Three ferry rides on the Elbe

June 28, 2019

Barby to Wittenberg

The small towns that have no apparent touristic appeal are gems that we enjoy discovering....Barby is such a town. And don’t you love the name? It is a joy for us to spend time in a village and appreciate seeing how people live in these small communities.

We treated ourselves to a wonderful dinner last night in the eclectic and charming restaurant across the road in the owner’s other property. It is a restaurant that we would highly recommend.

We admired this woman’s ICE trike when we put Seavo in the bike storage at our hotel. The rider is from Munich and has done a circle tour with her husband from Munich to Hamburg via the Rhine and Baltic Sean and now south on the Elbe. Sounds like a nice tour.

Breakfast at the restaurant in our hotel.

And then to our first ferry of the day, being entertained by the geese while we waited.

Ferry number 1 from Barby. A brand new blue tractor boarded the ferry . You never have to wait long for a ferry on these rivers as they operate on a continuous, needs based schedule.

Unbelievably, the morning is cool. We can’t remember when we last wore a jacket. However, it will be coming off soon.

The remains of the castle in Waternienburg are quite a sight.

Walternienerbirger Weather Station from 973 AD.

This Unesco sight has been lovingly restored and provides a cool oasis for travelling cyclists.

This is not an address. It was built over 1000 years ago.

There must be something special about beavers and this town.

The village of Steutz was a very quirky place. This was just one of the decorative touches this small town had put along the road to entertain hot cyclists.

The infrastructure for the Elbe River cycle route is outstanding. Excellent signage and information booths manned by eager volunteers helping riders to be informed about deviations in the route

We love the road signs that we have seen on our trip.

Riding through Dessau we had to stop at the Bauhaus

Riding through the forested area outside of Dessau

Outside of Coswig we rode by this field of birds from Argentina. The birds look like emus or ostriches but are Rheas and are distantly related. These are domesticated birds, however, in Germany there is an increasing feral population of Rhea.

Rhea are polygamous and a male rhea will court 2 to 12 females. As well, the male makes a nest and incubates all of the eggs, sometimes up to 60 eggs at a time.

This male rhea had a harem of 4 females and only one chick, as far as we could see. A fascinating encounter for us and them. They got pretty close to us and really checked us out. The male was very watchful and kept guard.

Today's ride: 75 km (47 miles)
Total: 3,098 km (1,924 miles)

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