This was to be my last full day of riding this summer. Tomorrow I need to prepare my stuff for going back to the US and then to get to Hamburg. Friday morning I fly from Hamburg. I had planned to ride to Luchow and find a room there. I did the ride, but I couldn't find a hotel I wanted to stay in. While in Luchow, I had thought of riding through some of the round villages this area is known for. Lubln, one of those villages is close to Luchow and has two hotels. It would be expensive, but fun to stay in one of them. I rode to Lubln but one hotel was closed and the other one was so understaffed that I couldn't get anyone to talk to me.

Tomorrow I was to ride to Dalldorf by noon and get myself and my stuff ready. Then my friends would take me to the train station in Uelzen where I'd get a train to Hamburg. Since I couldn't find anywhere I wanted to stay 20 km or so away from Dalldorf, and since my friends here had said I was welcome back anytime, I decided to ride on to Dalldorf. I'm writing this sitting behind their house waiting for them to come home. I think they'll come home after supper which will work fine for me. I have a comfortable place to work, some bread and cheese for supper and a laptop with a long battery life and a screen that works well outdoors ;_}. Now if only I had an internet connection...

After the very good breakfast in Wittenberge, I explored the city a bit - too many cobblestone streets! - then headed west. When I got to the west edge of the city, I saw that there was no small road I could use going in that direction, so I got on the big road - B189 - and went south across the Elbe. I wasn't interested in radweg riding, but rather in a good route to get to Luchow. It turned out that some of the roads on that route were the Elbe Radweg and, in one section, that I choose to ride the Radweg for a while instead of the on road route. I had a very nice day of riding, except for having a bit too much wind to grind into while going west to Dalldorf.

I rode B189 for less than ten miles. I was initially planning to ride it south a little longer and then take B190 west to B71. The only problem with that, other than the fact that it is on big roads, is that I'd end up riding back to Dalldorf on the same road I rode to Salzwedel four days ago. About a mile before the intersection of B189 and B190, a small road goes off to Gartow. I took that road instead of B190 and it is great ride. Part of it is used by the Elbe Radweg, but all of it is great riding.

Before Gartow, I saw several places where the Elbe Radweg left L2, the road to Gartow. I checked out two of them and ended up taking one of them which led, eventually, to Schnackenburg. This was really nice small road and radweg riding which led to my last ride along the Elbe and to my last ferry sighting. The first thing I saw on the Elbe on this tour was the ferry at Elster. The last thing I saw on the Elbe, was the ferry at Schnackenburg. On the way to Schnackenburg I saw, and heard, thousands of ducks flying overhead and landing on the ELbe.

I stopped in Gartow for a, not very good, 13 E lunch. Oh well, three lunches on the Elbe and the first one was excellent, the second was good, and the third was edible. After leaving Schnackenburg, I got on B493 and rode it all the way to Luchow. It was also good riding and usually had a good bike path.

After riding to Lubln, I asked my GPS for a route to Dalldorf and mostly followed its route. The wind was strong and I was tired, so that part of the trip was challenging, but it was also quite interesting when it went to the small roads. I stopped at a bakery in Clenze - not on the GPS route,, but close - to get some pastries and a banana flavored milk drink to boost my energy level, then headed out on small - like mostly one lane - over the 'big' ridge between Clenze and Dalldorf.

My friends arrived an hour or so after I did and we commenced eating and talking - without a lot of common language - for the next several hours. A good evening and now it is past my bed time ;-}.