April 24, 2022
Day 12: Lauenberg to Hamburg
The Bellevue was the first place on this trip to, covid or not, come up with a full ten jammer buffet breakfast. Not only did they have the needed array of sliced and soft cheese, cold cuts, fruit salad, yogurt, seeded buns, etc. but they fried up an egg and bacon. They also uniquely had comb honey on offer, and some other slightly unusual things, like potato salad.
I feel I have been gaining weight so far on this trip, but with the cold mornings I still feel I need to load in fuel. So I "forced" myself to go for a second bun (with cheese, jam, and etc.). This tour is getting really tough!
We had enjoyed our high perch over the river and the great view from the dining room, but now it was time to leave and to descend toward the river. The road down was very steep, and I said "At least it's not cobbles". Then, oh crap, it turned to cobbles. Dodie countered this by shifting to a forest path that seemed to switchback down at a gentler rate. Our satisfaction with this lasted only a short while, because when our path crossed other paths heading straight down, our wheels wanted to slide out sideways. So we abandoned the whole enterprise and pushed back up the hill. It turned out we pushed into the parking lot of a youth hostel, where a group of men were preparing to take off, with some serious mountain bikes. They had chosen the right spot for such bikes.
Dodie asked if they knew a not exciting way down, and indeed they guided us to the highway, which as usual had a bike path beside. We were even able to find more of those anemones that had been identified for us the other day, except this time in pink.
In principle the highway would go all the way to Hamburg, but we are generally happier following our track, so eventually we cut down closer to the river. The river is now obviously more navigable, and we spotted some barges plying the waters.
At some point the track left the river and we embarked on a long sort of bike corridor, treed, slightly elevated, and with water filled ditches on either side. This corridor gradually filled with more and more cyclists, I guess as we drew nearer to the city. The cyclists from here on in were of two types. There were normal people, plodding along at normal speeds, usually on ebikes, and athletic maniacs always on unloaded lightweight bikes, going twice the speed at half the safety as the rest. No doubt we have Sunday to blame for bringing these people out.
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As usual, the closer you get to a city the more complex the way becomes, and the less reliable the signage. Although we did have the track, it is not always snapped close enough to the road to distinguish between subtle forks. So at one point we were stopped and puzzling over the signs and the GPS, when Jan and Melanie happened along. They were locals, out for a jaunt, and they saw our dilemma. At first Jan just tried to point us to the immediate next correct way to downtown, but he quickly decided to guide us to a point where we could not screw up any further. This turned out to be great, because the way truly was convoluted and not really signed.
Finally we were deemed ok to carry on on our own, and our guides admitted they would now turn around and go all the way back to where they had found us, to carry on with what they had been doing. Such nice people!
We continued along, getting channeled through various concrete ways that were not exactly pleasant. Eventually we started to see some city buildings of some potential interest.
Dodie succeeded in guiding us to the rathaus. This one building is admittedly very impressive. However we could not say that Hamburg any longer has a picturesque Altstadt.
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Before long we set off past the harbour and in search of our hotel in the St Pauli - Reeperbahn area. On this route we noted great swaths of rental bikes and notably, rental electric scooters. These tended to be piled up all over the place. We also some some few people sleeping in the street, but not at all enough to label that a "thing".
I was surprised at the speed with which Dodie announced that we were standing in front of our hotel on Reeperbahn, the Imperial. I said "Wait, we can't go in yet, we haven't seen anything sleazy yet, for the blog." So we cruised down and back a couple of blocks. We saw nothing notable. OK, there were some cigarette butts and a bit of trash on the sidewalk, dramatically out of spec for Germany, but that was it. And the theatre attached to the hotel, that we thought would have some sex shows or such, seemed to be putting on legitimate plays. What a disappointment!
Dodie subsequently read some stuff on the internet that insists this is the sleazy hotspot. So I put it to Google Maps: "Strip club near hotel Imperial". And yes, they are along the street where we walked.
Grampies just don't know what they are looking at? It did appear that none open until 8. I volunteered to take my phone and go research it, but Dodie did not seem too keen on that. Too bad, 'cause Strip and Steak, for example, and which I think is at Pearl's Table Dance, could be good!
True to being a downtown small hotel, the Imperial not only features postage stamp rooms, but it certainly does not have a bike garage, or any garage. Instead, for 10 euros per bike (!) we were offered two spots in an unused room. To reach the room the bikes needed to shoehorn into the tiny elevator. This is where Bike Fridays come into their own. As it was, Dodie's 26" wheel model was ok, but for my 28" monster I had to lift the bike and hold it diagonally in the elevator. It actually got jammed in the doors, and things looked a little dicey for a while.
Yesterday was the birthday of our lovely niece Ashley. Ashley, we just wanted to say we are thinking of you, who clearly add Meaning to our Lives. For you, here is a bouquet of flowering cherry from our route today.
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Today's ride: 61 km (38 miles)
Total: 566 km (351 miles)
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