Stolpe - Reitwein: A break in the monotony - From Bavaria to the Baltic Sea and Back

June 26, 2011

Stolpe - Reitwein: A break in the monotony

Today was grey and cool, we even had a few drops of rain when we set out. Again our route - which remained on the crest of the dam or the parallel road at the foot of the dam - afforded us pretty scenes. But it didn't go through towns and the lack of distractions made it feel very tiring. At regular intervals we met the Swiss couple - and they too found the path monotonous and were looking for another route before they rode back to Berlin where in a few days they would catch a train home.

When you see this picture, I guess it's hard to understand why we were complaining about a bike path that looks like this.

Across the river is Poland, the river is the border and in the foreground is a German border marking.

Our break in the monotony fortunately didn't break anything else. It could have broken my neck. This is what happened. For a little variety, we would ride on the dam a while, then on the road below. We were returning from the lower road to the dam again and all of a sudden I didn't know what hit me. I found myself sprawled out on the pavement with my bike more or less on top of me.

Nothing hit me, I hit it. Perhaps I was studying my GPS, perhaps I was staring blankly into the distance, but whatever the reason was I plowed straight into a road post at full tilt. It was one of those posts that keeps cars out and cyclists are supposed to ride around.

I was shaken but miraculously not injured. My sturdy Ortlieb handlebar bag took the brunt of the crash and probably saved me from injury. It was ripped off the bike and broken, the panniers had both flown off the rack, the bike's saddle tore an enormous hole in my bicycle shorts, the contents of my handlebar bag, including my good dSLR camera, were strewn far and wide - and Janos was in shock and disbelief as he watched it happen.

There's the culprit - the post. Why didn't I see it?Once I was back on my feet and the bags were in place again, I felt good enough to take a picture of the scene of the accident.

After picking up the pieces, so to speak, we continued slowly to our day's destination. We found a nice private room in Reitwein, 55 € including breakfast, and aside from the shock I was fine. We weren't surprised when, while having dinner in the only restaurant in Reitwein, our Swiss friends came in. They were also staying at the same place in Reitwein, we just hadn't seen them yet. That night we had a good story to tell.

Another pretty view before we reached Reitwein

Here we found a very comfortable private room. The bicycle outside the gate has a welcome sign on it. Time and time again we were told by our hosts that they always loved to rent to cyclists.

Today's ride: 79 km (49 miles)
Total: 1,871 km (1,162 miles)

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