Day 36: Bergwitz to Markranstadt: We made it!

August 23, 2013

Yikes, almost the whole day was on gravel paths! We did make it to Leipzig, but our true destination was Markranstadt, which is 16 km further on. We arrived in Leipzig just at dusk, leaving us with finding the way through an unfamiliar city in the dark.

So now it is past midnight, and bed time! Check back "tomorrow" for the full story.

... well it's tomorrow, here is the story, and maybe some uncaptiioned photos:

There was only one table for the people with tents, so we shared it with a family from Leipzig. This is a difficult situation, blog-wise, because there is a tendency to talk to your table mates, rather than write on the tablet. However the blog has another problem - shortening daylight hours. So I did some blogging, until the light failed. After that, one can of course use the headlight, but then it will shine in your table mates' eyes. Nothing to do, then, but talk all night!

The captive audience at the picnic table pulled out a Galaxy Note to look at this blog. However, if you look closely it appears they are actually playing Alien Invaders.

Dawn comes quickly when you talked all evening.

Dawn naturally came early, and after a quick look at the lake and some bread and cheese, we were off. Our target for the day was Leipzig - or actually the suburb of Markranstadt, south of the city. Leipzig is a major destination for us, and in fact is the reason we are in this part of Germany. The story in (very) brief is that five years ago Marius and Christian (then 25 years old) came to stay with us as part of a farm stay program. Computer experts, they actually stayed on in Canada, and to this day Marius (and treasured new friend Sandra) still lives at the farm. Christian has shifted to an apartment in Victoria, where he lives with other treasured new friend Melissa.

Christian's parents have visited us in Canada, and last year they met up with us in Germany, at Passau, for some fun days. Marius's parents have also been at the farm several times. In fact, they are there now! But this would be our first time to see Christian and Marius' home town and to stay with Christian's parents, Jürgen and Biirgit.

With about 70 km to Leipzig, we phoned ahead and confidently predicted a late afternoon arrival.

Hah!

The first thing that hit us, and the main feature of the day was the routing of the Berlin-Leipzig radweg through a series of forests. Actually, these are labelled on the maps as "Heide", which we thing we have learned refers to heather, and which would make these areas "moors" or "heaths". All we saw, though, was pine forest. More to the point, all was saw was dirt track through pine forest.

With loaded bikes and little wheels, dirt track means slow and difficult going.

The next little routing quirk was the assiduous work to keep the cyclists away from any town centre that might offer some kind of supportive service - like how about a coffee, maybe? In fact, this may not have been too relevant, because any town we did scavenge through did not actually seem to have any services.

The final quirk was the coy placement of the route signs, which in any event had been downsized to 3x3 inch stickers. The placement was coy, though, only when there was actually a sign. In many critical spots, like a Y in the road, there was no sign of which way to go.

Unless we are talking about loose gravel

The landscape was fairly ordinary and services few, but there were some picturesque shots, like this.

Along the way, near Bad Schmeideberg, we ran into Nadine and Sebastian, from Essen, and Sebastian's dad, Franck, from Leipzig. They too were cycling to Leipzig, and were mabe the only fellow travellers in this direction we had seen. After some active chatting on the trail, Sebastian suggested we go for a beer in the next town. Now, Grampies do not drink beer, but an orange juice or coffee sure sounded great. Besides, it would be instructive to see how a native of the country would find such an exotic thing, out here in the residential desert cum "heide" wilderness.

The answer was that first Sebastian twice stopped and interrogated locals about restaurant locations. He found that there was one, on route, 5 km ahead. So our new friends cycled at Grampie speed for 5 km, an impressive feat of patience! The restaurant was labelled a "gaststatte", which means "restaurant". Duh. The thing is, with no outside tables it did not look like anything to us, and really gave no indication that it was open. Well it was, and soon the coffee and orange juice was flowing freely!

Sebastian and Nadine have been planning a cycle trip from Anchorage to South America, so we found them well versed on the conditions back near our home. Most fun, though, was to be able to talk "tech", such as how to keep electronics charged while on the road. Sebastian commented on how I apparently had a Power Monkey - correct! And I sagely asked him if he had ever heard of the German product from Bosch and Müller - the eWerk. Aha, on his bike already was an eWerk connnected to a Power Monkey Explorer! Don't we just love this stuff!

We left Sebastian, Nadine, and Franck to speed on ahead, while we slowly cranked our way. We got lost and wound up on a no shoulder high speed road, retreated, found the radweg, found it blocked off by construction, and fought through that to earn the right to crank slowly on rutted dirt in the forest.

Nadine and Sebastian. Sebastian shows his charging setup.

The group photo in front of the gaststatte

In the Dubener Heide they have a Biber (beaver) tour. We laughed. We have yet to see almost anythng alive in the forest.

Deep in the Dubener Heide - we will never get out of here!

Inside the Heide hikers' (emergency?) shelter

A heide shelter - great in a pinch, if you can spot one

Whaaa, which way would you choose. (Hint - left was wrong!)

Temporary respite from gravel on a deadly high speed road with no shoulder.

And the radweg for which we have the maps - at home

After fighting our way off the death road and to the radweg, we immediately met this road block

This is what we thought of the road block

Better take a closer look before you decide!

At least beside the way were dozens of semi wild fruit trees - plum, like this, plus apple and pear, with peaches too, not nearly ready.

We made it, sort of. The northern boundary of Leipzig is still a long way from sanctuary at Markranstadt.

The nothern part of the city has extensive parks.

Night was falling as we reached the Leipzig train station, our jumping off point for the 16 km trek to Markranstadt

A frantic run through dark, busy, noisy streets.

Dodie had pretty much had it, claimed the window was gone for repair with a hazelnut/chocolate square, (thoiigh we administered one anyway). Jurgen found and rescued us 6 km from home. Dodie looks a bit distraught in this photo, but she really was sort of ok, as shown below in the sequel.

A restorative snack. Birgit made the quark/pudding/custard layeer torte!

Today's ride: 103 km (64 miles)
Total: 2,573 km (1,598 miles)

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