Sept 17th - 19th: Berlin to Wittenberg to Riesa on the Elbe

Leaving Berlin - Michael and Angela get ready to ride!

Sanssouci Gardens in Potsdam - achieved after a slow exit from built up Berlin.  After a picnic without a care ( sans souci ) we set out for Bad Belzig - things became less carefree as the expected 50 more klms blew out, we missed a sign post and finished on a sandy path ( unrideable ) with light fading.  We finally arrived at bad Bad Belzig after 100 klms at 7.45 in darkness - we took the first ( only, at that hour ) accommodation option and our luck changed - room was great, people were nice, dinner was fantastic, price was inexpensive.

The view from our Bad Belzig accommodation - a great relief to find dinner, bed and rest.

Leaving Bad Belzig - the prettiest cemetery I've seen - not ready to lie there yet!

This picture does not do justice to the dirt we accumulated on the ride to Wittenberg - a relatively short   60 klms was compounded by going the wrong way at first, rain, and a series of dirt tracks at odds with Germany's usual autobahn standard bike paths.

Another great accommodation at Wittenburg that came at the princely sum of $54 AUD - the room on the third floor had great views, great location and enough room for a party.  This came with a separate kitchen (fully equipped), a dining room and a shared bathroom with one catch - no-one to share it with - if only we could stay longer!

Why stay longer?  The famous kirk, where Martin Luther pinned his colours is closed until 2016!!!!  We had missed the limited tours into the GUR ( ground under repair for non golfers ) and had to content ourselves with a shot of the famous door which is apparently not very original following a fire!

Luther's 95 Theses are etched into the ironwork on this door - the Reformation was begun.

Wittenberg had other attractions though - great streetscapes for a start.

A Dane had alerted me to this gem - a former East German gymnasium (school) built in typical austere block house style was slated for demolition after the wall came down in 1989.  Then along came Friedensreich Hundertwasser, a Viennese artist / architect who specialised in surreal makeovers that highlighted irregular shapes and saw straight lines as "the devil's tools" - he did a number on the school and today it thrives as a secondary college.  We set out for Reisa with a smile on our dials.

Shades of Bill and Ben, the flowerpot men - a fine use of silver birch.

Shades of a former era.

Accommodation in Riesa - what a difference a day makes - somewhat more cramped quarters - but perfectly adequate given our limited stay.

Ready to roll - headed for Dresden

Sept 14th - 16th: A slice of Berlin

Street life in Berlin is amazing - vibrant, cosmopolitan, interesting, exciting, inexpensive!

Mine's bigger than yours!

Brandenburg Gate

A sarcophagus / memorial to those lost in the holocaust.

Berlin contains many tributes to the gypsy races and Jewish victims of the third reich.

This iconic mural (the one in the background) adorns part of the remnants of the Berlin Wall. It is a fraternal kiss to show the love between cold war East German General Secretary Erich Honecker and his ally, Soviet  leader Leonid Brezhnev.  The artist, Dmitri Vrubel wrote "My God, Help Me to Survive This Deadly Love".

Look who I found - Cameron Tauschke - artist in residence - living the life in Berlin - Cam and Marcie were most helpful in showing us the best of Berlin.
  

Cameron and Rosemary in the death strip of land between the wall and the Spree River - East Berliners wishing freedom needed to broach the wall, cross a strip of land about 50 metres and then negotiate the river - many were gunned down in attempting to cross this narrow strip of dirt.

Cameron thought it amusing to catch us in the garden of desire.

The Berlin Dom - a cathedral that looks more like city hall from the outside.

No mistaking the inside - very Gothic with baroque trim.

Oh what a ceiling!

An organ with pipes to die for!

View of the Spree River from the top of the Dom.

The Reichstag building which houses the German Bundestag (government)

Inside the incredible bubble dome atop the Bundestag building.

Shots of our salubrioüs apartment in Berlin.

Mood lighting!

Computer supplied - nice ambience - shabby chic!

Never turned the TV on in four days - a world record for Michael!

Sept 9th - 13th Rostock to Berlin

Alighted Gedser to Rostock ferry at 9.00 AM to fair weather that turned foul - rode the ten klm into the old part of the city and sought advice about the route ahead, advice about the weather and eventually advice about shelter for the night - a bit of a wasted day as we watched umbrellas being turned inside out by the wind and rain!  

We would be behind schedule if we had one!  Nonetheless annoyed at a lost day, we set off next morning and knocked off 90 klm on the way to Kracow am See (Kracow on the Lake), one of a series of lakes in Germany's Mecklenberg district. 

Lovely country with bike routes that circled the lakes

Crying in the wilderness.........or lend me your ears?

Ear, ear and yet more ears!

Another lake at Waren; I managed to avoid the cow.

Wednesday night at Neustrelitz .........just a lazy 128 klm today - trying to make up for the lost Monday!

Well earned refreshment.

Ready for sleep.

Thursday - off to Zehdenick - more lakes, great trails and another 105 klm.

Just out of Zehdenick - fisherman setting up in the background.

In the home straight - 100 klm to Berlin.

The mechanical harvester missed one stalk - the human harvester collected his ear!

Boats of all sorts ply the Havel canal.

After losing a day to weather on Monday, we have punished oursevles to the tune of 423 klm over four days - we feel like a well packed mattress - stuffed!

But there's more - in the words of Leonard Cohen - "First we take Berlin" - if only!

We have no phone or internet at this stage and must negotiate a city of over 3.5 million to find our Berlin friend and our accommodation for the next four nights - we made it to the major banhof (railway station) and got a map to plot our course - while attempting to use a public telephone on the street outside the station a gentleman of the street spied our bike mounted water bottle into which we had decanted our duty free whiskey - not sure whether he had discerned the contents or he simply fancied the 15 cent deposit on the bottle - he had the bottle in hand when we noticed and roared at him to put it back - he made to argue in a LOTE so Rosemary grabbed the bottle from his hand and  the would be thief left grumbling!  We have had two refundable water bottles stolen from locked bikes since we started in Copenhagen - neither contained anything stronger than water.

Having got our directions straight we set off at speed for a rendezvous with the apartment landlord to collect the key - falling behind the meet up time Michael went for too much in a passing manoeuvre and his left pannier collected an immoveable rubbish bin - the pannier was ripped from the rack and retrieved with broken clips - it was then gerry rigged with a bungy strap on top of the right side pannier.

We pressed on to within streets of our destination only to find we had lost the map!

A local assured us we were nowhere near Winnstrasse - fortunately another local intervened and we were there - so much for taking Berlin.

Sept 5th - 8th: Copenhagen to Gedser (Danish Segment)

Now for the serious stuff - about 700 klm to Berlin.  This first morning on the road to Köge was idyllic but for a serious head wind.

The beach at Köge where senior Danish "naturists" braved rough seas and low temps sans clothes!

Another day of head winds - no wonder they have wind farms.

The white cliffs of Stevns Klint, containing clay layers dating back 65 million years - an archaeologist's delight.

Stevnsfort - reminders of the cold war - beneath these old missiles is a 1.5 klm warren of tunnels meant to provide protection from nuclear attack.

Crossed this bridge from Zeeland to Mons, island hopping, against the wind.

Sensational scenery rolling through the beech forests of southern Denmark.

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This oompah band appeared suddenly by the bike track - we were offered champagne and petit fours and a Danish rendition of "Roll out the Barrel"

All aboard the Gedser to Rostock ferry in the bowels of the boat with the bikes strapped to the deck - a quiet two hour cruise ensued while we went up to the amenities decks, changed our clothes and had breakfast.