I always like a visit to a German pharmacy, so in town, I called into the Apotheke for some lozenges for my sore throat and cough.
It was by now 10 am and we had a long day ahead: 70 + kms. Like yesterday, there was a horrible head wind and it was bitter!!
We cycled to Dommitsch - still lots of apples to be seen, but almost finished for the season - then through some lovely country: the Dübener Heide, a large nature park. We had our ALDI picnic lunch by one of the lakes. Nuts of all types everywhere: walnuts, acorns, chestnuts. We often see birds flying with a big nut in their beak; lots of hawks and eagles; on the lakes are waders, ducks and swans; we even see a stork’s nest, but no stork!
The riding continued on mostly good quality sealed radweg, avoiding roads for the most part. At Pretsch, the ferry was fortunately still operating (nice, happy, friendly ferryman).
On the other side of the river was an icecream van. The girl running it had spent a year working in England so her English was very good - as was the icecream!! Yum!!
It was tough riding from here. Landscape was pleasant as we criss-crossed around fields, but tough head wind.
We stopped not far out of Wittenberg at ALDI for some provisions for the next 2 days’ breakfasts. We arrived into Wittenberg after 5 p.m. - the central square a superb sight!
Lutherstadt Wittenberg (there are 2 Wittenbergs in Germany: this one is associated with Martin Luther; not to be confused with the other which in fact is spelt with an ‘e’ at the end: Wittenberge) has a population of about 50,400. It seemed quite big as we seemed to cycle in for ages (10 kms) on a long bike path through the outer suburbs, but in fact it is a good deal smaller than Dresden (which has a population of nearly 540,000) and the old part of town - the centrum - is quite compact.
Our apartment is opposite the church where Luther did most of his teachings, Stadtkirche St Marien. It dates to 1187 and is considered the mother-church of the Protestant Reformation. We are really in the thick of things here.
Bonus of all bonuses: our apartment has a washing machine; no hand-washing for next two days and even our previously hand-washed stuff can be re-washed, yay!!
The apartment is quite historic, dating back to the 1700s. And immense! We have 2 nights here.
We enjoy dinner at a burger place just around the corner (WittenBurger) and return to our apartment to hang out one load of washing and put another load into the machine. Bliss - clean clothes!
Cycling distance: almost 75 kms
Those apples....were they edible...shame to see them lying in the ground, you’ve had your fair share of wind!
ReplyDeleteWeather here is yet to improve! If only the walls could talk...wow!
Picked an apple!
ReplyDelete