Germany

I entered the former DDR after crossing the bridge over the Oder river. The ‘R1’ bicycle route guided me via quiet roads into the heart of Berlin, the biggest city I’m cycling through on this trip. Thanks to the help of Roxane, a Berlin resident who really went out of her way to help me find some accommodation, I ended up in the ‘Sunflower Hostal’ where I booked a double room for a night.
It must have been 22 or 23 years since I last visited Berlin.

Small section of ‘the wall’ near the former Checkpoint Charlie.

One side of the wall has all sorts of graffiti paintings, the other side is now painted with war stories.

The ‘Fernseheturm’ (television tower) in Berlin.

‘Reichstag’, the German parliament building.

I kept following the R1 cycle route towards Lutherstadt Wittenberg. Next year, the city will celebrate 500 years of the reformation.

After Lutherstadt, I followed the paths along the Elbe river for a while, before heading into the ‘Harz’ mountains and crossed the now invisible line between the former East- and West Germany.. I was still extremely lucky with the weather. Temperatures going as high as 36 degrees.
Since Latvia I am cycling against the wind, all the way through Lithuania Poland and now Germany. In the end you give up, hoping for a tailwind and you just say to yourself, “well, only another 800 km against the wind before I’m home”.

Münster was the last bigger town I cycled through before entering the Netherlands.

One day my Rohloff hub was leaking oil. I guess because of the extremely hot weather at that moment. I did another oil change when I came home, and there was still some oil inside, so nothing to worry about, I guess.

Lunch break at a very friendly Vietnamese restaurant.

I’ve spend one night in this beautiful shelter in the Harz mountains. A good decision, as the night was very stormy. A couple of trees fell down near the bungalow that night.

Total kilometer in Germany: 1.038 km
Average km per cycling day: 86,5 km

Total kilometer so far: 10.510 km
Total altimeter so far: 76.107 meter
Total time on the bike: 692 hrs 19 min

Nights slept inside: 1
Nights slept outside: 12 (5 on campgrounds, 7 wild camping)
Average daily cost Germany: 25 euro

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After entering The Netherlands from Belgium, I continued cycling along the LF1-North-Sea-Cycling Route. I was surprised in a positive way by the landscapes. Dunes & car free cycling lanes. The only negative thing was that I was freezing my butt off. Temperatures were unusually cold for the time of the year and all the way through the Netherlands & Germany, I woke up to white, frosty lawns.
But it were the wet days that were spoiling the fun. And the terrible head winds.
One night in Groningen province, hail bolls of more then a centimeter were torturing the new tent.

Lf1 entered Germany shortly after Delfzijl and followed the German coast in Ostfriesland. At a certain time though, one get’s enough of sea views (oh, and did I mention the head winds ?), so I turned inland a bit and started following the ‘Jutland Bicycle Route’. It mainly follows existing old routes like ‘Ochsenwegen’ in Germany and ‘Haervejen’ in Denmark.

And then….. the weather turned and all became great. Except for my health. Upon leaving the town of Schleswig, Germany, I felt a bit weak already, but at the end of the day it seemed like I cycled it out of my body. Only for the sickness to kick back twice as hard the next day. It kept me idle for a day, but the diarrhea would last for a week so I started making shorter cycling days, but at least I was outside, enjoying the sun. Not sitting under artificial lights in a concrete block. If it weren’t for those continuous head winds ….