Day 7: Ronney to Hohenwarthe

April 19, 2022

At breakfast today we had meat, cheese, and fruit brought to the table, while buns and coffee were off to the side. This works well for us, because we are free to reserve what has been brought to us for later. The cheese and buns and etc were so great at breakfast, but 30 km down the track on a bench in the sun, double great!

Today was really very chilly to start, but sunny. We have enough clothes so that chill is not a problem, and today I could even use a chemical handwarmer packet, one of a small stash we brought from Costco!

Tracking seemed to die at Magdeburg, but this still gives the idea of where we are talking about today.

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The landscape through which are travelling is just about as green and pleasant (and flat) as you could imagine, with the Elbe River and various small lakes often in sight. Just beyond where we spent the night, the Saale River joins the Elbe. The Saale is a sort of familiar name, and no doubt it has a radweg, but we know nothing about it. It's intriguing to think that one day we will find out.

Here is a view from a sign of the Saale joining the Elbe. The lush green land you see is pretty much just like that.

There are not really many towns along our route. In fact, since in this segment were on the right bank, there was nothing.

One nice feature in this park like setting is shelters like these, which would be great for wild camping.

A slightly bigger town that we came to was Durnburg. This has a moderately big schloss that is now a guesthouse. It would be fun to wander its corridors.

Durnburg has modest but clean houses, and no traffic!

We switched banks of the river as we approached Magdeburg, preferring the moderately urban noodling around to fighting the rough paving on top of the dike on the other side.

Our path turns to what would have been 20 km of bone rattling. We turned back, crossed a bridge, and negotiated city pavements instead.

Magdeburg is the largest town in this region. With a population of 238,000 it is actually a decent city size, a little bigger than, for instance, Mainz. Magdeburg downtown boasts at least five big churches, with the Dom, the church of Mauritius and Katharinen, being the largest. This is the only one we went in to.

The Dom is your typical super huge gothic cathedral, begun impossibly long ago (1209) and taking over 300 years to complete.

The Dom - typical, but not so ornate as some.

Inside, the Dom betrays the spartan decoration of the Lutherans. We far prefer Roman Catholic style, with as many pink cherubs as possible.

There was a lot of white plaster statuary. For some reason it all felt more like a garden shop than a holy site.

A project is underway to restore the complement of church bells. I am not sure if they are fighting war damage, or some other form of deterioration.

The square outside the Dom was large and open. I thought this might have been due to bombing, but it seems like it was always like that. The buildings standing around at a distance are large and fairly attractive, but the whole thing is certainly not an architectural extravaganza.

It seems to us that the main axis of Magdeburg was the Dom square to the Markt Platz. The Markt Platz turned out to be another fairly large and open space, on this day partly filled with vendors. At one end is a golden statue, the Magdeburg Ritter, and there is a two tower church overseeing the scene.

We were able to get some nice kuchen from the one bakery truck that was among the vendors. These included one with poppy seeds in a cheese like filling, and there was a fruit plunder, and an apple square. These were all very good.

I assessed the market square as sparse, but in trying to make the case to Dodie, I had to admit that it did have a two tower church, baking, produce vendors, a bank, and a coffee shop, so what was my beef?

Dodie and I in fact agree, though, that this part of Germany decidedly does not display much, if any, capitalistic exuberance. We are not finding walking streets jammed with glitzy shops, almost any bakeries, no shiny washing machines or coffee makers being pushed, etc. Rather, the society here seems solid, family oriented, and more inclined to go walking or cycling in the park than to go shopping.

The market square is open and not so exciting

These guys claim to be the largest hand bakers in town. As far as we could see, they are the only ones!

Just outside the Dom-Market axis, we saw construction that looked very Soviet, and which was likely in-filling for war damage.

This is not to say there was nothing innovative in Magdeburg. For example, look at the "Millenium Tower". This houses a museum of civilisation.

We also got a glimpse of this unique construction with the gold balls.

Rather than stick in Magdeburg, finding a stay in the old town, we "cleverly" beetled off a further 20 km down the river. We had not found anything on Booking there , but a Pension in Hohenwarthe popped up among the POIs in Osmand. We got onto their website, found that a room was available, and felt we had reserved it.

On the way to Hohenwarthe, at about 60 km done for the day, Dodie suddenly lost a lot of strength. Normally we would call that a bonk. But a giant cream filled easter egg did not help much, and she struggled the rest of the way to Hohenwarthe. To our surprise, when we got to the hotel, it's gate was closed, and behind it a sign "Ruhetag" - which means a day off.

Dodie was by then very tired, but in our phones we had spotted a Bett und Bike hotel nearby, and she gamely pedaled over there. I went in, and was told they had no vacancy. Since it was late afternoon and the next vaguely possible place was maybe 20 km off, this was a serious situation. My reaction was to hang in, asking the lady if she was sure there really was no place, and also asking her to phone around, such as back to the place that had mysteriously closed for the day. In time, by some miracle, the lady uncovered a hole in her availability map, a vacant room!, and we were in.

This was very fortunate, because Dodie really had had it. Some salad and wurst restored some strength, but once in the room we tackled the question of where to stay for the next night. Dodie became very tired again, wrestling with this, because Booking really is not offering a lot of options.

We eventually contacted a Bett und Bike at about 70 km and hopefully have locked that in. The best choice in Booking was 50 km, which we deemed too close. But I am thinking this is becoming stressful and kind of a forced march. I think easier to book, closer to cycle to, targets should be preferred. If that means we ultimately use some trains, or shorten the route, the chances of getting round the circuit will be increased. Dodie is sleeping peacefully now, and I am here with the keyboard kind of thinking aloud. Tomorrow I'll see how she feels and what she thinks.

Last chance to avoid sleeping under the bikes!

Reason for Living, today: Roof over your head! (and some pastries in the food bag).

Today's ride: 72 km (45 miles)
Total: 236 km (147 miles)

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Tricia GrahamYou have been doing such long distances for the start of a trip, something we always seem to do then regret it. Dodie I do hope you feel better after a good nights sleep hope tomorrow is better
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2 years ago

Suzanne GibsonI hope Dodie got a good rest! Those are pretty long days you have been putting in. A long day in the saddle without knowing where I was going to sleep that night would really put me to the test. We never set out without a booking for the night any more - in the old days that was a different story.
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2 years ago

Rachael AndersonSorry about your trouble finding lodging. You’re right you should slow down and make sure you have lodging. You can always add extra bicycling when you get to your destination. It’s definitely harder finding lodging than before Covid.
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2 years ago

Rich FrasierTeam Frasier says that a 50k day is just fine. We just slow down and take more pictures!
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2 years ago

Beth ArtI do hope Dodie is revived by a nights sleep. We plan 30km on rough trails and 50km on more civilised routes. As team Fraser says, if there is time and energy we add another cycle around once a bed has been secured. Also gives the option for short side explores on route, if something appears that peaks our interest.
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2 years ago

Steve Miller/GrampiesTo Beth ArtBut,but,but.....30-50 km is just a quick to moderate day ride when we are at home. Longer distances are for touring!
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2 years ago