We left our B&B a little late this morning, 9:15am and headed down the main road to Pommerlte. It was a Sunday and there was not too much traffic so we decided not to follow any small black lines on the map, which may lead to dead ends, but to stick to the main route.
There were quite a few industrial sites either side of the main road but also lots of farmland. There seem to be a lot more wild flowers here than I remember there being in similar areas in the UK. I've posted a few photographs.
After Pommerlte we found the stopbank was accessible and we followed this to the outskirts of Schoenebeck where we headed south to our hotel in Felgeleben, passing a riding school on the way. We arrived just before 1pm, having only travelled 13.5km, about 8 miles. The hotel was deserted when we arrived but we rang the number written on the door, a common procedure in the Czech Republic and Germany, and someone came to let us in. As it was a short walk today we just showered and changed and then headed into town. I forgot to measure the distance going in but it was 9.8km after walking around town and then coming back on a similar route. I estimate a day's total of over 28km ( but not all on the Elberadweg).
We expected Schoenebeck to be a bit nicer than it was although the part along the Elbe was very pleasant with one or two restaurants and an ice cafe.
St. Jacobs church looked pretty impressive with it's double spire and the Rathaus brightened up what was a pretty dull square. I should mention to anyone not familiar with Germany that it is, by and large, closed on Sundays and so this may have dampened our impression of Schoeneberg a bit.
The pavements were cobbled with stones about 10cm square and a number of these were capped in brass and inscribed. By searching the web I found these are called stolpersteine or stumbling blocks. They are an idea evolved by artist Gunter Demnig to preserve the memory of people persecuted and/or murdered by the nazis. They are controversial but appear now in many cities in Europe. There are 2000 in Hamburg alone.
By accident we found a more interesting route out of town passing a holocaust memorial to 43 Jews by local artist Christof Gueger and an antifascist sculpture created in 1951 by Richard Horn. I have attached photographs.
We returned along the side of the railway line much as we had walked in, mainly along the backs of allotments. The walk back took about 50 minutes.
I started this blog yesterday but gave up after losing most of what I'd written due to some simple error on my part. I was being tormented by the many itchy mosquito bites and couldn't concentrate.
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