August 18, 2012
Zig zagging through North Germany towards Bremen
We saw and in the case of pigs smelt nearly every sort of farm animal today. The crops were potatoes, carrots, flowers and Xmas trees. The Xmas Trees were in all sizes from tiny little seedlings too ones ready for harvest. They are clearly very fast growing. It made me think of our ex neighbour when we lived in Epsom. Melba couldn’t bear to throw away her ‘living Xmas Tree’. When she had done with it she planted it in the front lawn. In what seemed no time it was threatening the house and New Zealand laws being what they are she had to get resource consent to cut down such a big tree.
The major crop we saw however was corn. This was truly factory farming on either a magnificent scale of if your views differ, on a terrifying scale. There certainly weren’t any ancient tractors in the vicinity. The main use of all this corn seemed to be for biogas and we saw a massive installation labeled Mt Energie. I have never seen such big silage heaps, there were vast numbers of cows in nearby barns so whether some of the corn went through the cows first before being processed and the gas going into the huge holding containers I don’t know. The whole scale of the operation was so big it was impossible to show how big it was in a photo.
We had hoped to get to Bremen today but after 92 km in the hot sun and on at times very dodgy forest tracks we came to Fisherhude and using my very best German asked ‘habben sie eine zimmer frie’. The answer was nein but then he said wait a moment I will ask my wife. Back he came and said yes and we could sit in the shade while our beautiful suite was got ready. It is of course completely immaculate and our hosts Reinhard and Anne absolutely charming. They were interested in our trip and asked all the usual questions except the one I always see on peoples lips but the are often to shy to ask “ How old are you ?” One lovely lady today was brave enough to do so then immediately began to wonder how she could help us on our way!
It was a kilometer down the road to the Hotel where we ate. On this beautiful summer’s evening all the tables were set up on the lawn and a once again it was a delicious meal. Ken’s meal was rather a mystery but had lots of those lovely fried potatoes with onions and bacon. I had a huge salad with warm duck and it was completely covered with the type of mushroom that had I seen them growing I would have assumed they were deadly poisonous – very tasty they were.
Today's ride: 92 km (57 miles)
Total: 753 km (468 miles)
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