Rain and Winds - onwards to Hameln: Holzminden to Hameln
Last night at the campground in Holtzminden, there was a special "summer party" with dancing, a magician, delicious food and drink. I had a steak dinner with fries and Mary Ellen had a special Curry Wurst with potato salad for a total of 6 euros. The internet was free and we were only charged 7.50 euros for our campsite. The campground was mostly set up for RVs and trailers and there was only a small area for tents. When we first arrived, the owner showed us to the tent sites. Because they were almost full, he gave us an amazing site right on the riverside in front of the premium RV sites. We spent hours at the summer party working on our journal. The people watching was amazing and it was a real slice of life. It was wonderful to see Germans relaxing and having fun on their vacation time. A magician entertained the crowds and then the serious dancing started. A disc jockey played music while people danced. Whenever a popular German song came on, the dance floor was filled with people while the rest sang along to the music. The weather all day was cloudy and cool with the constant threat of rain. When we first started riding, it started to rain heavily. We sought refuge from the rain in a bakery/coffee shop. After we got comfortable, found a table and had taken off our wet rain jackets, the owner informed us that she was closing. We quickly bought a couple of "coffees to go" and headed outside into the rain and were on the prowl for another place to relax and wait out the rain. We enjoyed riding around the historic centre of Holtzminden and appreciating its architecture. After the rain stopped we headed out again. The riding along the Weser River was excellent. We stopped in Bodenwerder to visit the Munchhausen Museum, an interesting little museum chronicling the life of a unique storyteller. The day was one of putting rain gear on and then taking it off. When we arrived in Hameln, the weather continued to deteriorate and after searching in vain for the campsite south of town, we gave up and found a reasonable Hotel Garni in the town centre. Once we checked in, we were glad we had chosen to stay in a hotel as the heavy rains finally arrived. In just walking across the road for some food, we got completely drenched, despite our umbrella and our raincoats. Tomorrow, more rain and thunder storms are predicted -so we plan to get an early start after breakfast.
So far, we have found that on the Weser River, we are happy to find camping conveniently located in the town.
The campground owner's dog - there must be a children's book story in this dog....so full of character. When we walked in, the dog was standing behind him with his paw on the man's shoulder. The dog cocked his head, perked up his ears and we found ourselves talking to the dog instead of the man!
Our view of Holzminden from our tent site - we had to pinch ourselves at our good fortune to be so well situated away from the busy action of the campground.
Mary Ellen met Sondra while waiting to shower. She helped her figure out the logisitics of paying for your shower in a machine the outer hallway away from the showers. They enjoyed getting to know each other in a mixture of German and English - her husband was the DJ. While eating our breakfast - we watched her young son catch a fish in the river. A tough lesson for a young fisher as the Weser River in this area is "catch and release".
A day for us to see cats....and for us, that's a good thing. This was quite funny - after seeing the statue in the previous picture, we saw this cat sitting next to it in the tall grass. I thought that it was another whimsical statue until it moved its head!
This information board has whetted our appetite for a future trip - Eurovelo 1 from France to St Petersburg, Russia. We like the idea of seeing so many countries on one route.
This picture shows an image of one of his most famous stories - to spy on the enemy, he rode one of his cannonballs and to return, he rode a cannonball fired by the enemy.
A fellow recumbent enthusiast and blues lover. He was returning from Denmark and kindly gave us his map of campsites in Denmark. He had attended the blues festival in Norway and saw Derek Trucks and Susan Tedeschi (our favourites as well).
The only difficulty of the day - and the Weser River so far. This cycle bridge, as you approach Hameln, is in very poor shape and unridable with a loaded tandem. The boards are worn and rotting, and the worst part was, the angles are too sharp to get the panniers and trailer across. It was challenging controlling the bike and the trailer by hand...but we made it.
