Zarrentin - Barsbuttel - To France the Long Way

July 2, 2009

Zarrentin - Barsbuttel

We had a perfect place to stay last night. The room was on the ground floor with the door opening onto the courtyard. Breakfast, included in the modest price, was also a generous portion and we were given extra energy bars and fruit for the road. We're ready to roll at 9:00 and the weather is heavenly.

After about ten kilometers we pass the former border between East and West Germany. Today it is hard to imagine the eerie and threatening atmosphere that existed 20 years ago between the two borders with border police, police dogs, floodlights, alarms, walls, barbed wire, trenches, watchtowers, automatic booby-traps and minefields. Now, we only see peaceful farmland. The site of so much human tragedy, the border zone, is now a unique nature preserve. The 870 mile and 160 - 660 foot wide green strip, a belt of immense biodiversity, could develop over the years because man was barred from the area.

We are crossing the former border between East and West Germany

Endangered animals and almost extinct plants thrived in the otherwise deadly no man's land of the inner-German border - it is now a nature preserve.

We have entered Schleswig-Holstein, the terrain is more rolling, less monotonous, villages are closer together. Almost everything is well cared for, it seems buildings are repainted and repaired before they can develop any patina.

Leaving former East Germany and entering Schleswig-Holstein

"Göttin" can mean goddess, here it's the name of a town.

We decide today is the day that we initiate our tent. We find a camping ground on our map, a little off our route but why not. It's also too early in the day, but we think we must get into the camping mode and today is the designated day. When we arrive at the camping ground, the reception is closed until evening, the prices listed are high and it's kind of shabby, contradicting my observations on the towns we've just passed through. It's an easy decision to backtrack to our route and ride a few more kilometers before we look for a room.

A comment on camping in Germany: Camping grounds don't abound in Germany unless you are in an area where people vacation, along lakes, rivers or on the coast for example, or along popular bike routes. Our experience is that France and Holland offer far superior camping opportunities.

I'm relieved to see that after yesterday's low I am again enjoying riding my bicycle. I left the ghost of old age back there in West-Pomerania and am again feeling fit as a fiddle. When we reach Barsbüttel, a suburb of Hamburg, we call it a day since we're not keen on riding into a city we're not familiar with in the evening.

Today's ride: 70 km (43 miles)
Total: 1,139 km (707 miles)

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Charmaine RuppoltInteresting note about camping in Germany and that there aren't too many campgrounds, unless you're in a popular area.
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