Day 11: Domitz to Lauenberg

April 23, 2022

Baa!

Both we and the Elbe are getting ready for the final rush into Hamburg. We will be there tomorrow, and maybe the look and feel of our ride will change at that point, as we will at least be entering and noodling through a big city, looking for ferries, and such. But for today, it's still all pastoral beauty.

We began in a little managed pine forest, and having left quite early, we had some nice lighting for looking at it.

It was then back on our dike path, with again the open and colourful vista and smooth bike path.

In Canada when cycling you have a general feeling that animals are around you, and depending where you are you hope you do not actually meet them - like they could be bear in Manning Park, or suchlike. In Europe we often feel that there is nothing around, but here on the Elbe it's a pleasant compromise, with lots of wild birds, deer, hase (hares), and farm animals.

I thought I could take advantage of this by nailing down some wild geese with the moon on their wing, and I was willing to dispense with the moon part. So I located some wild geese and asked Dodie to shout at them, so they could be on the wing. But Dodie does not support harassing animals, so here are my wild geese, no moon, no wing!

Moving on from the geese, I went over to harrass a herd of cows. Since we are nearing Schleswig-Holstein, which is directly north of Hamburg, I figured these Holsteins were fair tourism game. I asked them my dumb tourist question "Say, are you guys really Holsteins?", but they gave me the silent treatment my question deserved.

Just as on the dikes of Netherlands, sheep graze and help control the grass. The government helpfully advises to not step in the resulting fertiliser. We spotted one flock that had two large white dogs to guard it, and we watched these chase away two crows, and also us. Good work! We also watched a black dog and shepherd controlling a huge flock that looked like a moving cloud.

But best of all were the new lambs, like this one:

A lamb in Spring - easily one of our Favourite Things

Another theme that recurred today was the thatched houses. They look so medieval!

Look at his great thatch haircut:

There is also the question of the crossed knights at the crests of the roofs. A closer look seemed to reveal these to maybe actually be dragons. But maybe they are donkeys? Have a look and see what you think.

In Netherlands swans on roofs are common, but what do we have here?

We ran into our first hills around Boizenberg, and actually had to push up some very steep slopes when finally we entered Lauenberg, our destination for the day. Lauenberg old town has very narrow streets and sidewalks, and (for a cyclist) annoying cobbled pavement. It is not terribly large, but it is picturesque. It was not as if there were cafes or walking areas to keep us, so we pushed on to our hotel, the Bellevue.

I should have said we pushed up to the Bellevue, which is clearly so named because it has a viewpoint over the Elbe.

The hotel is very cute overall, though our room is quite tiny. It's not quite like some in France, where you have to make an appointment with your partner for a chance to pass between the end of the bed and the adjacent wall, but it's small. Even so, there is a little desk that is helping a lot as I type this, while Dodie is on her favourite tablet, finding a place for us tomorrow in Hamburg. True to form, we are planning to basically blow though Hamburg. If it has anything interesting to show us, it will have to put it on our track!

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Preview Flash: Dodie seems to have booked a hooker hotel off the Reeper Bahn. Stay tuned!

Today's ride: 74 km (46 miles)
Total: 505 km (314 miles)

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