Stade to Wischafen. Sunday 3 Aug.

As we had to cross a 'tilting bridge' today, just south of Wischafen, which has only limited opening times, we went to the 'i' bureau in Stade yesterday to check if it was opening today."Yes it is" they said, "between 17:00 and 19:00," so we planned for an early departure from Stade. We left at 8:10am so as to reach the 'tilting bridge' (Sperrwerk) before 17:00.

The way out of Stade was on a very minor road, much nicer than the route in, with scenery typical of rural England. It was still cool and  as we headed north to the coast, but on reaching the Elbe the sun came out and the day was much hotter.

We walked by the Elbe for a few km. before the road headed more inland. For a while there were flat flood planes between the stop bank (Deich), on which we we walking, and the Elbe.

The path then returned to the Elbe and remained there. We stopped for liquid refreshment at a camping area called Krautsand on the way north. It was very hot and the sandy beaches on the Elbe were attracting lots of holidaymakers.

We finally reached the Sperrwerk at about 15:30.

However we were confonted by this sign.

We had seen a similar sign about 3 km earlier but believed it was an old one that had not been removed. After all only the previous day, in the tourist office in Stade, we had been told the bridge woud be open between 17:00 and 19:00. 

Note the sign is not dated, nor is there a phone number given where one can get information. The same sign was up this morning when we went past the northern side of the bridge. We did wonder if it has been there all summer.

By this time we were basically at the limit of our comfortable walking  range but we had to turn around and start walking back to the nearest bridge crossing to the main road.main road. This was at Dornbusch 8km to the south west.

We arrived at Dornbusch about 5pm and were fortunate in that a bus service was still running from  Stsde to Wischafen. It arrived on time at 17:46. We were booked into our hotel by 6pm with s view of the northern side of the open Sperrwerk bridge.

Rest day Stade. Saturday 2 Aug.

We planned for a rest day in Stade as it was a long walk yesterday. Stade is a very old town and well worth a visit. There are plenty of restaurants for your midday or evening meal. Unfortunately there is quite a bit of construction work going on in the centre at the moment. 

There are many fine old buildings in the town.

 

The garden on the left, is a wild flower garden and is shown in more detail, for Martin, below.

There is a band of water, like a moat, around the whole of the town with a walking/cycling path accompanying it for most of the way.

.In many of the gardens along the way you will find many interesting sculptures.

There are two very nice churches in the town but I forgot my camera on our first trip in so no good photos I'm afraid. They both have fine Baroque organs. The photograph below, taken on our circular tour is the only one I can find of one of the churches.

Cranz to Stade. Friday, Aug. 1

We left the hotel early,~7.10am, caught the train to Altona, and then the 150 bus to Cranz. There is a very good transport system in Hamburg. With one ticket you can travel seamlessly on train, bus or ferry. Just 1 ticket, and some of them are valid for up to 5 people!

We got off the bus at the Cranz ferry stop but could not find the ferry. We then had to walk back about 1km, along the way we had come in the bus, to the spot opposite Blankenese where the ferry first berths. See photo below.

We then set off NW beside the Elbe. We passed many orchards with trees full of fruit. It seemed a wealthy area with some fine old houses.

There was plenty of activity on the river with many large vessels entering and leaving Hamburg. A little north of Greunendeich we left the Elbe to walk inland to Stade. It was near where two very large power lines crossed the Elbe. I took a photograph of the pylons but it has been censored by Frau Barr.

 It was a very very hot day and the walk into Stade was spoilt by the presence of extensive road works, with mile upon mile of resurfacing vehicles. We finally reached Stade at about 5pm, after a hot 28km walk. The picture below is the view from our table at a Thai restaurant where we both had excellent meals. The final shot was also taken from the same restaurant looking along the road beside which we were seated. 

Robin please show this to the Torquay council so they can see how it is possible to make a busy tourist street inviting. No chewing gum or rubbish to be seen.

Hamburg Hbf to Cranz

Today was our first day this year, 2014, on the Elberadweg. We arrived in Hamburg on Tuesday and spent a day settling in and viewing the area around our hotel. This year we are staying a little bit west of where we were last year, not far from the large lake called the Alster.

The first picture is a view back to Hamburg's main railway station on the way to our hotel.

This view is of the southern part of the Alster. The northern part is much larger.

Below  is a picture of the Town Hall in Hamburg, taken this morning on our way south to join up with our old friend the Elbe.

Initially we could only look south across the Northern part of the Elbe to a port area called Steinwerder. It was a vey built up area wth lots of warehouses and coolstores. There was a lot of activity where we first joined the Elbe with many temporary tents being erected.We have yet to find out what event is planned. Will try and remember to ask the hotel staff.

We think this either an office building or a hotel constructed to look like a ship.

After a couple of hours walking we left most of the port storeage area behind and entered a more rural area with some interesting houses. The path beside the river became much more park-like,more like our walking last year. It felt good to be back in the walking/exploring mode again.

We passed many nice sandy beaches, lots of them occupied with sunbathers, the beach below is one of the few quiet areas.

There was plenty of activity on the river with many boats going up and down,

 even though we were approaching low tide.

This final picture was taken on the Cranz ferry looking back towards Blankenese. It took us about 3.5 hours to get there from our hotel. However the ferry didn't take us across the Elbe to Cranz, because the tide was too low (or at least thats what I understood the chap to say who I was chatting to before we moved off.) We finished about 5km up river at Finkenwerder, near the aircraft works. However we were able to get the same bus, 150, back to Altona. Tomorrow we will take the bus back to the Cranz ferry, where we should have been dropped today. We then have a 25km walk to Stade, which if my ferry informant is correct, is surrounded by thousands of heavily laden fruit trees. We shall see.

Friday 6 September. Hoopte Ferry to Hamburg.

On Wednesday we picked up the walk from Tespe, where I took a 'sickie,' and walked to the Hoopte Ferry (18.6km). We used local buses and trains to get to and from starting and finishing points (we had a hotel booked in Hamburg before I became ill).  An enjoyable walk with a lot of activity on the river. We will post the photos later.

Thursday was a Mr Bean day, will tell all later.

Today, Friday, after a stressful start (to be explained) a pleasant but long walk to the main station in Hamburg:- OUR FINISHING POINT FOR THIS YEAR. Have got photos and will blog, 27.1km!

The entry into Hamburg was much more beautiful than either Shiel or I expected, especially for such a large city.

We hope to do the final Hamburg to Cuxhaven bit next year. It should take about 7 or 8 days but will be tricky to organize.

To be continued.

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!

Sunday 1 September. Honstorf to Tespe.

This blog was written up 24 hours late. As you read on you will see why.

We started off about 9:15 after a good breakfast. It was colder than we've become used to so we both put on our wind/waterproof clothing. It was good weather for walking it being cool but sunny. First we got a good view of Lauenburg, on the far side of the Elbe whilst on our side we passed a very nice thatched farmhouse. The day had a much better feel to it than yesterday. For our NZ readers we've enclosed a photograph of some interesting brown sheep. Probably useful fleeces for weavers.

We passed through Artlenburg making good time and paused to photograph an old windmill and a nearby marina. Nearby there were modern windmills generating electricity. It would be interesting to convert the old one to do the same.

With the sun still shining we passed two horses in a field and I had to take a photograph as one of them had a similar coat to Flame. It was really glowing. The poor horses here are terribly tormented by flies. Some lucky ones have got head nets. 

There seem to be lots more flies here than in NZ and you should see the wasps in the baker's shops! They have to be seen to be believed. However we've also heard much more bird song here than in NZ.

There was also plenty going on on the river today with boats and barges moving up and down. I took a photograph of two barges approaching each other from opposite directions. Note the trees in the foregound, they were shortly to play a useful function in our story.

So far the day had been brilliant. Much better than yesterday. Then it started. It started with a small burning in the stomach. I took a sip of water from my backpack. All was OK for about 15 minutes. I then started wretching and had to quickly grab a toilet roll, no long distance walker goes without one, and dash for cover of bushes on the banks of the Elbe to defacate. Similar to the ones you saw earlier.

On trying to return back up the stop bank I had to drop down on the grass and rest. I was sweating and felt absolutely knackered. After a rest I did manage to get back to Shiel on top of the stop bank. That's when I really started vomiting. I struggled on for about 1/2 km but fell down to be sick again at the side of the road. I had also started shivering.

A woman living opposite heard her dogs barking and came to see what was wrong. She saw me puking on the grass. Remarkably she let me use her toilet which saved me a lot of embarassment. However I sadly lost it on the way out and threw up on her drive. We have yet to go back to apologise. She insisted on calling an ambulance and I was taken to hospital. We really appreciated her concern and generosity. A lot of people would have 'passed by on the other side'

For Paul's benefit, although sick in the ambulance, I  thought of him and managed to keep it in the trays I was given.

I have been put on a drip for dehydration and given an injection to stop the vomiting. Shiel is in the room with me. I have to stay in overnight.

I have never before experienced such a rapid change in wellbeing. The last photo was taken by Shiel whilst I was asleep. I had asked her to take one for the record.

The medical staff were very good and decided to keep me in overnight because of the dehydration. The top people could all speak English.

I will write up today's blog tomorrow as I am still a little tired and want to go to bed.

We were intending to walk to the Rennbahn but alas it was not to be.

 It is ironic that Shiel has battled on day after day with a swollen ankle, so we kept to schedule and the I go and ruin it all with a sickie.