Thursday, September 10, 2009--Kenmath, Germany
Today we followed the route suggested by my gps, instead of trying to follow the Saaleradweg, and it generally worked well. I say generally because at one point it directed us towards a gravel road that deteriorated into a forest road that disappeared. A bit frustrating but we recovered and ended up covering 66 miles, and enjoying most of them.
When I travel by bicycle I try to avoid major roads and major cities. Today the only largish city we went through was Hof, the last (or first, depending on your direction) city of any size on the Saale River. South from there you travel up the Saale towards its headwater, and it gets smaller and smaller. While we were not trying to parallel the river we did cross it enough to see this change, and when we finally turned away at Sparneck it was little more than a trickle of water.
From there, continuing south, we rode uphill to two continental divides, that is where water falling on one side of a line would end up in the Elbe and North Sea, while water falling on the other would end up in the Danube and the Black Sea. The elevation was not great, we will go over much higher points in the Alps, but it was a milestone.
Aside from our one problem, today’s cycling was excellent. The wind was either absent or with us, the predicted rain did not materialize, and nearly all day we were on relatively small roads going through fields, forests and small towns, andthe bakery which we stopped at in the mid-afternoon (our typical day begins with breakfast, then we cycle all day except for a bakery break around 2 or 3) was full of tasty treats. In the end we traveled 66 miles and ended up in Kemnath, a town in former West Germany that is at the center of a land with 4,000 lakes. Our small family-run hotel is delightful and the fish dinner, suggested by the owner and his wife, was delicious. A good day with impressions to treasure.
Wednesday, September 9, 2009--Saalburg,Germany
Today we made a bit more progress towards our final goal, but also made a semi-final decision about the trail we are following. Specifically, we decided that when it is good it is spectacular, going alongside a beautiful river and through interesting small towns, but when it is bad it is terrible, long routes that are unnecessary, hillside climbs, ambiguous or absent signage, and bad surfaces. And since we do not know which it will be, we decided to abandon the route.
Today we traveled 53 miles through forest, field, along a river and a reservoir. At one point the gps I am carrying came in very handy as the route signage was clearly pointing us back in the direction we had just come from. The skies were clear and the wind benign. And we ended up in Saalburg, in a fine small hotel overlooking a large reservoir in the midst of the forests—with the worst food I have ever had.
A word about hotels and Germany. Our first hotel was run by a Croatian family and featured Croatian food. The fourth was run by a Bulgarian family and featured Bulgarian food. The eighth was run by a Hungarian family and featured Hungarian food. In between the second, fifth and sixth hotels had corporate international ownership. Only the third and ninth were German run family hotels. All of which points to the international face of modern Germany and the prevalence of Eastern Europeans in that face.
Tuesday, September 8, 2009--Jena, Germany
Each of these days was along the Saaleradweg, and each was different. On the 8th, after musing about getting there days and going there days, it seemed that we were into a getting nowhere day. First, the ride out of Jena seemed to go smoothly, as we found the marked cycle trail and followed it carefully. It went past some wonderful riverside scenery for a while, but then turned away from the river and up a hillside. After not too long the trail had deteriorated into a forest path, then a rocky forest path, then an uphill rocky forest path—impossible to cycle. After pushing the cycles up the path to an overlook, evidently the destination of that section of the path, we followed what we thought was the continuation of the path. But in fact it was a road to a castle, a tourist destination, which dead-ended. Retracing our steps was difficult, but we finally managed, only to end up on a road that was closed due to construction. The alternative was to go back up that road to a junction, but as we proceeded we discovered that the road was closed in that direction. Construction everywhere! Which left us with the option of retracing our steps back to where we had begun—up the hillside.
At that point a man with a map appeared, and he spoke English. He, too, was completely lost, but he was able to point us in the direction of a cycle path that might get us out of the valley we were in. So we took that path and, indeed, made it out of our dead ends. The path ended on a fairly busy road, but at least it went in our direction. That is until another Road Closed sign appeared. This time we realized that the detour was not only long but in the opposite direction from which we were going. So we ignored the sign and discovered that such was the best choice. In the US most road construction works on one half of a road at a time, leaving room for alternating traffic. Here it seems that construction works on both sides of the road at the same time, meaning that the road is completely impassible for vehicular traffic. Thus the detours. But also thus the possibility of walking one’s bike by the side of the construction, and through the workers, getting to the other side. And this is what we did—we walked the bikes to the other side of the construction and then enjoyed a wonderful traffic-free downhill to our destination…
The lesson of the day? One is that with too many obstacles you can not get that far—our progress for the day was only 34 miles. But more than that, sometimes it seems that there is nowhere to go, that every choice is blocked. But there is always a way…Reminds me of what Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 10:13, Corinthians 10:13, No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.
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