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.
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.
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.
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.
