One of the best things about today's 120 km ride was that the weather was great. I cleared up about 0830 and was clear and sunny afterward. My cold is getting better.
The first photo is a backyard Christmas Tree farm. Their shapes are more natural than our cultured trees. Also, it looked like there was a Blue Spruce in the back.
Meet another Hay Bale family. Better job than the one yesterday.
I found this house / barn(?) interesting because of the multitude of small windows. I'm not sure I'd like to live in it.
I need to talk about this sign. It was on a bridge. The top part seems straight forward. If there is only one truck on the bridge it can be up to 100 tonnes, if two are there together then the limit is 50 tonnes.
So, what's with the bottom sign? One tank at 70 tonnes verses 2 at 40 tonnes? I've seen this sign in a number of places, but have not seen one, let alone two tanks. Of course, this area of Europe has been relatively heavily militarized at times since the World Wars, although we haven't seen much on this trip.
Anyone know for sure?
We're in Hamburg now, heading for the hotel. We had some interesting times navigating around construction at one of the suburban rail stations.
On our first crossing of the river (the Suderelbe) there are 4 bridges in parallel: A railroad bridge, two for vehicles (we were on one of these) and a pedestrian / cycle bridge. This photo is of the stone abutment arch at the north end of the pedestrian bridge. Because our bridge has huge pedestrian / bike sidewalks, I wonder if this bridge's days are numbered.
Further along another bridge - this one caught my eye because of the interesting arched trusses.
This bridge had 2 sidewalks, 3 lanes each way for traffic and two lanes in the middle that were empty (rush our bus traffic perhaps).
There are lots of waterways and a huge number of bridges over them. If I photographed all of them, I'd still be out there.
Dean and I were riding together and we decided to stop at St. Nikolas' Church ruins. Read the plaque to the left to get the history.
The largest section of the church that's still standing. The bombing did no destroy the tower.
The top of the tower - I had to go down the street to get a decent angle. When built in the 1800's it was the tallest structure in the world.
The base of the tower / the original main entrance to the church.
We're at the hotel now. I'm in the 4th floor - a smallish room with a sloping roof. Looking out my window I can see this square, set up with a big screen so the public can watch the Germany / South Korea World Cup Match.
Boisterous at the beginning, but very subdued at the end after Germany lost and was eliminated from the Worle Cup.
Out for dinner with another Greg and Rhonda. Lots of people at the out door restaurants (forgot to take a pix), but not as happy as they wanted to be.
We walked by this building on the way back. Not sure what it is. I'll look closer tomorrow, although there are lots of
buildings to look at.
A statue of Kaiser Wilhelm tucked away in a park we went by after dinner.
Tomorrow is a free day in Hamburg. I've booked a ticket to Miniatur Wonderland (the world's largest scale model train setup. Then I'll think about either a harbour tour or a walking tour about the centre of the city, which we are near to.
A tougher ride today - 129 km to Breme. I'm still not over my cold - I spend the first 20 km coughing & spitting up. Then I'm sweating. Quit whining, Greg. You'll survive
Onto today's journey & sights.
On the way out of Meppen - this looks like an old mill site
And this is a Schloss. Translated it's a castle, but I think it can also be a very fine house or estate. We were too early to look around, but I did look over the fence out back and saw some exquisitely trimmed trees.
A pleasant pond of the side of the road (I ventured here on a 'business' trip). I think it was a small camping ground.
I saw a couple of these - thatched roof houses with a section of metal roof at the peak. I assume the peak of a thatched roof is more vulnerable and needs special protection.
I see a lot of metal roofs over here, and most of these are made to look like classical tile.
Demonstrating the patience of Europeans: the traffic gates came down very early. The train stopped at the station about half a km down the track. Once it finished, it finally traversed the road crossing.
Impatient North Americans would probably have gone around the traffic gates if they could see the train stopped.
Roadside fruit stand in the middle of a village - not uncommon. Selling asparagus and strawberries.
Speaking of strawberries, here's my snack at the bakery next door. Cappuccino and strawberry cake.
We're finally in the land of plentiful cafes. We've barely seen any on the trip so far.
Somebody is having fun with hay bales. The make "marshmallow" bales over here as well - I've seen white, green and black 'marshmallows' in various fields.
In the British Isles they use little red trucks for rural mail delivery. In Germany Deutsche Post uses little yellow trucks.
Here is a yellow bicycle postal wagon.
The postal lady, stops the bike, kicks down the small wheels to hold the bikes and delivers the mail. Onto the bike, kick the wheels back and off to the next house.
I followed this recumbent trike down road in Bremen for a bit. It turns out it is electric. And he had a boom box on board as well.
I had an hour or so to explore before dinner.
Options included a nearby museum or the Hauptbanhof (Train Station). Being 'museumed' out I chose the Hauptbanhof.
Here's a shot from the train platform. Ten platform tracks and two additional through tracks for freight. It looks just like the train stations in old European movies.
Inside the train station isn't too exciting as it has all been converted to a food court. Ticketing is done by vending machines.
There is a park on the far side of the train station and was renamed to Nelson Mandela park.
In it is this tile statue of an elephant. It was originally conceived as a colonial memorial, but was rededicated to symbolize anti-colonialism (I think). The info I have is a bit fuzzy.
There was a plaque near the front of the elephant, but there was also a pack of slightly drunk and seemingly boorish gentlemen right there. So I gave the plaque a pass.
Two sailing ships in the river that we saw on our way in. This one is a floating restaurant.
This one is called the Alexander von Humboldt. In Wikipedia there is reference to an Alexander von Humboldt II as a sail training vessel. I don't know if this is it.
Which brings up another question. The two nearby upstream and downstream bridges (both non-opening), are both too low for the Alex von to get under. So, who knows?
Tomorrow is a 122 km ride into Hamburg. There are some hills on this one, so it's off to bed to try and kick this cold.
Before I leave Zwolle (and my rather dull blog post) here's one I forgot.
A wooden bike. I spotted this outside an apartment building near our hotel.
It looks like a heavy beast, but I didn't lift it up to check.
On the way out of Zwolle:
An interesting marine themed set of sculptures.
Another picture of boats in a canal. These were nice looking, upscale boats.
Typical flat countryside on the way. Crops include corn, wheat, barley, potatoes & hay.
Very large fields. We only saw one field being irrigated, but everything looks very green.
Here's the border with Germany. That's Steve confirming it with his Phone / GPS.
The borders are practically transparent. It would be interesting to find out what would have been here before the EEC (1957) or the EU (1993).
Just inside Germany we saw this farm with a large solar panel array on the roof. I think this is the largest array we've seen associated with a private residence.
A little further along we saw a very large array covering a number of acres of field. The array was a fixed type (ie. did not move with the sun).
From the "My Mother raised a dull child department:" I passed two signs with "Twist" (the next town) crossed out. Not thinking what this meant, I pedaled merrily along until ..... the road was completely blocked by construction. So I pedaled merrily back to this sign and saw the Detour (Umleitung auf Deutsch).
My new German word for the day.
Part of the detour was on a dirt path alongside a corn field.
A bit further along, another surprise - an oil pump jack. We saw about 4, of which 2 were operating. This was the only painted one.
Entering Meppen, crossing the Emse River:
a campsite with lots of pup tents and some canoes on the other side.
I don't know anything about this statue that was attached to the railing.
Later on, in the open plaza there are a large number of loaded touring bikes, so we aren't the only touring group in town.
I don't know where these folks are staying - they saddled up about 3:30 and may have left town.
Meppen dates back to 945, when emperor Otto the Great granted the town the rights to mint coins and collect tolls.
This is the Town Hall (Rathaus) which dates back to 1408, but has had extensive renovations since.
In general, the town did not seem that old; most of the buildings appear fairly modern.
Other buildings in the public spaces.
The is the Gymnasium Church (Roman Catholic), built from 1743 to 1746. It doesn't have the look of a building that old.
By contrast the Priory Church of Meppen looks very old. From my reading of Wikipedia there has been a building on this site from the 9th century, but the church took this form in the 13th century.
Statues at the side of the church
Close up of the tower.
We're staying in the Hotel von Euch, very modern, but possibly noisy (bell tower?). There are complimentary ear plugs in the rooms.
That's it for today. Tomorrow's ride is longer (129 km), but still quite flat.
Today started off with a 20 km convoy out of Amsterdam. Some of the riders don't like convoys, but this one was enjoyable. Sunday morning, early, minimal traffic; not anywhere near as crazy as coming into Amsterdam.
We were lead through Rembrandtpark (near our hotel), then Vondelpark, then through the streets. Very pleasant, but no pix.
Here's one of the crowd ascending the switchbacks before a bridge. As usual for the Netherlands, the word flat applies. This "hill" was about 15 metres high. Our maximum altitude all day was 20 metres above sea level. Our total ascent (the sum of all uphill bits) all day was 305 metres. Laura and I do 370 metres ascent total on the way to Tai Chi if we go around Fairwinds.
A typical cycle crossing of a road. Note the bicycle signal light. Also, they have sensors in the road to sense bikes before the intersections and turn our signals green. Talk about good service!
A rather pretty boat further along. If you look carefully at the base of the mast you can see the 'tabernacle,' the fitting that the mast pivots on when it is lowered.
Well maintained boat - just the spar varnish cost alone would keep you in the poorhouse.
I haven't taken any pictures of signs, but this one floored me. The two words are 'doorrijhoogte varieert.' It was the first word that caught my attention - 4 'o' & 2 'r'
It translates to 'clearance height varies.'
We passed a long line of cars stopped on the road beside us. Accident? Nope. The bridge was up while they loaded 7 boats into the lock. The bridge was down just as we arrived, but we watched for a while.
A long stretch of bicycle lanes & single lane traffic. Look! A hill in the distance. That stretch was over 5 km.
You know it's a slow day for photos when we stop for chickens. But check out the feathered feet on these guys. Any idea what breed of chicken they are? I asked Mr. Google and got two possibilities: Cochins or silkies. I think cochin.
We've made it to Zwolle and are in our modern new hotel, the Lumen. It's on the outside of town.
Can you guess which room the cyclists are in? (It's not mine)
I got in, showered & took a short walk to town. On the way, this building, a hospital.
Along the canal was this line of old working boats, probably converted to liveaboards now. The one up front was an old sailboat with leeboards (side retractable keels) and a broken mast. It certainly had seen better days. These boats were a similar style with very stubby prows.
Around the next corner of the canal is a much neater looking group of boats - the higher rent district?
Here's a map of Zwolle, showing some islands in the canals. The boats in rough shape are at the upper right on the map.
The older part of Zwolle is on the larger of the two islands. The map also shows the relationship between canals and cities and their interdependence.
So, that's it for today. Nothing too exciting and a quiet Sunday evening in a smaller city.
Tomorrow we cross into Germany, heading for Meppen.
One of the best things about today's 120 km ride was that the weather was great. I cleared up about 0830 and was clear and sunny afterward. My cold is getting better.
