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.
