ning. But it rained and the tents were all sagging and dripping in the rain at seven and none of us even spoke until ten.It was about ten when we finally emerged from the tent and by then the rain had dissipated. I made pancakes and several rounds of instant coffee before we even began packing anything. It was about 10 deg. C. (50 F). The only indication that it was summer was that it was light until 10 p.m. So at least we could linger without worrying about burning all our daylight.
Around 12:30 we rode five km into Clausthal-Zellerfeld. Then we had lunch in a warm, dry restaurant. We didn't really get going until about 2:30.
The first 15 km was very pretty mountains and we lost most of our 2000 feet of altitude. After that we entered some pleasant rolling oat fields.
Bad Gandersheim had a quaint little old town with lots of those sagging medieval buildings, some with fancy facades and elaborate red, blue and gold paint jobs. We started talking to a large round man sitting on a bench. He was excited we came from America. He had an aunt that lived in Ohio. Then he opened his wallet and pulled out a letter from her dated 1951! That was the year she died. (JOAN: he was a little odd. He also suggested that we pay a visit to some local religious freaks from America, who were living up the road).
About that time the skies cleared up. The temperature was about 17 C (63 F). We were rewarded for our late start by a beautiful evening ride. The sun, hills and fields looked great.
We had one long climb, about 200m (650 ft) out of the Leine river valley then we descended into the Weser river valley. We camped in a pretty little woods about 7km east of Bodenwerder. It was a good out of the way spot and I wasn't sure it was illegal but anyway we are always a little nervous free camping. And as almost always happens when we free camp, we heard a gunshot not far off while we erected the tent. But we had no problems.
We were still so full from lunch I didn
't even have to make dinner.The next morning was still nice so we got an early start and coasted into Bodenwerder while they were setting up for some sort of weekend fair. The quaint old streets were filled with temporary beer gardens being erected. In a bookstore we discovered a map of a Weser River bike trail. It looked very much like the Elbe river bike trail. We ended up following it for a couple of days.
Bodenwerder's claim to fame is that it is the home of Baron von Munchhausen. They have a great sculpture of the baron riding a cannonball out of a canon. The great thing about the sculpture is that you can move his head, hands, arms, legs, even his pig tail.
We followed the bike trail down river about 50 km to Hameln, stopping a couple times at bikelane-side cafes and beer gardens. The path was crowded with cyclists, most out for the day but several were loaded for touring like us.
Hameln is home of the legend of the Pied Piper. They are surprisingly proud of this considering that the Pied Piper killed all but two children in the town because the town only paid him one gold piece instead of the 100 they promised if he got the rats out of town.Hameln is quaint like several other towns we had passed during the day but on a bigger scale. Also it is loaded to overflowing with tourists. I heard several people sitting at the cafes speaking English. We bought some groceries in town and for the first time in Germany, the shop people weren't friendly. Too many tourists.
We only hung out for a couple hours before heading off to camp. Any longer and we would have gone crazy.
The campground was run by a part American family. They were actually Greek but had lived in America for 15 years. For the last 16 years though they have been running a Greek restaurant and the campground in Hameln.
After dinner we went in the restaurant for a beer and ended up talking a long time to Irene, the mother of the family and a little but to her 15 year old daughter. The whole family is tri-lingual -- Greek, English, and German. The son, Michael, keeps his U.S. citizenship so he doesn't have to do military service which is mandatory in Greece and Germany.
Irene had quite a story. They had lived in several cities in America, mostly in New York and New Jersey, always running Greek restaurants. She hadn't spoken English in a while so at first she made some funny sentences, like "Mein son Michael was in New York geborn."
She ingratiated herself with us by sayin
g she missed the American people. She found Americans warmer and friendlier than Germans.We told her how friendly everyone had been in eastern Germany. "Yes, before they were all equal. No one had anything." We probed her about east/west problems. We hadn't yet heard much of the west German attitude.
"Ten years ago this was a happy country. No problems. Now lots of problems. We pay taxes for everything. West Germany sends a lot of money to east Germany, the EU, and even to the Jews." I didn't know this, but according to Irene Germany still pays reparations.
She thought Germany was too kind to the unemployed. "They pay for their apartment! Then they go get a black money job." We mentioned east Germany's high unemployment and she said, "you see, they don't work!"
Irene knew about work. The restaurant and campground was open everyday no matter what. She said in America they could all go on vacation because there was always a Greek community so they could always get a substitute cook. But that's not possible in Germany. "All the Greeks have it better in Greece," so they're not in Germany. She and her husband have to travel separately.We talked a bit to her daughter Jaqueline, who at the end of the night gave us each a shot of uzo. That's the first time a 15-year-old ever got me a drink.
