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Germany


The Dutch-German border is roughly where the moving car is. Wachtendonk, one of my first towns in Germany. Another view of Wachtendonk. I was surprised to find a Jazz band playing in this park on the edge of the town. Some ruins in Wachtendonk. These things appear almost as soon as you enter Germany. Today, they are clearly showing that the wi... Kempen. Kempen castle, in a park in the town. The shopping area in Krefeld. Today really is Sunday so it's quite quiet here. The River Rhein again. I will leave the Rhein here, 266 km upstream of the Hook of Holland. There were flags like this all over the village of Kalkum. When I was very young, I had a book about the city of Wuppertal. I don't know where it came from bec... The Kaiserwagen, the only remaining one of the original trains dating from the Schwebebahn's opening... Any bridge over the river also has to go under the Schwebebahn. This is in case anybody wants to see a picture of Wuppertal without the Schwebebahn in it. A station. I'm afraid there's no train in this picture. It was taking a long time to wait for one to come along... My bike in Wuppertal. Last one. This was quite an attractive shopping area. There were some pretty water features running along the ... It's been raining for most of the day but as I approached Hagen, it got a lot heavier until there we... This is the Road House Motel. It has six rooms with different themes. The only one which could be bo... The sink. A slightly blurry picture of my room.<br><br>Apart from being wet, another problem today was that I ... This is the bar/restaurant of the Road Stop. There is a lot more seating behind me and off to the ri... I'm back on the bike now and following the cycle route signs to Schwerte. I had thought that they mi... I know it's not a car-mounted flag but it was flying as if it wanted its picture taking. The river Ruhr. I stopped at a supermarket to stock up on sweets and found this in the car park. If I hadn't had a g... That was an absurdly short ride. It was only 25 km to Holzwickede but I didn't want to commit to goi... Part of Holzwickede, seen from my skylight. This isn't rain today, it's just some picturesque morning mist. I think it could turn out to be quit... This particular area seemed to be very popular with dog-walkers and very slow joggers. Cycling lessons at a school in Unna. Unna. The market square in Werl. A lot of towns have signs a bit like this showing where the car parks are. This one doesn't look ter... Soest looks very traditionally German. The street name sign on the right is so German that it's almo... More of Soest. I spent a lot of today on main roads like this one, bundesstrasse 1. They are very good. The cycle l... Most of today's large towns had industrial areas like this. They were normally the first sign that a... Here's a car with a flag. Pressure, temperature and humidity on the wall of a chemist's shop in Erwitte. For most of today's r... Rural scenery. Asparagus and strawberries are definitely in season at the moment. They are being sold all over the ... This was a completely failed attempt to take a photograph of myself sitting under a tree eating a pu... Well, it's the World Cup but I don't know why it's here. A castle in Kirchborchen, near Paderborn. To the left of the "give way" sign is a very minimalist phone box. It doesn't take money s... I finally got close to one of these. I was feeling quite relaxed in the sunshine so I stayed here fo... You can't read the inscriptions on three sides from here but they say "CASSEL 9 MEILEN", &... The scenery has become a little hillier, although not as hilly as I had thought it would. Another old marker, this time on a county boundary. The village of Rimbeck. I've just had an amazing descent which I hadn't been expecting, The road los... The hills have gone a bit pointy now. A man looking down a hole. Warburg. Warburg town hall. It seems that my route goes through that archway. Looking at the map in the town square, I had wondered why there weren't any straight roads from one ... Down here then. Freewheeling down this hill did rather put me in mind of a certain 1973 bread advertisement, althoug... Warburg, seen from a distance. Calenburg Just a few kilometres from today's destination, I spotted a tiny cycle route sign which sent me alon... At the bottom of the picture, you can see the wheel of my bike, which is getting wet again outside t... Runway lights at Kassel Airport. It looks like this wall has been used for several tiny distance markers in the past. The river Fulda at Wilhelmshausen. A weir on the Fulda. Buildings in Hannoversch Münden. A slightly different view of Hannoversch Münden. Bridges for a motorway and a high-speed railway line. In a few places, the cladding of the bridges as been stripped away. Strangely, they look like they a... Another detail of the bridges. Quite a large detail, admittedly. A view of the hills. Today isn't as hilly as I had feared it might be. There has only been a tiny bi... I had a scare here when I thought that one of my spokes had broken. It turned out that it had just s... The Iron Curtain. I think this would have been the old checkpoint. The stripey obelisk looks as though it might once h... There have been a lot of slugs and a few snails on my part of the road today. I haven't noticed so m... There was a level crossing on the cycle path so I had to wait for this train to go past. The B80 is ... The village of Uder, at what looks like school kicking-out time. Uder is on the 9th century pilgrimage route from Poland to Santiago de Compostela in Spain. The scal... Wingerode seemed like a strange village. It's not obvious in this picture but a lot of the buildings... I'm still on the Leine Valley cycle route only now, instead of a dedicated strip of tarmac, it uses ... The sign in the town centre said that this road was closed. I was right not to believe it. Another milestone. I have seen quite a few today. Also, I don't know what those rectangles are on th... The centre of Nordhausen, where I will be staying tonight. Nordhausen. Quack! Giant schnapps bottles. My bike locked up for the night.<br><br>The woman in the hotel here seems a bit manic. I had only ju... New and old roads from Nordhausen towards Halle and Leipzig. Look at this weather though. This is th... Lake Kelbra. I encountered these two a couple of times around Berga and Rossla, where we were all trying to find ... The Kyffhäuser Monument near Kelbra. You might just be able to see those two cyclists again in the b... I didn't follow the other cyclists though because I spotted this cycle route and wanted to know wher... Today's wind is almost exactly from my left. It's quite strong so it makes a lot of difference when ... There were a few large slag heaps like that in this area. This petrol station has its own little seat in the shade. It's also downwind of the car wash, which ... Looking back to Allstedt. Google Earth shows part of a military air base filling that clearing imedi... Querfurt. Occasionally, there were signs diverting cyclists off the main road and through villages like this. Merseburg. The old part of Merseburg. Merseburg. Merseburg. Today has been the first day when I have had any kind of worries about the bike. It started this mor... A stack of Smart cars. The start of the old part of Leipzig. Cycling seems popular here. Leipzig. I like the vine-covered tram cable supports. Leipzig Central Stadium. Leipzig. Leipzig. The colours look wonderful in the evening sunshine. You probably have to be here to enjoy them prope... A quick glimpse of a tower. Leipzig's inner ring road. This shop seems to be undergoing major refurbishment. I looks to be a similar shape to the Selfridge... A modern building in Leipzig. Leipzig's main station. Now that I see it, I remember having read about it. It has a ticket hall on ... I'm in no hurry to get to my hotel now so I'm just walking there slowly, enjoying the weather and ta... The bright, warm evening sun. I like how it's shining through that woman's hair. Next to the station is this similar-looking building, which used to be the main post office but is n... This hotel is quite a lot cheaper than any other in central Leipzig so, unusually, I read some revie... There is a large party of cyclists staying here, on a sponsored ride from Prague to Düsseldorf. They... Some of the cyclists who prefer to sit outside. I don't know where these cyclists had been but they turned up at least four hours after most of the ... This hotel seems perfect. The breakfast buffet was good, although I imagine it might have been a bit... The East hall of the station. This whole shopping centre is inside the station. The ticket halls are behind the wall on the left. ... That clock is about the only indication that this is a station, unless you go up to the top floor. Those funny pink cycles seemed to spend most of the day hanging around the station. A water feature. A bit more of the water feature. The bay window in the middle of the picture is a copy of the one wh... Augustusplatz, near the University. A man taking a picture of the City Tower, although you can't really see what he's doing from here. I thought about going on a sightseeing bus but it seems that there is only one tour in English each ... Leipzig station again. This is the bar in my hotel. It's not like any Youth Hostels I remember. The bike shop where I caused confusion yesterday evening was part of a chain called Little John Bike... I'm back in the station again. I think the picture on the wall shows what this room used to look lik... A similar view. This open-top bus comes with balloons but its commentary is only in German. I'm sightseeing now so I'm afraid there are going to be quite a lot of pictures of the old town of L... Nikolaistraße. One of these pavement cafes was a curry place. The smell surprised me when I walked p... On the right is the Nikolai Church. On the left is the church's rectory. In the middle is one of sev... The Old Nikolai School, where several famous figures studied, including Leibniz and Wagner. Where it says "Passage" is the entrance to one of many passages which run through the buil... Inside one of the passages. Still inside the passage. And again. The Riquet house, built in 1908, has a pagoda on the roof and elephants above the doorway because th... These two xylophonists were good. This building is the old Town Hall. The area in front of it is the city's old sweets market, which r... Tourists in front of a statue of Goethe in front of the Old Stock Exchange. Down the stairs is a restaurant called Auerbach's Cellar, where Goethe often drank. A scene in his p... These students also appear in the Aurbach's Cellar scene in <i>Faust</i>. Some of the shops in Mädler Passage seem rather upmarket, such as this pencil shop. The other side of the old Town Hall, and a clever way to support a marquee. Still in Leipzig. A less-developed passage. Barthel's Court. As with most of the centre of Leipzig, this area was originally used for trading. A... Leipzig. In the middle is the oldest coffee house in Europe, which now also includes a coffee museum. A busy park in Leipzig. St. Thomas' Church. This little part of the city is the area where Bach lived and worked. St. Thomas' Church again. Bach statue with tourists. On the left is Little John Bikes, where I got the gear cassette that I wanted, although again the st... The Fedaral Administrative Court of Germany. That tower which I glimpsed down a road yesterday turns out to be on the new Town Hall, which was co... Detail of the Town Hall. Another open-air stage. The band here were playing quite enthusiastically, given how few people were... The new University building.<br><br>I've bought those sweets that I wanted. Having also managed to p... The City Tower. The Moritz Bastion, the only remaining part of the city's fortifications and now the largest student... A last view of Leipzig, with the new University building on the left. Not all German electricity comes from wind. That power station over there looks quite active. It mig... A handy little stopping place. Two large buildings in Wurzen. I never found out what they are for or why they're not quite a matchi... A partially demolished building. As I moved away from the building in the previous picture, I started to think I could hear a marchin... Wurzen. Here's another band. This one was playing jazz outside a car dealership out in the countryside. It's gone flat again, for the moment. You always get these in Germany, although this is the first one I've seen this year. There were quite a few old windmill buildings in this area, although I only saw one with the sails s... What a blue roof! Another fancy town hall. This one is in Dahlen. Looking down into the valley of the Elbe, the river which I will be following for at least the next ... It looks like this water tower is now inhabited. Strehla. Strehla. Strehla. The Elbe, looking rather full. It's flowing quite fast too. In the middle is one of the many small f... The village of Lorenzkirch, seen across the Elbe. This looks like part of the Elbe's flood defence. It appears that if the river floods more than it h... A comfortable place to eat a bag of sweets and have a look at the map. Riesa. You can see that the water level is high here in Riesa. I have a feeling that this could cause probl... A factory by the Elbe. In a couple of places, there cycle route went up steps like this. The metal trough is for bike wheel... As I had thought, the cycle route is closed in placed because of the high water. Where that happens,... This morning's flat land didn't last for long. Luckily, the Elbe cycle route stays pretty close to r... Here, the cycle path runs alongside the road. Those two cyclists are together but have made differen... Meißen. This picture was meant to show a convoy of classic vehicles which was slowly honking its way around ... I don't know what these numbers are about. Something to do with the Post Office, judging by the symb... I've now realised that there is no Czech team in the group stages of this year's football World Cup ... Here, the proper cycle path is underwater so this temporary one has been made. The flooded path. A narrow-guage railway on the outskirts of Dresden. I think it might use steam trains. There are vin... This hotel has rooms which look okay but it lied about giving free Internet access so I'm not going ... Anyone fancy a Porsche? Dresden station. I'm sorry to say that this is its good side. I'm not quite sure how I managed to go wrong getting from the station to the city centre but somehow... A pleasant avenue heading towards the city centre. I don't know it he's meant to be aiming at anything in particular. Staging being put up for some sort of outdoor event. Plenty of heavy-duty mains cabling. Dresden's Old City. Pleasure boats in Dresden. The cycle route to the Old City passed through this little garden. Dresden with flowers. The Augustus Bridge leading to the Old City. A horse-drawn carriage for tourists. Slightly annoyingly, there are two open-top double-decker buses... A detail of the Catholic Cathedral. The baby in there is getting its own sightseeing tour. I'm impressed by Dresden. It has a Bridge of Sighs of sorts here. Although this area is known as the Old City, to distinguish it from the 18th century New City across... Behind the archway, the so-called Old City has been re-built in a very modern style. Plenty of space in Dresden. The domed building is the Lutheran Church, which was re-built between 1993 and 2005. The Martin Luther statue in front of the church. It looks like there's going to be a new bridge across the Elbe here. Here are some bits of it. The Abrechtsberg Schloss. I'm not really sure why it was built like that. The Dresden Schwebebahn, shorter and hillier than its Wuppertal counterpart. This bridge is known as the Blue Wonder. Just a mast. It looks a bit funny when cyclists approach my cycle path by gliding through waist-deep grass. The Pillnitz Schloss. There's a tiny Czech flag on the little mast sticking up from that bike. I'm still in Germany at the... It looks like the river can flood quite a bit more than it has at the moment. I passed some high wat... You can see how fast the water is flowing from the waves made by these bridge piers. Another submerged section of the path. I got my wheels wet going through here. A dragon boat! I did that occasionally a few years ago. I had been hearing this one's drum for a whi... Pirna. Now the terrain is starting to get hilly. The girl on the right was in the previous photograph. She ... Oberrathen. Waiting at the level crossing on Oberrathen. There is a large rest area for cyclists at Oberrathen. I had a lolly here. A model railway. I've seen cigarette machines in the street all over Germany but I've never seen a bicycle inner tube... The scenery continues to get more rugged. This is part of the ridge of hills which separates the Cze... Königstein Fortress, on top of the hill. Königstein. I think you can hire rafts like this for a downstream ride. As you might expect, they were going pre... Königstein. Even though I won't be staying in Königstein and I've already booked a room for tonight, I got quite... An observation tower. That's the old border control on the road. My side of the river stays in Germany for another few kil... Hrensko. To the left of the bridge, it looks like there's an overhanging piece of rock whose bottom ... It turns out that the kilometre markers weren't counting down to the upper limit of the navigable ri...