Monday 2 September 2013

Friday 30 August. Neu Darchau to Bleckede.

Our pension in Neu Darchau was very good and only the second we have had without ensuite facilities. The only downside of this is that we can't leave our walking clothes, that we normally hand wash every day, dripping dry in the shower.

The family were friendly and our bedroom  was off the family computer room. They kindly gave us access to their wifi, only the second time we've had really good internet access on the walk.

The data link via Vodaphone is virtually unuseable in all but the really large towns. Our rule of thumb is that if you can't find a Vodaphone shop in the town/village you are in then you won't have useful data access via your phone. As a result this blog will not be posted until I get a reliable data connection. In the Czech Republic, even in small hotels, we had the bandwidth to Skype video!

We had an excellent breakfast with good orange juice and yoghurt, as well as the usual breads, cheeses and boiled egg. Because we had said we didn't care for cooked meats she gave us a double supply of cheeses!

We never managed to eat the yoghurts and she offered to let us take them with us but we don't nomally eat during the day and neither of us want to carry extra weight. We enjoyed our stay.

We decided to stay on the south bank of the Elbe, to save two ferry crossings, and the landlady showed us a short cut to the high street. The route was largely beside the main road but latterly on a cycle track beside a forest. The first photograph shows a warning sign we saw. We thought it was about spiders, we saw some big ones, but it was about hairy caterpillars that live on oak trees and later become moths. Apparently the hairs on the caterpillers can set off allergic reactions in people.

We did see some big spiders though and I've included a photo of one for my sister. Sadly it is out of focus.

We stopped at a town called Alt Garge, at about the halfway mark and then we were hoping to get onto the stop bank to walk beside the Elbe, but the route was blocked (see photo). Our planned route would have made for a longer walk.  We did however get two coffees in a Greek restaurant.

This whole area had a lot of flooding and they were working on repairing the stop bank. The result of the diversion was that we arrived at our B&B much earlier than expected, just after 1pm. However although they normally only open at 15:00 they saw us waiting and kindly gave us access to our rooms. We showered, did our washing and then had a rest. (We're getting old!)

About 15:45 we got up to go to town and very kindly the landlady offered us a lift. What was amazing was that she immediately understood that whilst we could accept a lift into town for an evening meal we couldn't accept lifts whilst walking beside the Elbe (and they don't see many walkers). Perhaps though few in numbers, long distance walkers stay in the memory because of their eccentricities.

The daughter took us into town in a large car. The landlady followed in a small compact. For some reason the daughter did not want to swap cars with her mum, she was however quite happy to try out her English with us.

Although there are one or two very old houses Bleckede gives the impression of a new town, much like Exeter but much smaller. However for a small town Bleckede has an unbelievably large number of restaurants and they look pretty good. We ate in a very good Italian restaurant. No cassata though. Almost as difficult to find as cannelloni.

This cycle route would be ideal for OMJ and Elaine. The cycling for OMJ and the ballroom dancing for Elaine. In 1983 we lived in West Germany, near the border with the DDR, and we could receive East German TV. The East German TV was always showing ballroom dancing competitions.

We only walked 14km beside the Elbe today, tomorrow will be nearly double that!

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