By Eric
Even with our special Elbe Radweg (bike route) map, we had some trouble finding our way out of Dresden. The trail is broken in several places. Still we managed to ride on only a few kilometers of busy highway.
At one wrong turn while we were looking for a trail, we discovered a small mine. First I saw several small mine cars on small railroad tracks. Then a saw a cave entrance going into the side of a small hill along the banks of the Elbe. I could not determine wha
t they mined in the mine.We followed the bike trail down the left bank of the river for about 15 km then crossed a railroad bridge to the right bank. Just as we got off the bridge we passed two other cycle tourists getting on the bridge. Then we went about 10 km down along the right bank where we crossed back again on a ferry. (All along the Elbe we kept crossing back and forth).
Immediately we saw the other two cycle tourists again. They were heading to the same campground. They were a couple from Bonn, probably in their 30s doing a week long tour on the Elbe. She was a banker. I knew the capitol was moving to Berlin so I asked if that affected them.
"Many government departments are moving from Berlin to Bonn -- don't even try to understand why. So in the end our rent will stay the same." They really liked living in Bonn even though I always hear it described as "sleepy" in a derogatory way. But they liked sleepy. "Bonn has no traffic problems," they said, "except when Clinton visits."
The banker said she liked Dresden but I detected a little pity in her voice the way you might say you like Barry Manilow.I mentioned that the roads were rather bumpy in Dresden. She said she was embarrassed they were so bad. "The roads will be better in the west," she said. Then she checked herself, "well the west is paying to fix the roads in the east so now the roads in the west are getting worse." She believed the east would catch up in a few years.
The campground near Meissen was great. It had a little stream running through it, nice green grassy flat sites and great clean hot showers! The only problem (and most campgrounds in Germany were this way) was that the only drinking water available was at the toilets, 100 yards or so from our tent. We had been carrying this two liter water bladder around the world for two years and only used it a couple times. In Germany we used it all the time.
Just after we got the tent down in the morning, it started to rain. It rained all day
.Meissen is a very old town known for its porcelain. The first porcelain factory in Europe was here. Fortunately for our budget, we weren't interested in the porcelain. It all looked a little too dainty for me. In Meissen we did enjoy a restaurant called the "Potato Bug." I love potatoes and in Germany they have whole restaurants devoted to them. This was a good sign.
At a supermarket in town I discovered an American food section. It had things like: Dr. Pepper, Dad's Root Beer, Margarita mix, Pop Tarts, Reeses Pieces, Hershey's kisses, pancake mix and syrup. I bought the latter two but managed not to buy the (very expensive) Pop Tarts.
While we tried to figure out how to fit all the stuff I bought into our panniers, a man on a very odd bicycle rode up. It had
small wheels, a giant rack on the front with a milk crate on it, a huge kick stand that was like a bike rack more than a kick stand, a heavy duty rear rack, and double cross tubes (from the handle bars to under the seat). The owner, a guy about our age named Peter, said he could carry 65 kilograms (143 pounds, 10 stones, or 1 of me) in the front. He told us the bike was made in Denmark.Then Peter told us he had seen us several days before in Litomerice, Czech. Litomerice is the sister city to Meissen. He said he makes frequent trips there to buy used musical instruments. He had seen the horn on my bicycle and being into instrument, remembered it.
The rain continued all afternoon and the temperature never got above 16C (61F) even though this was June. We followed the bike trail as it got ever more confusing. It would be nice for a while then turn into cobblestone for a few kilometers, then zig-zag around going more perpendicular to the river than parallel. At one place the trail suddenly ended in a set of steep stairs. Our progress on the map seemed tediously slow. Like bike trails everywhere, the ones in Germany are great as long as you aren't trying to get somewhere.
Another problem with the bike trail was that it tended to not go through small towns, or only touch the edge. So we had a hard time finding a lunch spot. Actually we found three restaurants but two were closed for unknown reasons and the third seemed to be expecting a big party so the only seating was outside in the rain.
However, we did meet a bicycle club from Berlin that gave us EU-certified bananas and water. Also we met a middle-aged couple on a tandem on their way from Munich to Hamburg via Prague. They planned to get to Hamburg in seven days, which seemed quick to us, especially on the winding bike trail. The woman had a German friend married to an American. They lived in California and she worked and he raised the kids.
Eventually we gave up looking for a warm dry indoor place to eat and sat in a fairly dry spot under a tree and made sandwiches.In Strela we gave up on the bike trail entirely and started following the highway. Traffic was light and the paving was mostly good, though at times the asphalt gave way to the bumpiest of all possible cobblestone that limited us to about five miles per hour.
About the same time we gave up on the bike trail, the rain stopped and the sun came out. That day was like two separate days of riding: the rainy bike trail and the sunny highway.
Next: Germany Chapter 4 - Karl Heinz's Birthday Party
