May 28, 2023 to May 30, 2023
Wilstedt - Rodekro
Stage 22
Germany is a very leafy place, or at least the parts I've been riding through are. After leaving Hamburg I didn't go through any more towns until Bad Bramstedt, (where I was booked in for the night) and most of the ride was in woodland or tree lined paths or roads. Beautiful!
Due to this section of EDT being on fast cycle trails and roads, and FLAT, I arrived into Bad Bramsted too early to check in, so stopped in for an ice cream - green apple is a very tangy flavour and works well with chocolate, FYI.
My host at the hotel was very chatty (and not at all busy) and informed me that Monday was a public holiday. It being Sunday, when supermarkets are closed anyway, meant I was already facing a potential food supply issue.
My contingency was to order a pizza for eating cold on Monday, and to turn my breakfast tray content into filled rolls.
Turned out, this prep worked just like taking an umbrella to ward off rain. As I rode out of town at 7:25, fully loaded with food, I saw a queue forming at the bakery, so I bought more food, just in case there was nothing open for dinner in Schleswig.
Ha! Schleswig is a holiday town and was fully pumping on the beautiful sunny summer holiday when I arrived. So I sat in the sun and ate my cold pizza (now slightly squished and amalgamated) and felt smug about not having to queue for dinner!
At Rendsburg I had had another underwater river crossing, but this one was preceded by confusion, as I didn't know I was heading for a tunnel. I thought I was crossing on a bridge, so rode around the entry point, looking for a path.
Eventually I followed a roadie inside the building and copied him stepping his bike onto the escalator. It was a steep, long ride down, and a short ride under the river, followed by a lift back to the surface. (Hey Mayor Wayne, Auckland needs at least one bike tunnel. How about it?)
Just before reaching Schleswig I'd stopped to admire a mill pond, and then followed the Trail as it went through the mill building. I was fully expecting someone to come out and tell me off. The bloke who did come out was super friendly, spoke Oxford English, and enthusiastically told me about the private museum where he had curated "all the small things needed for life in the mill over the past 200 years". Delightful!
The next morning was grey and threatening rain as I left Schleswig, and it was an easy and fast 50km to Flensburg and the border with Denmark. One more country completed, and now the last few days in Denmark, heading for Skagen.
Stage 22 completed at Rodekro (another town I didn't see) with a planned 210km and 910m climbing. My actual stats: 217km and 1160m (not sure where the hills were!)
Today's ride: 217 km (135 miles)
Total: 4,608 km (2,862 miles)
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