2 Elben. Elberadweg.de Praha to Magdeburg

 10. sept - 16.sept  2023

Airplane from Oslo to Praha.

Bicycling along Elben downstream to Magdeburg

Following   www.elberadweg.de

Thorstein, Knut Bjørn, Bård and me, Tore.

Thorstein and Knut Bjørn is brothers, from Arendal.  Norway

Bård and I are cusins.  From Søgne.   Norway

           5 o clock in the morning (sunday 10. sept) we loaded the trailer with the bicycles packed in                                paperboxes.

           Our friend Rune drove us to Oslo Airport.

    At the ariport.    I have bring a bicycle many times with airplane.    But only at direct flights.

         At Vaclav Havel Airport, Prague.
         We spend more then an hour putting our bikes together and getting ready for the roads.

   

    We had decided to not visit Prague City but instead find the shortest way straight to Elbe River.

After some few kilometers we found a milk-automat.   Bring your own bottle and pay  for 1,5 liter milk.

             Between the ariport and Litiomerice we biked almost the shortest way.  

           Crossing agriculture land.

             An open landschape with long wiews.

        A part of the route was at narrow fotpaths.....

                                                Bøøøøøø!

               It would not have been fun to meet a train so close.

             A sign we do not like. 

             In Tschekkia we did not found any bicycle-paths.    Exept along Elbe river

             where it was wery fine and car-free cyclepaths.

picture from Internet.    "Florentina"   A rivercruice ship whitch was anchored in Litomerice, its home port.    We had booked two cabins.  

First day, sunday 15.sept. we biked 60 km.

Welcome on board.   The ship was laying in an old and nice town.   At river Elbe.   

The weather was hot, fine and we had a beer in the schadow.

We can absolutly recomand the ship.   Helpsome and cleaver staff.   Clean and nice.

         Wiew from the cabin window

A great part of Tchekia was populated by germans for hundreds of years.   In Bøhmen and Mehren.

In 1938 about 5 million citicens used german language.   The borderarea close to Germany was called Sudetenland.   Added to Germany by Hitler in -38.       Some older people still talk a little german.

This sign was quite high up in the hillside.

The Pilsnerbeer came originally from the town Pilsen in Tchekia. 

After my opinion the pilsnerbeer there tasted much better then what we call pilsner in Scandinavia.

But of cource, after 60 km at bicycle on a hot sunny day, our demands was small.

Litomerice.

Next day. monday 11. sept.   Still hot and nice weather.

And very fine bicycletracs along river Elbe.  In Tchekia they call the river Labe.

No cars.  Fine and smooth asphalt.  Easy to keep a good speed.

Sailboats at the river.    There was some riverstream, and the river is not wide.   Also with high hills along.    A long way from the ocean and the estuary by Cuxhafen.    

                                           Locks close to Usti na Ladem (Usti by Elben)

                                           We did not saw any riverships exept some cruicships.   

A more wide part of the river.  

Bridge over Labe/Elben in Usti 

Decin.  Getting close to Germany.   Lunchtime.

Knut Bjørn in good mood

     

The navigators, Bård and Tore (cusins) cheking the route forward.

The legs to the right belongs to Thorstein.

Bård, Knut Bjørn and Thorstein.   I was the photograf.

 Radleren von Norwegen.

The sign of Elberadweg.de    

Here we are over in Germany.    

The water have a long distance to flow, before it will meet the North Sea.

Cliffs along the river.

A nice and hot day.   No wind.

Elben between Dresden and Usti na Ladem is the most beautiful part of the river. 

At least the most beautiful part we biked along.

The wheelsteamer "Leipzig" of Dresden is passing.

Dresden in sight.   Dresden is a big city with about 600.000 citicens.

Capitol of the state Sachsen.

February 1945 the city was almost totally destroyed by western-allied bombers.

So they have rebuildt many buildings.

Dresden have a famous old art school and a 250 year old tecnical university, also famous.

The city was a leading city in the 19th hundred decade.  In both art and sience.

"Der Sitronpresse"   The nickname at this building in Dresden.

In Dresden we stayed at IBIS hotel.    With long corridors.

Thorstein is looking for his room.

Dresden is in Sachsen witch was in DDR. 

   So they got "Der Ampelmann" also there.

In Dresden they have trams.  I was a tramdriver, sparetime, when I was a young student in Oslo 40 years ago, so I like to watch trams.

Dresden by night

We did NOT went in to Semperoper.  Sachishe Opera in Dresden. Foto from internet.

Next time, perhaps, with better time.

About time.   We had a long chat with an australian man at the hotel.  He was retired, and was on a 3 month long trip in Germany-Netherland.   By bicycle and train.  When I told him that I have to waith  2 or 7 years before I can declaim my pension, he sad:  "Cant you just tell a lay"   Australian humor...

Meissen.

Meissen.    An old town with castle, a great cathedral and a fine old Innerstadt.

But we did not went in, just followed the track along the river.

Wineyards in the southern headed hillsides of Elben. 
The river is down there, not visible.

Fine bikeways along the river.

Cold lunch in Riesa.   Outdoor.  A hot septemberday.  

Somewere between Dresden and Torgau.

Next evening, we arriwed in Torgau.   A 1000 year old town. 

 And got rooms at Goldener Anker Hotel

Big rooms .

The breakfeast next morning was in the old ballroom.

Torgau Rathaus (City Hall)

Torgau

In the castle-yard at Torgau Castle they have two bears.

A sad and miserable sight.

Torgau Castle

Torgau castle.  They use the yard for concerts and celebration of the 1050 birthday for the town.   

Next day we continued towards Lutherstadt Wittenberg.

Through some dorfs (villages) there was bridgestones.

But most of the bikeroads was with smooth aspalt and free of cars.

We only cycled 60 km that day, and went for a long evening in Wittenberg.

Wittenberg Castlechurch

Matin Luther in front of Wittenberg Rathaus.

Philipp Melancton.    A friend and collegue of Luther.

Cleaver boy, 19 year old he publiched a textbook in greek.

And 20 year old he became professof at The University of Wittenberg.

A waterfontain for drinking water at Rathaus Platz, Wittenberg.

Originally from the 1500-century.

   Bringing frech water through pipellines from some km outside the town.

Wittenberg 

Traditional german dinner at Wittenberg Brauhaus. 

  Schweinehexe mit Bayerche Dunkel bier.

The door is replaced, but it was at the door here Luther nailed up his 95 theses, and thereby started the Reformation.   At the castlechurch of Wittenberg.

Also other smart mens was staying in Wittenberg for a while....

After a night at a nice gasthof in Wittenberg, we continued towards Magdeburg.

Another ferry without motor, crossing Elben by Coswig.

From left: Bård, Thorstein, Tore and Knut Bjørn.

After the ferrycrossing by Coswig we got on this road.  About 10 km with bridgstoneroad.   Crossing fields and forest.    Fortunatly there was an asphaltway longside for bicycles.

The road was protected and a kind of museum.

I remember my father told me that in 1952 there was hundreds of km with bridgestone-countryroads in Germany.  He was in The Norwegian Brigade in Flensburg then.

Hochwasserschutsanleg. 

  We cycled for many km on dams.   Protecting the fields from flow in the river.

                                An old Orangerie.   Belonging to Schloss Worlitz I think.

In Dessau we passed an abandoned Airport.    

It was the airfield for the Junker Airplanefactory.  

 A Junker Airplane.   Picture from internet.

We cycled 10-15km through a forest at this road.   Fine for cycling.   But strange.  May it have been a military road?  Sovjet got bases in the area during the DDR time

                                                  Lunch.  By a ferrycrossing.  

               Most of the guests was bikers.   Many used e-bikes.

One of the ferrys without engine.    With cables the ferryman turn the stearn towards the rivercurrent.  And the ferry begin to drift forward towards the other riverbank.

Here is a ferry fastened to a point upstreams and then it is working lika a pendel.     With cables in both ends of the ferry, and losening and fastening the cabels for each dirction it is heading.

In the suburban of Magdeburg.   A tram-city.    Magdeburg have a great and beautiful cathedral, but exept for it, the city was not very charming.   Big modern buildings along wide streets.    

In Magdeburg we had planned to just find a hotel without prebooking.   It had been easy the other days.  But all hotels was occupied, and we got a problem to find accomodation.   There was a marked of some kind in the city.      The solution for us ended with train to a small town som km outside the city .   Burg bei Magdeburg.   And fine roms at a hotel there.   To late for dinner.   But a shower and a soft bed.

Next day was friday.  We started at sunday.     The most interesting and most beautiful natur along elberadweg was behind us.  And we had to meet at work at monday morning.   So we went by train from Magdeburg to Fredricia in Denmark.    It is easy to bring bicycles at trains in Germany.    And the trains are fast and not to expencive.   We bought a daypass-ticket for all over Germany.

The train from Hamburg to Fredricia is passing the Nord-Ostsee Kanal.  The "Kielerkanal".

A the tall railwaybridge.     The canal is almost 100 km long and very busy.    Used by big oceangoing ships.

Departing time at Fredricia railwaystation.    The two to left, Bård and Knut Bjørn were heading norht to Aarhus, Aalborg an Hirtshals for the ferry to Kristiansand.

And the two of us at right, Tore and Thorstein were heading east to Copenhagen and the ship to Oslo. 

   

One night in Bangkok.  ----No, in Fredrica.

A break in Copenhagen. 

  Between the railwaystation and the ship bound for Oslo.
In 1980 at my first long bicycletrip in Denmark we drank a lot of this sodawater.

Then we was 17 years old, biked 820km without gears, helmets, thelphones and sleeped under the open sky 10 nights and in yout hostel 2 nights.

At the ferrry.  Cheap and easy to bring bicycles on.   By a mistake we had only ordered ticked for one bike, but the staff fixed it easy without any extra cost.

A sight of Sweeden.  A cape called Kullen.

 From the ferry between Copenhagen and Oslo.

The trip ended up with about 500 km cycled distance totally.    The shortest daydistance was 60 km, and we had two days with 120 km.     But we enjoyed the breakfesat every morning and was normally not on the wheels before 0930 o clock.     We stopped for lunch at cafees and cheked in for the night at hotels og gasthofs about 17-18 o clock.    And went for dinner and beer.    

In Tchekia dinner and beer was cheap.   A little bit more expencive in Germany, but quite cheeper than in Norway.  In Denmark it was quite expencive.

But we saved much money by been 4, becauce we then booked to double rooms instead of single rooms.

The wheater was very fortunally.   Not a single drop of rain.    It rained and was some thunder at night in Torgau.   Before Torgau it was quite hot at daytime, but cooler in the evening.  It was 33 degrades in Dresden at thusday afternoon.    After Torgau the weather got cooler, but still dry.

And every day was not windy.    Strong wind may be a problem when biking, if it is towards one.

Both in Tchekia an Germany the bicycleway was well marked and very fine.   Many cyclist used the Elberadweg.   And there is a website with map, recommanded accomoations and all kind of informations.   www.elberadweg.de.   

    

Also when I cycled Rhinradweg and Munchen-Venedig I used routes like elberadweg.

So bicycling in Germany is very easy and safe.  

All of us speak a little german and used german language most with the locals.  

And german is quite simular to scandinavian anyway so one understand much of texts.

Thanks for following us.     Gruss von 2hjuls2re