Day04 Wittenberge to Gollenberg, Germany: A short day into the wind.
I route to Berlin

My night in the woods just north of Wittenberge was very nice, but a bit colder than I expected. I was comfortable till midnight, but a few hours later my feet were cold and I coudln't, with the stuff I had with me in the tent, get them warm again. This morning my sinuses were sore from the cold air, but I felt fine. I got up at 6:45 and was on the road before 8 AM. Wittenberge was closed as I rode through it, so I settled for having coffee and small breads at a service station. That was the only service station I had seen since leaving the Hamburg area and I only saw one more today, a few km before I ended my day.

Camp is on other side of these trees

Great stealth camp site

Yesterday and the day before, I had side/tail winds most of the time and I looked with pity on the folks that were riding the Elbe Radweg in the 'wrong' direction. Today, I was riding it in the wrong difection ;-{. I rode roughly 80 km in 8 hours - about the same time that I rode over 100 km in the days when I wasn't fighting the wind - on the road/radweg and that wiped me out. It is now 5:30 PM and I want nothing more than to go to bed and sleep. Yesterday and the day before I felt a bit tired, but not wiped out at the end of my riding day, and I managed to make it till after 9 PM before I went to bed. Note: It is now a little after 7 PM. I took an hour nap and bow I may be able to finish this ride report/wep page.

Heading for Havel

Radweg

With lots of sheep

Elbe

Radweg

First rest/snack site

Redweg ends
but I just had to follow it through a small town

Folks walking their dog on top of the dike

Beautiful old church in small town

Ridning on sidewalk which is smoother than cobblestone road

I did not see the sun today, except weakly through the clouds, and I saw hardly any riders on the Elbe Radweg. I rode for hours hearing little except for the wind and seeing very few people. Midway in the ride, I visited with a man who was working on the radweg. We didn't have much common language, but we had a good visit. He was a bicyclist who had ridden the Elbe Radweg and, when I told him I was heading for Havelberg, where I planned to eat lunch, he suggested I should leave the radwegs and ride on the little roads that were near the Elbe. I also mention that I was going to Berlin and he suggested a route from Havelburg. I hadn't though about leaving the Elbe and heading towards Berlin yet, but, as I ground into the cold wind on this dreary day, I began thinking about it checking out routes using my gps. I realized that I didn't need to push my self and that I could take a rest day or a couple of short days instead of riding south through places I had already ridden. When I left Havelburg, I headed for Berlin.

Bridge over the river Havel

Leaving Havelburg, and the Elbe, I rode southeast, and later south, along the river Havel. There was a good bike path/ radweg for the first part of that section, but after that I was riding on lightly travelled small roads. I crossed the Havel, going east, to Strodehne an followed that road, L17, to Rhinow, a big town nicely situated at the base of a pretty hill, where I planned to get some groceries and maybe find a place to stay. I found a grocery store - the first one I'd seen since I left Wittenberg, but, although I rode all the main streets, couldn't find a place to stay. I went back to the grocery store and got what I needed to camp. When I left the store, it was starting to rain. Then, I don't know why I didn't try this earlier, I used my gps to search for lodging.

There were two hotels listed in on my route, one 2 km away and the other 3 km away. The first had gone out of business and the second one is where I'm staying tonight. They sort of have wifi in the dining area, so I'm hoping to be able to put up three web pages after breakfast tomorrow.

Stork with chick in nest

I'm now only 100 km from Berlin. Tomorrow I'll decide, probably while I'm riding, were to stop for the night. I don't need to be in Berlin till mid afternoon on Friday - today is Wednesday - but it might be fun to explore it a bit before I meet my daughters sister-in-law Friday afternoon.

Airplane parked near my hotel