BSD Holzminden

30 June

Some photo progress today. Several wrote that the flickr pictures were not
reachable. Now fixed. Some sort of strange permission problem. New
photos, just a few, up loaded.

After this note will add the photos from the BB.

Fun ride today mostly along the Weser. Nice stop for coffee. Ride was more
hilly as the landscape has definitely changed.

Our rear view mirror turns out to be a great conversation starter. For 30
plus years we have traveled with these and for the whole time, in each
country, we get stopped and asked about them. It has been the best ice
breaker with strangers we have found. Today was no exception and led to
them trying on my glasses.

Speaking of ice, the difficulty of getting it in a glass of water. I know
the German word for table water and have ordered it successfully quite a few
times. I know the word for ice cubes. Cannot seem to get them in the
table water. Somehow the conjunction, at least as I can do it, ends up
with mineral water with one ice cube or ice cubes with no water. It is as
if they only understand selling water at a cafe or dinner restaurant – even
when we are ordering a full meal. Must be me but it always turns out
interesting.

Speaking of interesting, try ordering cake for dessert. Cake is served
late afternoon with coffee. It is a ritual. There is generally cake left
over at most cafes and restaurants but getting it with coffee as a dessert
is a challenge. They understand me perfectly on this issue but it just does
not compute. We like these cultural oddities.

We are still in Moin country. Not sure when or where it will end.

Moin

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BSD Hameln

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BSD Hamlen

June 28, 2008, Hameln – words with pictures separate

Excellent ride to Hameln, the town of the creepy fairy tale. The landscape
was hills (about 100 meters) on one side of the river and a flat valley on
the side we cycled. Good views, good quality road and many others also
sacking; fortunately they left some for us.

Our sponser has returned. Be sure to buy some tea as the US stock market has
tanked.
Sponsored by Tip Top Tea (The Tea of Record). Try our Weser Blend and
listen to it pop.

George- please note the hotel we are at in Hamlen is called Jungendstil and
is decorated mostly in arts and crafts with several Klimpts on the wall.
The stuffed chair does look a bit Victorian (although the upholstery looks
like Wm. Morris) to us as does the four poster bed sans posts.

On the road we encountered a full timbered bench, pic. Entering Hameln one
sees the rat on the bridge (pic). At the market we saw a Shauenspiel, a
reenactment of the Pied Piper story with little kids as the rats and middle
sized kids as the city folks (pic). Shared a bratwurst as we had not had
one in a while and QB was in withdrawal.

The town, unsurprisingly, is as cute as one would expect it to be. Lots of
alleys to explore, old buildings (saw one dated 1500 ) in good restored
condition. Each alley more interesting than the previous. QB took MANY MANY
pictures, could not help herself. These are on on Flickr. KB took a few
on the cell phone and will post those on this blog right after this entry.

The church was partially destroyed during WWII and now restored with an old
and new section. Heard the big organ rehearsing. Bass a bit too big for
the space.

Moin

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BSD Rinteln

28 June

Rinteln is one of the three important tourist towns in the middle Weser. Minden and Hamlen, of rats and pied piper fame, being the others.

Another good ride, improved by a small tailwind as we headed east for a bit. First rain on the bike since the start of the trip. Short light rain that was over quickly.

Another perfect medieval town. See pics. Hotel from 1593 but renovated. As it is Sat. Most places are closed. As the weather is cool and overcast it is a very good day for the wandering we did.

The architecture is called, in the tourist literature, Weser Renaissance. No idea why.

A ball of string:

This evening we took an after dinner walk smack into another outdoor feat. By the old church. 175 years of choral singing. Fish and drinking songs. Still comes out as a Polka.

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BSD Minden 2

Written yesterday, sent today the 28th
27 June

Exhausted just reading Libby's travelog. For those not on her list she
traveling in China as part of a choral group invited to sing (and it seems
eat and tourist) in several venues – she can pack more in one day than we
can in many many). Our day is much more relaxing.

Today included sitting at the "Gourmet Miele" (yes, gourmet mile) set up in
our honor in the town square. Rows of restaurants with their specialities
as well as beer and wine; music too. Melita has a moving coffee stand,
regular readers may remember it from Dresden, and he we sat in leather
chairs, under the state building, an impressive one, drank coffee and
watched the world go by. George – a perfect site for you to observe from
with Danish modern furniture to sit on under the stone arches; sorry you
missed this one.

As this is a promotional stand not only is the coffee good but it is
inexpensive at 1 euro plus a 2 euro deposit on the cup. We will go back for
dinner and sample the local fare. I have already tried the Gazpacho, a good
one but very small for 3 euro.

Breakfast included a new item. Melba toast chocolate covered, milk
chocolate. QB sampled.

A problem from last evening, maybe a suggestion will be forthcoming. The
camera photos all seem to be gone. QB loaded the compact flash from the
Nikon and opened the photo manager. Saw an error message (did not
memorialize it) and closed the application and reopened it. The photos are
gone. What is very very strange is that all the photo naming is there.
That is, there are a few hundred jpeg names each next to a file of 0 bytes.
A new partition 1 has been created. I have tried at the command line as
well as the file manager to find the images but they are not there. I have
put the card back in the camera and it says that there are no images. I
look at the command line and the MMD card is 47% used, as it should be. I
took some new pictures and they go into the new partion and seem to work
just fine. Stumped.

The local Dom here was destroyed in the latest war and has been rebulit with
spectacular stained glass windows and the original gothic architecture. The
old town has building marked from 1603 onwards. The local literature claims
that the first written mention of Minden was in 798 and that later, 15th
century Minden was granted status that all ships had to unload and sell
their wares in the local port. Naturally it prospered.

Research question: Lots of half timbered houses to be seen, mostly early
17th century onwards. What do full timbered houses look like in comparison
with half timbered?

Dinner was a mixed collection of local specialities from the festival.
Fleishspiese, Tafelspitz, Gaspacho, Chilli-pepper soup, asiagemuse, beer as
well as coffee and desert. Interesting conversation with a nuclear
mechanic (and motorcyclist) and his wife. They putup with my German for
almost 90 minutes. It wore QB out trying to keep up; she can to a large
degree now as she has far better language skills than I do.

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BSD Minden 2

27 June

Today's blog will be posted when I next have a net connection. Wrote it up on pc and then ran into windows only connection.

Good write up but gentle readers will just have tp wait.
Research questions will be included.

Moin

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BSD Minden

26 June

Stoped for eleven-sees in a small town. Dutch bike shop, something we wanted to see. It was closed.

Windy ride to this central town on the Weser. A few Mis turns fixed by the gps.

No time to explore today. Longer day so just shower and dinner.

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BSD Nienburg

25 June

In Bucken we found this church with history to the 9 th century. Inside paint on walls and alter one of the best we have seen. QB took interior pics which will go up on flickr.

Another good relaxing ride through fields and bakeries.

Nienburg is not much of a tourist town. Ok walk in alt stadt.

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BSD Verden 2

24 June

Verden is the home to the Hannovarian horse business. Breeding is controlled from here via classes and certification. The Canadian Mounties come here for their mounts and breeding.

International dressage competion in early August as well two big auctions yearly. Hotels are all booked a year in advance and are sold out.

A perfect weather day so we decided to take a tourist day and are the market and Dom. Also a good cafe and people watching opportunity which we took. May need to find a way to get Radler's to Gorden Biersch.

Scored excellent raison bread in the local tues market.

Moin

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BSD Verden

23 June

Stayed up too late as to watch the Spain Italy quarter final.

Very windy day but fortunetly mostly a tail wind. Big weather change after yesterday and the thunderstorm.

Stork station with youngins just out of Verden. Wind now at plus 20 miles per hour according to gage. Much stronger gusts. Windmills doing very well.

Another charming city on the junction of two rivers. River tours etc. Feet tired from walking on the big cobbles.

First choice of hotel sold out but found a good local gasthaus.

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