Ausflug 38

July 4th: Neustadt, Germany

On the 4th of July we decided to try a loop to the North past Neustadt (in Holstein). We cycled past the empty beaches and beach-chairs in Haffkrug and an old-fashioned bathing car to get to Neustadt. There we stopped at a Lidl store and found electronic bicycle speedometers would be on sale (Yay!), but the sale didn't start until next Monday (Boo!). Still, we made plans to visit a Lidl store on Monday to pick up a couple of those, and I hoped to find some additional panniers for Monika's bike. The panniers I had attached to my bike functioned extremely well for stowing and keeping dry the extra layers we brought along like long-sleeved shirts, sweaters, and raincoats, so I wanted another set for her bike.

In Neustadt we saw a guy riding a bike in a path across a field and assumed that was the continuation of the path. Bad decision! By following him we accidentally got trapped in a truly huge mental asylum complex. No fooling, we rode through a veritable maze of paths besides small, calming ponds and among 30 or more residential and treatment houses. The only place that gave me the willies was what appeared to be the high-security dangerous-patient main building which was surrounded by a truly enormous 30-foot high fence topped with large, inward-curving crescents that looked very much like the talons of some huge raptor. Since stopping to ask the poor patients how to get out wasn't a feasible option, we circled around until we found the walking path that we had entered, and then made our getaway.

Continuing into town Monika spotted the small, white "X" symbol that marks a trans-European hiking trail and we turned onto that in the direction of Sierhagen. There we found a beautiful "Gut" or estate with a lovely old manor house and huge "U"-shaped set of brick outbuildings that I found very picturesque.

As it turned out, our trail ran straight through the gates of the estate and on out into the farm fields beyond it. Our trail was essentially a farm track through the fields and forests for the next few kilometers. I rather enjoyed the occasional sections of sand or mud where our bikes would start to wallow or bog down, because by upping the power setting on the motor I could blast right through the stuff. Wheeeeeee! Monika, however, felt insecure and in danger of wiping out and so did not enjoy it the way I did.

It started to rain, so we donned our raincoats, but riding in the rain is simply not as much fun. In particular, Monika's right foot tended to slip off the pedal when wet, and that was disturbing. We started to search for a place to eat in each little town we passed through on our route back through Goemnitz, Bujendorf, and Suesel, where we finally did find a nice restaurant in an old restored farmhouse, but it didn't open until 4:30 p.m.!! Argh! In the end we simply rode back to Haffkrug, locked up the bikes at the condominium, and walked into Haffkrug to have lunch at an Imbiss down the street.

We had ridden for not quite 4 hours and a battery check showed 60% charge remaining, but the bikes held up better than we did. After riding in the rain and having been pounded by the rough trails in many places, we were just tuckered out. While out for lunch, however, we did take some time out for shopping and found a nice, tiny set of heart-shaped amber earrings and a larger heart-shaped piece of amber for a necklace for Monika. So despite being somewhat stiff and sore, the day ended well.