Safe Return Doubtful

Great weather and great riding today. Firstly a correction though. I said yesterday I was on Eurovelo 1 when actually it is route 2, which in Germany is called EuroRadweg 1. Either way, I’m on that route for a few days, but this morning thought I would do a bit more in the Harz mountains first, and headed a longer and higher way over to Seesen. The climb goes up to 500 metres, but the surprise was that a reasonable part of it was at 15%, steeper than Norwegian climbs, so a good test. The traffic wasn’t too bad, and the riding generally really good. After Seesen the climbing wasn’t over by an means though, as I wound my way across the Harz foothills, quite up and down, with one decent climb of 200 metres in late afternoon.

Distance 74.6 miles Time left 10:45 am Time arrived 7:00 pm Time riding 6 hours 59 minutes Height gained 1200 metres

Wonderful start to the morning – up in the Harz hills

The artificial lake looks low on water – this is at 300 metres asl – all the rain must have fallen on me in Denmark and Norway

Not quite sure what this is. But it was about three quarters of the way up my 15% climb so I thought I would stop and photograph it….

I said just before Kongsberg in Norway it would be the last steep descent of the tour, but I was wrong. This was a decent climb, as I said, 15% for a large part, and the descent – but I can say quite safely that this will be the last big descent…

Late lunch stop, and some bell-ringing

Einbeck town square, with its own beer

Approaching Stadtoldendorf

Stopped to ask directions – beautiful evening

I was directed here. Hotel Umber. But it’s not a hotel any more, it’s an old people’ home.

Quite humorous – I went in and there were 5 or 6 old folk sat drinking tea of whatever and asked if there were any rooms. They just stared at me. I think I probably could have stayed there, quite cheaply also.

I had been looking for a place since about 5:30 pm, but I think this area is down on its luck a bit. Many of the hotels / pensions and indeed other businesses had closed down.