Day 60: to Jever (39; 3836)

A day of constant horizontal drizzle-to-rain: the North Sea doing what it does best!

Took the morning ferry across to Wilhelmshaven in the company of a nice Finnish lady who is couchsurfing as she cycles, and then off to do a national trust working holiday in the Peak District. Typical Finn: an unassuming, unruffled hero.

My map marks 'quaint places'. I aimed up the North Sea route and had a delicious pizza lunch in one such place, the village of Hooksiel. It was indeed quaint, and also full of that wet seaside holiday feel.

The route makes big loops across the landscape, I think to hit more of these 'quaint places' and stay on tiny empty roads. With no let-up in the weather I wasn't sure what to do: man up and head on through the rain or tuck up somewhere and assume tomorrow will be better. I still have some time in hand at this point, and the luxury of a map (rather than route book) means detours and shortcuts are both entirely possible.

In the town of Jever (famous for its beer which we used to drink in Darwin bar) I gave up, and a nice young man in tourist info found me a room. It's not cold, so when cycling it's actually not unpleasant. But as soon as I stop I realise I am drenched, and the prospect of a long afternoon and evening in a wet tent didn't fill me with glee. Instead I dripped all over a very nice landlady and Horace has a garage to dry off in. My tent will have to just stay wet for 24 hrs more.

It also resolves the pressing question, where can I watch the Germany-Brazil match and can I really be bothered given that it doesn't start till 10pm? The answer: from my bed!

The flags are all out in Deutschland today, I hope they win as I am rooting for a Germany-Netherlands final (to be watched in a campground full of cyclists of both nations).

Day 59: to Eckwarderhörne (85; 3797)

Big dramatic thunderstorms late last night, and I packed up a pretty wet tent this morning. 

I'm getting used to a new map again,  and this one does not seem to distinguish well between paved and non-paved paths. After the amount of rain that fell last night this matters! I did a fair bit of getting stuck in sandpits this morning in the middle of some rather nice woods. Lots of flies around but only buzzers, not biters, else I would have been in trouble.

I was navigating roughly west across to the North Sea port of Bremerhaven. The landscape seemed both very rural and quite full of holidaymakers; some German schools are now on holiday and the number of kids on campsites etc has suddenly rocketed.

Had a rare lunch failure in a cafe in Bad Bederkesa: I was expecting meat soup with beans and figs (c/o the translator app) but I think perhaps it was dog meat soup with last night's scrapings from the fruit salad bowl. Feel a bit sick just thinking of it. In recompense to myself I having a banana split for my supper. (It's going to be hard going back to normal meals).

Bremerhaven is a big industrial port but I found my way through and rolled straight onto a ferry which was just leaving. This wended out through some port bits and over the estuary of the Weser, to a rather Bognor-like place called Nordenham. 

Then I had lovely flat straight sunny run cross-country through the German part of Friesland. At least, there were plenty of black and white cows, and the local greeting has changed to 'Hoi!'. So we're definitely not in standard Germany any more.

Needless to say, it all looks Dutch to me. I apologise for this repeated comment - I guess I just never knew northern Germany looked like this, whereas I have lots of previous (happy) associations with Holland.

I cycled on following the sun to what feels slightly like the end of the world. In fact it's merely the western point of the peninsula. But all such places have a tendency to feel like the end of the road. In a good way.

On my map there's another ferry that I need to catch next, across a long stretch of what is largely mud flats at low tide. Florian kindly looked it up for me and we concluded it went between 9.45 and 5.45, perhaps when full. In fact it goes twice a day: at 9.45 and 5.45. As there's no camping close to the far side I decided to settle here for the night and take the ferry tomorrow morning. If bad weather comes in overnight this might prove to be an error... It's calm, sunny and beautiful at the moment but I know that's due to change!

Day 58: to Hechthausen (66; 3712)

Lovely day cycling with Anna and Florian - baby Ida's first cycle tour! 

They have a big new cycle trailer which they've used around town but not thus far on a longer trip. We cycled through the centre of Hamburg down to the port, took the ferry up and across the Elbe and then cycled the southern/western side of it along dykes and paths. Loads of people out on bikes, and when near the water the river is big enough here that the sky has that 'by the sea' light, making it all feel like a lovely summer holiday! 

They did brilliantly for a first time out, Ida was a bit bored of it by the end but mostly it worked really well, hopefully meaning they can do more trips in the near future. Now that all my old rowing crew except Katy are non-rowers, and there are babies etc involved we thought maybe a cyclocamping meet-up would be better than a rowing one...

I left them at Stade where they were taking the S-bahn home. I cycled on across country, now heading west and mostly on the North Sea route in fact which is my route home - barring a couple of shortcuts.

Despite a few drips at one point, and a pretty bad forecast ahead, it's been a gorgeous hot and breezy day. Really a perfect Sunday.

My campsite tonight also seems very satisfactory - and there's a lake that needs jumping in ASAP.

Days 56 & 57: Hamburg (85; 3642)

The last day into Hamburg was again a nice run across through more Netherlands-like landscape. I entered the city via a large park and confusing water-in-every-direction bits of port. Good signposting though and suddenly I found myself in the middle of huge highways and, according to google maps, surprisingly close to the centre. Hamburg is Germany's 2nd city: it's big!

A bit low on blood sugar I stopped into a McDonalds for refreshment and the wifi necessary to find out where my friend Anna lives with her German husband Florian and 8-month old Ida.

As it turns out they live near the centre and close to the shore of the Alster, a big lake. We celebrated my safe arrival with a little tipple of wine down by the Alster and then with delicious steak dinner while Germany won their World Cup quarter final. 

Hamburg seems a very liveable city; this morning we cycled to the market  etc through parks and dedicated cycle streets. It was a super humid morning but broke this afternoon with spectacular downpours which we witnessed from the safety of a tented beer garden (baby's first Biergarten!).

Lovely to see Anna and Florian and to meet little Ida who is a very cheerful and easygoing soul. Not surprising given her genes!

A trip to Globetrotter, an exquisite and enormous outdoor shop, has supplied the mapping necessary to get me to the ferry. With bad weather predicted (rain and headwinds) I'm planning to shortcut a little to ensure I get back without too much pain, and preferably in time for a quick hello to the Dutch contingent on the way past.

Day 55: to Radegast (86; 3557)

No mosquitoes, slept like a log, and woke to a glorious morning, much warmer than of late. 

Today consisted of more sweeping along the top of dykes through beautiful empty nature reserve, and occasional cute and unspoilt towns. Stork heavy too: many of the villages proudly display a plaque that enumerates how many nesting pairs they have each year, and at one point I counted ten storks in one (newly-mown) field of about 3 acres!

Totally absorbing, it was of those wonderful days when I couldn't remember whether I'd been cycling for one hour or six. 

The landscape looks like a Dutch 15th century painting. And funnily enough my campsite tonight is Dutch owned and about half the vehicles in it are Dutch. So maybe it's even more Holland than Holland. 

Tomorrow to Hamburg and friends, all being well.

Day 54: to Gartow (83; 3471)

A beautiful day of cycling through the UNESCO mid-Elbe biosphere reserve. Despite an occasionally strong headwind, and ever-threatening black clouds, it was a great ride through an incredibly peaceful and attractive landscape. 

Lots of wildlife around, especially birds: storks, herons, and some kind of very large bird of prey. I watched a guy digging ditches with his tractor, supervised by no less than four storks following closely behind him. A hare strolled across the path just in front of me and at one point I had to swerve to avoid slow-moving crabs. Which certainly makes a pleasant change from slugs.

The HandyDoctor did indeed fix my iphone screen, and in the hour it took him I explored the rather odd town of Wittenberge. Lots of derelict red-brick factories, a modern centre, and a tiny bit of rejuvenation just along the riverfront. And, I am sad to report, a very disappointing cake shop! (I had two just to be sure, and both were almost but not entirely nothing like how they should have been).

The rest of the habitations today have been small picturesque places, all old timber-framed houses and barns made with small red bricks. I stopped in a few to eat, drink, and/or take shelter from showers.

Gartow fits the same mould though the campground is a little out of town in a wooded area. My predictions for the evening are that it will be lovely and quiet here - and there will be mosquitoes!

Day 53: to Havelberg, Germany (15; 3388)

I've been feeling a bit blah, so today did something about it. To be specific I left east Germany and the Oder-Neisse behind and took a train due west, across to the river Elbe. Whichever way I worked it I probably wasn't quite going to make cycling all the way home, and the 3 days it would have taken to cut across between the rivers on bike weren't looking very exciting or convenient, accommodation-wise. 

Surprisingly, Horace and I managed fine despite having to change trains twice and take the S-Bahn (metro) across Berlin. 

The train actually started in Kostrzyn though I picked it up at the small German village just over the border. As such, it was an international train and two policemen solemnly turned up and checked the passports of all on board. As there's a train every hour I imagine that's a big section of their day's work! Funny since no-one turns a hair as you walk/cycle/drive over the border.

My first Elbe town is Havelberg, a perfect little place, with the oldest part situated on an island in between two rivers (the Havel and Elbe). It has a lovely tall red brick 'cathedral' (which I think in Cambridge would be called a chapel) and lots of old wooden-framed buildings. Quite a change in architecture etc for a few hours on a train. 

A change in my attitude too; I think the rain and lack of camping had been wearing on me and I feel suddenly much cheerier this side of the country.

Now I have two more legs to go: an easy few days up the Elbe to Hamburg where I hope to visit my rowing friend Anna and family, then a rapid sprint down the North Sea coast to home.

Amazingly, my phone continues to work despite the completely shattered screen.  I'm going to try and get it fixed ASAP since it's very vulnerable like this, and might even get the camera fixed too while I'm at it - imagine photos without a black line through them!?

I love that in German, a mobile is a 'handy' -and I have the address for the 'HandyDoctor' shop.