Day 7: Berlin to Oranienburg

Just some pictures now, will write words in the morning.

Rest Day in Berlin

Slept late, ran errands, did laundry (very important!) and played tourist. Very boring, so I won't bother you with it. One of the errands was picking up a cheap smartphone so the picture quality will be much poorer than before, but at least there will be pictures.

Tomorrow we ride to Oranienburg. Not a long ride but past history says we will get lost three times trying to leave Berlin.

Day 6: Jüterbog to Berlin

First the bad news -- I managed to break the screen on my camera -- it takes pictures but I can't see what I am aiming at. Since my (al so broken) smartphone was my backup camera, no pictures for me (and for you). I may borrow pictures off my bother's smartphone.

Around Jüterbog they have the grate system of paved trains called "Fläming Skake."  The region was settled centuries ago by Flemish immigrants hence the name for the region. The skate is just what you think -- these are trains designed for inline skaters (smooth and no steep climes) but are perfect for biking. There is also a large Rehab clinic for spinal injuries so you see lots of people on hand powered bikes as well.

Anyway, the first 20km or so was on the the skate path it was divine. After that they were mostly OK but some stretches where the path was basically overgrown and you almost needed a machete. One thing, once we got about 30km from Jüterbog the signage -- which had been great until that point -- basically disappeared. We saw the occasional sticker on a signpost and that was it.

We had the usual problem that even though it was Sunday, there didn't seem to be any pubs, cafes or even ice cream shops open. Finally at Mellensee we saw a fish restaurant and stopped. It was a good choice -- not only did they have excellent food, in the summer months they have beer from Pivovar Rychtář in Hlinsku in the Czech Republic. They didn't say which one it was but from the descriptions, probably the STANDARD.

Back on the road Mother Nature was playing with us. First it got cold and rain started. Then as soon as we put our rain gear on the rain stopped and the sun came out. It was way too humid for rain jackets so we stopped and took them off. Then it got cold and wet again -- you get the idea.

Finally about 4:30pm we reached the city limits where there is a memorial to those who try to escape over the wall -- I hope to have my brother's picture tomorrow.

We were worried about riding in Berlin but because it was Sunday (with some sporting even happing this evening) traffic was light and we sped thru town to the apartment we had rented.

Tomorrow is a rest day, if the weather is half way decent we'll go play tourist.

Distance ridden: 88 km

We are at the half way point!

Day 5: Bad Schmiedeberg to Jüterbog

A long day today -- 85km -- and we started off with slightly better trains than yesterday but still pretty crappy. Then we crossed the border into Sachsen-Anhalt and it was like night and day -- paved, well maintained paths -- even thru the forest.

The internet service at the hotel is very slow so I may not upload pictures until later.

Distance ridden: 85 km

Day 4: Leipzig to Bad Schmiedeberg

I'm not sure, but I think today was the single worst day of riding that I can remember. 

First we had problems getting out of Leipzig and we ended up riding about 6km extra.

Once we got on the Leipzig - Berlin bike path things went well -- the path was well marked once outside the city center.

We had some fierce headwinds, though, which sort of explains this guy and his brothers...

The day was turning hot and we went thru many villages but not one had any sort of business open, not even a convenience store. After about 2 hours we came across a fancy resort hotel and while they didm't have a restaurant, the nice lady sold us some soda and juice. That with a Clif bar was lunch.

Then we were into the forest. I have ridden on trails thru forests in Western Germany and while not all are paved, they were most well maintained. These were basically logging roads, not anything I recommend anybody on a road bike try.

In addition it had been raining so the tracks were muddy as well. No fun at all.

Finally we came back to civilization at Bad Düben. The first gasthaus was closed but the second was open, so we stopped for a beer and a snack. Bob and Tom had the Ur-Krostitzer Pils and I had their Schwarzbier.

The pils was quite nice (though the context is important) as I remember from a trip to Leipzig years ago. The Schwarzbier was OK though not as good as last nights Schwarze Rosen.

While we were sitting it started to thunder and rain. "Oh boy, we're screwed" as we had 20km left to go. We headed out of town and at one point the rain started falling so we put rain covers on our bags (and our bodies). We soon reached the second stretch of forest.

It was hot with little wind and the rain hadn't really started, so off came the rain jackets. But this was the forest from hell. Muddy tracks full of rocks and roots and soft spots, all the time waiting for the rain to start. It took us maybe 90 minutes to do that 15km thru the forest.  Mostly it was the other guys waiting for me as I rested after a particularly harrowing run.

Finally we came out of the forest onto a gravel road near Bad Schmiedeberg. After 2km of that it was blessed pavement. A quick downhill run and we were at the hotel.

After some hiccups with the internet access it was off for a tasty dinner with forgettable beer. I left my camera in the room but you didn't really miss anything.

I am going to have to re-evaluate the remaining days of riding. We have a bit thru various forests and if they are all like this we may take some trains to bypass them.

I can safely say, don't even think about riding the Berlin - Leipzig Radweg without a mountain bike.

Distance ridden: 62 km, with 20 of them hellish.

Day 3: Naumburg to Leipzig

Not much to write about today.  All morning there was the threat of rain. We left Naumburg shortly after 9am and continued to follow the Saale River Bike Trail, which was marked with the sign below

We spend the first hour riding along the edge of the forest.

Sometimes the river was on our left and sometimes we went inland a bit and had fields on the left.

There was the occasional fortress up on a hill...

After Weissenfels we left the Saale River trail and headed towards Leipzig. We had a couple of steep hills thru the forest...

...but had a great view from the top.

We didn't pass many other cyclists -- there really must not be too many bike tourist because we didn't pass any open cafes along the route -- not even signs pointing to a cafe or gasthaus a kilometer or so off the trail.

We finally stopped for lunch at a Norma shopping center in Lützen where they had a butcher shop that sold cooked sausages. We each had a couple of very good garlic sausages and then got back on the rood.

Shortly after Lützen the trail ran along a former rail line that was converted to a bike trail. It was a glorious ride as it was straight and level and well maintained. However, it was a bit boring with nothing along the way except farm fields.

The rail line ended on the outskirt of Leipzig. We must have miss a turn off because we ended pretty much on city streets. With the help of Bob's smartphone and Google Maps we found our way to the Leipzig Main Station, with the rain finally starting about two kilometers from the hotel. But it wasn't heavy and just cooled us off a bit.

After getting cleaned up we caught a taxi to Ohne Bedenken, the premier Gose pub in Leipzig.

They have to Gose on tap: Döllnitzer Ritterguts Gose and Leipziger Gose from Bayerische Bahnhof Brauerei. Bob had never had either and like Tom and myself preferred the Ritterguts.

This is not so say there was anything wrong with the Leipziger Gose -- it had a good flavor but was less sour. If my local had it on tap I would certainly drink it.

They had "Schwarze Rose" Schwarzbier from the Rosen Brewery in Thuringa so we ordered one just to try it. It was much more flavorful than the Köstritzer of yesterday

Tomorrow we will be fighting rain again to Bad Schmiedeberg.

Distance ridden: 58km

Day 2: Jena to Naumburg

The weather forecast call for rain pretty much all day. But about 9:30am it had slacked off enough that it was really just misting so we headed out. It was cold though, in the low 50's. Someday I'd like to come to this part of Germany in the summer.

We were fallowing the Saale river trail. Usually, a river trail is a good thing as rivers usually don't have hills. However the Saale valley is very narrow and sums places you must go up the side of hills. So it was up and down but the path was so wet and slick with leaves that you really could get up any speed on the downhill.

Soon we came to a recreation of an old time covered bridge. Worth a picture.

The rain really never got going but there was water falling off the trees now and then. The forest trail was really fun to ride.

Before we knew it, it was nearly noon and we were about half way., in Camburg. Time for lunch and a beer. We stopped at a gasthaus just off the bike trail. The beer was Hasselroder  Pils (owned by AB ImBev) and was drinkable but a little sweet for my taste.

Lunch was a bockwurst with potato salad.

The scenery was just great. Lots of little castles on the tops of hills.

Then we came to Saalecke and the fun began.

I knew it was going to be a hill because the trail followed a switchback. I didn't realize how high it was. We ended up looking down on the two castles above. I am not ashamed to admit there was some walking of bikes.

Then it got worse. The downhill road was basically washed out, just a mass of rocks a concrete pieces. We had to walk our bikes downhill.  I think that is Unconstitutional. After quite a while it got smooth enough we were able to slowly ride down.

Then we missed a signpost and ended up going up another large hill that we really didn't need to. When we finally made it back to the river there was a cafe and it was time for a beer. This one was from Saxony-Anhault, Wernesgrüner (part of Bitburger). It too was drinkable but a little on the sweet side.

After  few more false turns we arrived at lodging for the night, basically a holiday apartment. On the 3rd floor again. I am doing way more stairs than I am used to.

We decided to walk around and find a place to eat.  Naumburg has large old cathedral dating to the 1200's (most of it, they expanded it in the 1800's).

Naumburg Cathedral

We headed towards the market square and had our choice of restaurants.

Naumburg Market

The restaurant we chose had Köstritzer Schwarzbier and Radeberger Pils. I went with Köstritzer (also owned by Bittburger but brewed in Thuringia and not that far away from Naumburg, so I guess it is local).

It is Pferfferlinge mushroom (chanterelles) season so I had a Schnitzel with Pfefferlinge. Yumm.

Tomorrow we head to Leipzig and will be chancing the rain again.

Distance risen: 47 lm but lots of vertical

Day 1: Bamberg to Lichtenfels then Jena

It rained really hard all Monday night and into Tuesday morning. But by 9am it had stopped and the sky looked to be clearing somewhat, so we decided to go for it. (The alternative was to take the train from Bamberg to Jena)

So we loaded up and were on the road by 9:30am. We made a few small stops along the way to adjust this and that.

Bike path near Kemmern

Bike path near Rattlesberg

When we reached Breitengüssbach we stopped in at the "Little Hummer" brewery at Pension Karin, but nobody was about so no morning beer for us.

By 11am we were in Ebing, home of Schwannen Bräu so we stopped in for a beer.

It was copper colored and the initial taste was of something different (but not unpleasant) -- a house yeast character, perhaps. Sometimes those flavors can build up so by the end of the beer you are tired of them but not so with this one -- I was as enjoyable at the end as it was in the beginning.

We pushed on because we wanted to catch the 2pm train from Lichtenfels. But here we had our first mishap. We continued down the same road we were on before we diverted to the brewery and soon we dead ended at a busy highway with no bike lane. That didn't match my research so we backtracked (uphill, unfortunately) to were the brewery turn off was and there, hidden in the trees, was sign pointing the bike path off north.

Just before Bad Staffelstein we came across this little rest area on the bike path. Since they had put in so much work in making it, we decided to use it for a short rest. It would have been rude not to have.

Here we had a temptation -- the bike path turned east but half a kilometer to the west was Wiesen and Brauerei Helmuth -- one I have visited a couple of times. If it weren't for the train we needed running only every two hours we would have made the small detour. But we were pressed for time so we pushed on.

Bike Path near Bad Staffenstein

Before long we were at the Lichtenfels train station with a half hour to spare. We grabbed a sandwich in the station and were soon on our way to Jena.

Lichtenfels train station.

Once in Jena it was a short ride to our hotel, where to my dismay we were on the 4th floor (3rd, Euro style) with no elevator. Oh well, exercise.

After we were cleaned up a bit, we headed out (on foot) to Brauerei Papiermühle -- the brewpub in town. Directions on Google Maps said it was a kilometer but it ended up being over 2 -- which wasn't so bad but it had started raining quite heavily so we were thoughorly soaked by the time we got there.

On the way in the had a sign for "Wöllnitzer Weisse" which was good news. This a delightful sour wheat beer brewed in a tiny pub brewery just outside of Jena. I have visited a couple times, on quick stops on my way to or from Leipzig.

Once inside we saw they have 5 beer of their own: A Pils, a Dunkles, something called Birschenpils, Alt Jenaer (a pale-ish bock) and Schellenbier (a darker bock). We ordered a small (.3 l) of each.

The Pils had quite a bit of diacytal and we only finished about half of it. The Dunkel had a bit less and was more butterscotch-y and so it was drinkable. We all thought the Birschenpils and Schellenbier were the best and we all ordered a .5 l of the Schellenbier with dinner.

The food was wonderful, really much better than the beer.

Thüringer Roulanden

For desert we decide to have a Wöllnitzer Weisse. It turns out it was on draft - I was expected bottles -- and they were having some foaming issues so it took a bit to pour our beers.

I don't know if was because it was draft, whether the beer has changed in the 3 years since I've had it or whether it is just my memory but it didn't seem as sour as I had remembered. It was still very good, though.

The rain had stopped but we decide to take a taxi back, just in case.

Distance ridden: 47 km