Yesterday was a funny day. Forecast was for rain so plan was for short bike ride, stock up on some food- Claudia had kindly message to tell me that Monday coming is a holiday and the shops wouldn’t be open – and then catch up on blog and plan for next stage of my journey.

Managed to pack away tent in a dry spell. Route to Lidl involved going over a bridge with a wee bit of a there and back to follow the cycle route – but I spied another ferry and I jumped on this – all ferries across The Elbe so far have gone directly across – but not this one – it went across but upstream (or was it down) and passed by Lidl on the way – I did have a wee panic wondering how far ferry was going before it stopped – it wasn’t hugely further on – but about 15 minute bike ride back in the now pouring rain.

Next stop was to a campsite via one more ferry crossing – my navigation was fine if I’d entered the correct place name into Google maps – but I found myself on the wrong side of the river, about 7k up a hill and the rain had come on again. Although I’ve moaned a lot about being cold I’ve actually been pretty lucky in terms of rain apart from the day I arrived in the Netherlands. I now had to return to the ferry – explain why I was coming back – and then cycle 7k up a not too bad a hill, but to make sure I kept out of the way of the tourist trams coming up and down. Finally getting to campsite about one o’clock on what was meant to be a pretty short bike ride.

Apart from the toilets no real shelter at campsite, no Internet due to proximity of hills and the WiFi didn’t work so I was feeling a wee bit out of sorts and no blogging or planning was done. Luckily rain mostly stopped and I got a wee walk done.

Today made up for it though. Should have got better information about the walking routes before I left – a map would have been a good idea as well – but had a great walk and the rock formations were fantastic. Lots of steps to go up and down. Some very steep drops but only one section that unnerved me and I backed off from it – wee narrow bit with rungs placed in the rock acting as a rail – nothing technical but it was a big drop if something went wrong – I needed some of my OMC buddies with me to do that bit but otherwise had a great walk and would love to come back here again.

Some cool coloured fungi and a nice shiny beetle.

Also spotted a black woodpecker – sorry no photo . Heard him pecking and looked up in the trees but couldn’t spot him. Followed the sound and spotted him pecking at would on the ground and then having a good rummage in the leaf litter. Initially unsure what he / she was until it flew to a tree and then climbed circling up it like a woodpecker. According to this site they are easy to hear but not so easy to spot so feeling quite lucky that I got to see one – https://www.10000birds.com/how-to-see-a-black-woodpecker-in-germany.htm

So my German part of the trip is about to come to an end and I’m aiming for the Czech Republic tomorrow. I’ve seen some amazing places in Germany and need to thank Karen, Elke, Peter and Alice, Kai, Rainer and his family, Jeannine, Sebastian, Levi and Anna and finally Claudia for helping and looking out for me and making cycling across Germany a fantastic journey.