a communications company on almost any topic, but he knew what I was trying to achieve. As it happens, only a call to Marius later, using the OneSim, could straighten out the problem, but Peter eased the discomfort of feeling incommunicado in what for us is the middle of nowhere.

There are many turbines with this design in this region

Peter and Steve try to get the tablet to connect to internet - they have partial success

It looks promising but still needs Marius to get things going from back home

With the combination of this being Sunday in Germany in a non-tourist area, and the highway having nothing on it anyway, there was not a surplus of further cafes to stop in. In fact, when we reached Aurich and came upon the first McDonalds since maybe Amsterdam, we almost went in. Within a few km we began to wish we had, because we were seriously weakening. We do have food, like envelopes of tuna, but its a pain to have to drag them out, and they look like cat food.

Luckily, we came across a Croatian restaurant that happenedd to be open. It was a little costly, but it's magical how (with a few euros in your pocket) you can go from starving in the street to a banquet at your table. The waiter spoke no English, but we now an make out a menu pretty well. One mystery at our table was little vials that we took to be oil. Ok, whatever. Actually, they turned out to be schnapps (pear, I think). Grampies gave it a little try. Euuuuwwwh!

The road we chose for the rest of the day

Although we were overstuffed at the retaurant, all that protein and vegetable felt unbalanced. so in the interrest of nutrition, we found an eiscafe in Wittmund. Eiscafe has reached a high level of development in Germany and Austria. Have a look:

We had identified a Campingplatz just beyond Wittmund, and found it easily. What was not so easy was the elaborate form the German only speaking lady filled out. First she interrogated us on the details of our home street address, and struggled with the concept of "British Columbia" too. Then she unleashed a stream of charges, from 12 euros for each of our bodies to 1 euro for each bike, to a deposit on a washroom key, to shower tokens, to 1 euro for the tent spot (or maybe tent) , to 10% tax, maybe, etc. By the time she was done, we had been fleeced for 22.70 euros, or twice what we believe is the going rate. And oh yes, no wifi at any price.

Dodie says I am grousing here in the blog about the charges. No, I say, I am just listing them (repeatedly!). Anyway, we are well positioned here for travel to Jever and Wilhelmshaven. Jever is famous for beer, we hear, a fact lost on the boring Grampies!

Today's ride: 77 km (48 miles)
Total: 655 km (407 miles)

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