The first town we spent an extra day in was Torgau, not a big town but one of significance during WWII - the United States army forces coming from the west met forces of the Soviet Union coming from the east during the invasion of Germany on April 25, 1945. They met unexpectedly on the destroyed bridge at Torgau. The Americans occupied the area for a time but it was passed to Soviet forces in July of that year. There is a monument to the meeting near the Elbe and we met a fair number of Americans who had come to Torgau to pay homage.
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Memorial in Torgau
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While we were there we visited a special exhibition in Hartelfels castle, now a museum, called 'Traces of Injustice'. This was devoted to the military prisons in Torgau under Nazi rule, Soviet 'special camps' and East German penal institutions that had been located in the town during the war and after, some until reunification. Torgau was the hub of the Wehrmacht penal system under National Socialism, 1936-1945. Horrifying stats - by the end of the war these courts had convicted more than one million members of the armed forces and 20,000 of them had been put to death.
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One side of the Renaissance castle,
political centre of the reformation |
Martin Luther made many visits to Torgau, preached here and consecrated the castle chapel as one of the first Protestant church buildings. His wife, Katharina died here and is buried in the town's church of St Marien. Today, Torgau is a pleasant town, the centre renovated since reunification, its big castle overlooking the Elbe, a camping ground within easy biking distance, and the oldest toyshop in Germany, Loebner, since 1685!
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| Loebner toy store, 330 years in business |
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| Coffee break, town square, Torgau |
We also passed through Lutherstadt Wittenberg, of Luther and Reformation fame, but there was little of Luther to see, the Lutherhaus museum (the house where Luther lived) being closed that day. However it is nice to have seen the scene, as it were. (Of the Protestant Reformation)
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| Collegienstraße, Lutherstadt Wittenberg |
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| Rathaus (Town Hall) Wittenberg |
Magdeburg is the largest city on the Elbe between Dresden and Hamburg. We stayed an extra night there, partly to recuperate after some quite heavy days and partly because we were able to secure accommodation at the Kanu Club in a cabin for not much extra. To get to the centre of this modern city we had to walk or bike through some lovely large gardens, with play parks as well.
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| Our cabin (centre-ish) |
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| Cycle bridge in the park |
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| Plenty of green space! |
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| Modern housing just beyond the park (Magdeburg) |
Founded by Charlemagne, Magdeburg was one of the most important medieval cities in Europe. Luther went to school there and later caused the city to become Protestant. In 1631, during the 30 years war, after being besieged for about 8 months by Catholic forces, the city was invaded, sacked and citizens massacred. Figures for the dead are given as 20,000, though another figure given was that of the 30,000 citizens, only 5000 survived.
Fast forward to WWII, January 16th 1945, and the RAF during the desperate bid to encourage the Germans to surrender, almost destroyed Magdeburg once again, with a loss of about 16,000 lives. After reunification, the construction of a modern city has meant that Magdeburg lives on; its economy is one of the fastest-growing in the former East German states.
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Old and new - modern tramway down the centre,
cycles between the pavement and the road |
Most striking are the pink Hundertwasser residential and commercial buildings named the Green Citadel (2005), near the city centre.
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| Part of Hundertwasser's Green Citadel |
The cathedral, which escaped damage in the Thirty Years war only to sustain moderate damage in the January 1945 bombings, is the oldest Gothic cathedral in Germany. After the reformation it became a Protestant cathedral in 1567. It is a construction of great charm, both inside and out. It was restored by 1955.
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| Magdeburg cathedral |
Hamburg. Truth to tell, it was Hamburg’s location (on the Elbe) which encouraged me to follow the Elbe cycle path, though the original suggestion came from our German guest Martina. But my appetite had been whetted a few years before by a Youtube video of the miniature working airport in Hamburg’s Miniatur Wunderland and I had resolved to some day get to see the real thing. Thus we found ourselves in Hamburg and, unable to stay at the Kanu (canoe) Club because we didn’t belong to a canoe club ( a rare rule), we were directed to the YHA, of which I have been a life member since 1966. There are several hostels in Hamburg but the one we were directed to and stayed at was high on the hill behind the harbour, within touching range of the huge cruise ships and only a few flights of stairs away from the underground railway (U-Bahn) and a waterfront walk. Although close to the U-bahn, we didn’t actually use that - the weather was walking weather. The YHA is modern, comfortable with good meals and excellent facilities. There was, at first, “no room in the inn”, but soon they decided to open up the seminar rooms, which convert easily and beautifully into a roomy dormitory. We stayed there two nights before getting our own room, and really preferred the temporary accommodation!
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| Temporary accommodation in the YHA |
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| Clean and modern |
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| View from YHA restaurant |
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| Close enough to touch the cruise ships on the Elbe (from YHA) |
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| The waterfront landing stages and port from the YHA |
What a change Hamburg was from the rest of our journey! Hamburg is the second largest city in Germany. It is also a huge port, spread over a large area. The population of the city is nearing 2 million and the Metropolitan Region has over 5 million inhabitants. Housing standards are high, there is a lot of green space, a lake, a lot of development, (in housing projects, for example), and there are people everywhere, going about their business. It seems economically lively and for those that want it there is plenty of night life. The Youth Hostel hours bear witness: open 24 hours, not usual for Youth Hostels.
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| Außenalster artificial lake |
Our first morning there we went over early to Miniature Wunderland to avoid possible long queues, prioritising this attraction over all others. It is a multi-storey building with model train sets and miniature working models of almost everything that could be connected to the landscapes spread over two floors. And it is continually being expanded. For 2016, there will be an Italian landscape. Followed by France 2017. And so on. I’m not sure how long we imagined we might spend there but it was literally all day. There was a cafe with aeroplane seats -plus tables- where we could buy a suitable lunch, and carry on. Some time shortly after our arrival my by-now-quite-good German-detecting ear heard over the loud-speaker that due to technical difficulties the ‘airport' was not functioning and should be avoided. What!??! I have cycled nearly 2000km to find that technical difficulties will stop me seeing this thing? Unfortunately, the same message in English merely said the same thing. <sigh>. However, this place is huge. Massive. So we continued our visit of the model railways - Switzerland, with its little Lindt Chocolate factory, for a start, which spat out small wrapped chocolates from time to time. I took 140 photos but you can have a look for yourselves at
Oh, and the technician running over to a console with a gleam in his eye? Yes, he’d solved the technical problem and the airport functioned once more. A long day for us!
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| Early on... |
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| Night falls... |
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| Lindt factory |
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| This man made the airport work! |
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| Airport detail |
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| We have take-off! |
Other things: waterfront walks. There is a lot of waterfront. We had to bike a long way along the waterfront (= the Elbe) just to get into the central city, then out to the suburbs to the Kanu Club, then back into the centre for the YHA. Having stashed our bikes in the secure garage we walked from then on. There are loads of people walking the waterfront, lots of places to stop for coffee or a sandwich, quite a lot of people posing as statues…there is even a tunnel under the Elbe, dating from the early 20th century. It is primarily for pedestrians and cyclists, I think, but there is also a large lift for cars. From the other side there is a lovely view back across the water to our accommodation and the city.
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| This position looks uncomfortable! Waterfront walk |
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| Another one - waterfront |
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| Elbe tunnel (1911) |
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| YHA on hill opposite |
And then there is the Fish Market. This is not only a fish market - anything that can be traded is fair game - and the throngs of people are like the pedestrian crossing at Shibuya, except that there are no lights, so the people don’t stop coming. Over 70,000 people converge on the area every Sunday. And there are delicious fish sandwiches (Fischbrötchen) of various sorts to accompany your coffee. In complete contrast, the city centre had very few people walking around on that day (Sunday - shops closed). Except for the station.
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| Fischmarkt |
Cuxhaven
The end of our journey - the North Sea at the mouth of the Elbe - Cuxhaven. A seaside resort since 1816, it seems, in summer at least, almost totally given over to holiday accommodation: hotels, bed and breakfasts, holiday apartments, hostels, camping grounds. The town itself is fairly small and quiet, as is the railway station. I think most tourists come by car! Along the North Sea there are swimming beaches with curious ‘beach baskets’ which you can hire to sit in to admire the seaview and perhaps protect yourself from the sea breeze. We arrived at the beginning of August and the first camping ground we went to had no free tent sites. Nor did the second. Feeling that this might happen for ALL the camp grounds I went into ‘please, please’ mode (including that we were from NZ, we had biked 58km in the heat, we were very tired…) and they managed to squeeze us in between two caravans whose owners were not in residence! It turned out that one of the guys in charge (or the owner?) had spent 5 fabulous weeks touring NZ on a motorbike, so we had a number of stories to share and had an excellent evening there. Thank you so much, Campingplatz Wattenlöper!
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| North Sea water's edge at Cuxhaven |
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| The 'beach baskets' |
Over and out
So that is the end of the German bike riding but for interest’s sake I’ll include getting out of Germany and back to France. Cuxhaven is quite far from Orleans, (our destination, where Chris lives) and you can’t take bikes on the high speed expresses in Germany. Even if you could you’d have to get from Cuxhaven to Hamburg first and then it’s over 5 hours to Aachen anyway. So our only choice was local trains. South west from Cuxhaven to Aachen on day 1, with 5 changes of train and a delay of a couple of hours on the last leg because of some problem on the line. We spent the time with some other bike travellers in a nearby cafe. It was a long day. Aachen is about as far west as you can go in Germany and borders both Belgium and the Netherlands. The following day we crossed Belgium, east to west, with 3 changes of train, an easier day, finishing in the modern and impressive Lille-Europe railway station in France. From Lille we were able to take a TGV (high speed train) directly to Orleans, by-passing Paris and the necessary change of train stations. The distance we travelled was probably about the same as day 1 but took 2 hours 40 minutes, so we had the day in Lille and still arrived in Orleans before it was dark. What a find that route is!
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| Waiting for the train with other bikers... |
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| ...at this station |
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| Aachen (Aix-La-Chapelle) - of Charlemagne fame |
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| Interior Aachen Cathedral |
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| Interior Ghent train station |
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This photo is for the bikes outside Ghent station.
Look through the windows |
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| Back in France. Looking down the road from Lille-Europe station |
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| Kookaburras in Lille zoo? Why not? |
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| Lille zoo uses a Vauban fortress. The central area is still military |
Later
From Orleans we later did a bike trip along the Loire as far as Saumur with Chris over a couple of days. But I probably won’t write about that, since it is a route already covered. So roll on 2016! May we stay healthy enough to continue the adventures!
