Going to Gottingen

Two mornings ago I should have left the hostel sooner. I didn’t have tent or sleeping bag to pack but it was a right pea souper and not very appealing. Finally got going though – needed the lights on and glad of my high vis jacket but for large parts of the day saw hardly any traffic. Despite mist for most of the morning and the forecast of rain it stayed dry until about 5pm. Some tough hills especially early on and at times I did question my sanity and wonder why I wasn’t having a more “normal” holiday and be lying on a beach somewhere – a nice sweepy downhill soon put those daft ideas out of mind though. Not really a day for photos but liked these signs – didn’t see any tanks though.

And saw these Alpacas in someone’s back garden.

Camped at a wee campsite in a village called Knickhagen. Cheapest campsite so far and no extra for showers. Showers clean but old – cracked tiles, silicone holding things together, rusty pipes and a shower rose that is so badly positioned you could only shower part of you at a time – but looks can be deceptive and had a cracking roasty toasty shower.

Rain heavy now and didn’t fancy being cramped in my tent with a meal of bread and cheese so treated myself to a really good value meal at the campsite restaurant. If I had gone back to the tent earlier though I would have realised that muppet brain had forgotten to put a peg in and the outer and inner had made contact and my sleeping bag had got a wee bit damp – luckily it was a milder night and sleeping bag not too damp and got a good sleep.

Packed a very damp tent in the morning and noticed I’ve got a hole in the groundsheet – that will need fixed when everything is dried out later. Last night I’d made contact with Rainer, a “Warm Showers” host and I had a place to stay in Gottingen – plan was to cycle to Rainer’s house and drop my stuff off and then have a wander around Gottingen.

Before I got there though I passed through Hann Munden and had to stop and go for a wander – loved all the buildings – and lack of photos yesterday was soon made up for.

Bugger of an uphill not long after I left Hann Munden but easy cycling after that. Rainer had messaged to say that there was a “wee” hill near his house – that made me smile and I assumed that Rainer had spent some time in Scotland.

Rainer was lovely and welcomed me to his home. We chatted and had lunch – turns out that Rainer had lived in Ireland for a number of years, had stayed in Glasgow for a few weeks and his partner is from England. After lunch I cycled the mile or so into Gottingen – it’s a student city and there are bicycles everywhere – I left Bertie outside the tourist office – don’t think I would have chanced leaving him at the train station – don’t think I would have found him again – this is just some of the bikes.

A nice wee wander around the old walls and some of the botanic gardens and the sun came out so I felt obliged to have an ice cream.

Wee panic when I went back to find Bertie – not quite where I thought I’d left him but not too far away.

Back at Rainer’s I met his wife and 2 of his children and was treated to a lovely meal and Rainer gave me good advice on what route to take when i set off in the morning.