Sandstedt - Hengstforde - To France the Long Way - CycleBlaze

July 7, 2009

Sandstedt - Hengstforde

We wake up to a cool and windy day, showers and sun intermittently. I slept well and am very pleased with our new tent which gives us enough room to sleep comfortably.

Our camping ground is just behind the dike on the Weser River. We pack up and, since we have nothing in our panniers for breakfast, are at the ferry landing in a few minutes for the short crossing across the river.

Low tide on the Weser
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We get a cup of coffee on the short ferry ride across the Weser.
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It almost feels like the North Sea.
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The wind is blowing the way it does on the coast. It feels envigorating and I would love it if it weren't blowing in the wrong direction. On the other side of the Weser the landscape changes: more canals, dikes, wind, sheep, cows - the lowlands.

We have arrived in a landscape of dikes and sheep and wind.
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Charmaine RuppoltHa! Look at that big sheep lounging in the sun! :)
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1 year ago
Interesting thatched roofs on the road where we get off the ferry
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Charmaine RuppoltThatched roofs are so cool and I hear they last a long time!
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1 year ago
The sky clouds over, we're in for both sun and rain.
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Sometimes sun, sometimes rain and always wind
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The lowlands: cows, canals, clouds
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The green and white painted doors are typical for Eastern Friesland, where we are now.
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A cycling paradise - if you're traveling west to east.
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We cycle on small roads used mainly by farm vehicles.
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Eastern Friesland style farm houses
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Fen drainage canals in the marshy lowlands
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We find protection from the rain in a bus shelter.
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Another shower, this time we take refuge in someone's barn.
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Charmaine RuppoltI've taken shelter in someone's barn before also in a big hail storm! I was very thankful!!
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1 year ago
A heavy sky dominates the landscape.
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Sheep and pigs sharing their pasture: Is it because of their close proximity that they have started resembling each other?
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The wind is tiring and twice we get caught in a downpour. We see no more camping grounds on our route and in our soggy state we aren't too sorry. We end up at the Gasthof Friesenrose for 76€ including breakfast, one of our more expensive hotels on this trip, but we have no choice. It doesn't look like there's going to be any accommodation down the road, either. The hotel is bran new and has been decorated in a mixed style of modified-traditional and flamboyant. It's very comfortable, even if they haven't gotten around to getting a wireless internet connection going yet.

Our room at the hotel at its ornate best.
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Charmaine RuppoltA lovely bed, fit for a queen and king!
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1 year ago

We eat in a nearby restaurant, Restaurant Mühle, located in an old windmill. As with the hotel, I believe the restaurant is hoping for - and catering to the tastes of - a new wave of tourism in the area. This isn't the local pub where the locals stop by for a beer in the evening. We wouldn't have minded a simple pub, but there were none.

The restored windmill now houses a restaurant.
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Today's ride: 63 km (39 miles)
Total: 1,353 km (840 miles)

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