nbjtours

Cloppenburg, Germany

Day Nineteen 108 miles 1000ft

Not a shady road or even a cruel friend, but according to Google translate, a hurt road, in real language a knackered road. As I was to find out today not everything German is perfect. 

  
Looking out over the small port from our official parking spot on the wharf, again we were blessed with good weather and had another early start to catch a ferry. This time across the river Elbe. 

I had a short  1.5 mile ride along the river levy, where even the sheep were German (the towels were down) and refused to move forcing me to weave in between them as they lay across the path. 

 The ferry was  a good 20 minute trip along and across the Elbe, before I set off for segment one of today’s ride to coffee. 

There were no climbs on today’s ride at all, apart from a few bridges over canals, motorways and railways. So in theory it was an easy ride. Certainly it was the least climbing I have done in a 100 mile day. 

  
The land was certainly flat and agriculture was either maize or dairy farming. In addition I saw some huge nurseries specialising in acid soil varieties such as heathers and conifers. Judging by the size and number of tractors the farmers do not go wanting. Towards the end of the day I passed a massive peat mine ( not sure of the correct terminology) surrounded by no smoking signs, which explains the number of nurseries.  

 After our coffee stop Nigel and Monica made a short detour to meet up with her aunt for the first time in over 30 years – an emotional experience for all. 

This meant that for once, I had to fend for myself at lunch, but now that there are frequent towns it was not too difficult to find a bakers shop to sit down and have a coffee and Pflaumenkuchen, excellent. 

Most of today has been on cycle paths running alongside roads which in the main are excellent, as they keep you away from the speeding traffic and lorries, only tree roots causing nasty ridges to jolt you and slow you down. Whilst they are superb the only issue is that often the path goes into the village on one side of the road then switches across out the other side, often requiring a last minute dash across the road and the grass verge. 

A second ferry across the Wesel river saw it run for just me on my bike and two cars. 

  
If anything the countryside got flatter, but the state of the small country roads made the UKs seem brilliant. The standard warning sign at the start of almost every road junction was Strassen-Schaden. To be honest that was right. I have never seen so many different issues with roads in a very bumpy 30 miles. There were two inch wide cracks (many just filled with tar creating graffiti like patterns on the road), edge subsidence, potholes, just gravel, washboard Tarmac, and worst of all, a section for 5 miles made of of blocks, looking like someone’s drive, which caused everything to vibrate like crazy.

 
My apologies for going on about the road surfaces but with tyres pumped up at 120psi a cyclists relationship with the road can be very intimate and all consuming!  

  
  A pleasing day, as it was dry and I got another 100 miles done, and 2000 miles completed  on the trip. The final total is looking more like 3800 to 3900 miles at this rate     An earlier finish tonight just after 6 allowed time to do a check over the bike ready for tomorrow    

  In someways it is good to prove that the Germans aren’t great at everything. It is disappinting though  that as well at these roads the 3G seems non existent, so a comprehensive blog with pictures may have to wait. 

Tomorrow sees us cross into Holland. We are flying through these countries now.