Parks, parks and parks

It was to be a day of parks: it started with parks and finished with parks.

It was scheduled as a long day, split into 3 sections: a ride, followed by train then a ride again.

We left Lutherstadt Wittenberg as per schedule. It was overcast, cold and even the vague hint of a mist. After just a few kilometers it threatened to rain a little which had us scurrying to cover the panniers with their waterproof coverings.

As nearly always, the mornings start slowly as things are adjusted but we made reasonable progress to Coswig along good tracks keeping us off busy roads and through fields and some wooded areas to where we hoped the ferry was working. From this point downstream, the website had indicated several ferry closures due to low water levels.

Coswig ferry (fähre) open so over we go and ride to the UNESCO-listed world heritage site of Wörlitzer Park. This is 1000s of acres of landscaped parkland which we found somewhat underwhelming. The waterways were dried up and we were somewhat non-plussed to find signs saying bicycles were not permitted! I suppose also that the day being so overcast did not add to the appeal.

However, shortly after, we passed into a more natural woodland parkland: the Sieglitz Park created in 1777 in the former fishing village Vockerode by Prince Franz of Anhalt-Dessau. It was really lovely. We passed through these amazing gates at the entrance to this park.

This is part of the Middle Elbe Biosphere Reserve. Very nice.

This took us into the town of Dessau  (40kms of riding so far) where we grabbed a coffee and took off to see the famous Bauhaus building designed by the founder of Bauhaus architecture, Walter Gropius. The 7 years of the Bauhaus in Dessau (1925–1932) are regarded as the heyday of the Bauhaus architecture. 

Sadly, our fleeting visit did not do this place any justice. We had to get to the station to pick up a train at 13:02 to Köthen, with a 15 minute transfer to catch another train to Sachsendorfe (Calbe) to save a mere 40 kms but without which it would have been impossible today to reach our destination, Magdeburg.

It was an incredible amount of mucking around and the trains were tiny. Ours were not the only bikes so the carriage looked unbelievable - bikes intertwined with passengers; even the conductor looked despaired. At one point I thought David was going to be left on the platform at Dessau the carriage was so full. We be-friended a fellow cyclist who lives in Magdeburg and gave us assistance re when to get off and getting bikes off the train; he was very nice. Not like the unpleasant German who sat in the bike section of the second train and looked irritated if a bike came within millimeters of him even though he sat in comfort eating his lunch while the rest of us stood, unbalanced, with our bikes shifting precariously with the motion of the train.

In fact this train would have taken us all the way to Magdeburg and several times later that afternoon I had doubts about my decision to ride rather than take the train all the way.

But the riding was lovely, if long! Even as the shadows became very long indeed, it was such beautiful riding into Magdeburg that I felt vindicated with the decision. Even a comment from MF2: ‘What else would you want to be doing?’ gladdened my heart!

At Sachsendorf, we were some distance from the Elbe; in fact, we were near another river, the Saale, which we crossed by ferry at Rosenburg.

There was nice riding along good track littered with fallen pears, then some some nasty rough pavement through farmland followed by road and track into a stiff headwind. I am ‘over’ the wind though!

We stopped in the small town of Barby for afternoon tea - very pretty place.

MF1 did a good job (!) of navigating us into and through the largish town of Schönebeck; Pat and Tracey’s map has been a God-send! 

There is always a surprise it seems around each corner: you never know what to expect. For instance, although there were some tedious sections, as we were about to exit Schönebeck, we emerged into a plaza with an amazing cream building decorated with masses of red geraniums - such a sight!!

Shortly after, a terrific bridge over the Elbe and then some wonderful riding along the tops of dikes, through the lovely woodlands of the Kreuzhorst Reserve, and finally along pretty waterway and parkland - with the sun setting - into the very big town of Magdeburg.

Magdeburg was much bigger than I expected - a population over 230,000. It is the capital of the state of Saxony-Anhalt and has quite an interesting history. During WWII, it was heavily bombed by the British and American air forces.

We reached Magdeburg about 6:30pm over the bridge across the Elbe and past the Cathedral but then encountered road works making our way to our hotel in the Stadtfeld district, necessitating a detour via the main station. This stuffed us around another hour (!) bringing a very long day to a very, very tiring end.

Reception and lift were slow too and we finally got a shower and out to dinner about 8:30. It was a lovely meal in a really nice local restaurant (Amsterdam) with a nice atmosphere, frequented by locals. Friday night and busy so we were lucky to get in!

Needless to say, straight to bed afterwards!

Riding distance: 90 kms(!!)