Berne (Campingplatz Juliusplate to Bremerhaven (Hostel/campground): It's not a campground - but we'll take it! - Exploring Holland, Germany and Denmark on a Recumbent Tandem - CycleBlaze
Berne (Campingplatz Juliusplate to Bremerhaven (Hostel/campground): It's not a campground - but we'll take it!
Riding today and yesterday, we were enchanted by the frequent villages along the dyke. Typically, the houses were attractive with reed roofs and lovely gardens. The history of the area was well represented by these houses. The villages were made up of houses on one cobbled street which we rode on alongside the dyke.
The Weser has suddenly become the size of the Rhine with commercial boat traffic. Suddenly, the idyllic meandering river has become an important waterway. As well, we are feeling the wind from the north and the open sea. A serious head and side wind is making our progress challenging.
We approach the ferry and ride right on the boat - a 10 minute ride across the choppy seas brings us to Bremerhaven. We will try to find accomodation here as leaving Bremerhaven can be time consuming getting past the huge port and container terminals along the way. Our priority is to find a place with internet as we have been out of touch for over a week and Mary Ellen's mom's birthday is in a few days.
It turns out that all of the hotels in town are booked solid - no rooms! Actually, we did find a room but it cost 160 euros, so we declined. As we looked at our map trying to decide how far we could cycle before dark, a young woman, Patricia, came up to us and offered us her help. She called a friend and they recommended that we try Havenhostel - a newly refurbished building near the port area of town. Well, we found it and discovered that they were sold out too. As we were about to leave, we asked if there was anywhere that we could pitch our tent in Bremerhaven. The clerk looked surprised, and said that we could camp in the back for 5 euros - free internet!! - and free access to their facilities. Well, that was an offer we couldn't refuse - so we happily camped in the back yard. Yeah!
Peter and Renate from Berlin were camping with us at Camping Juliusplate. Peter is a retired teacher and spent much time talking with us about his life working and living in East Berlin. He and his wife are inveterate travellers, cyclists, climbers and skiers. Such zest for life and curiosity about the world.
Four km. before this bridge, there was a sign (in German) that we thought said to go in the other direction - and to by pass the bridge. The picture showed a bike with a trailer and what it was really saying was that you should go in the direction of this bridge if you have a traier. If we had gone to the left, we learned later that the trail would have been too narrow for our trailer. Thank goodness two German cyclists came along and translated for us.
