Hello blog readers. Firstly I must begin by saying that any
stories going around about two cyclists who ask an 80 year old woman for
directions in a supermarket carpark and are then taken by Hildegard….the woman,
leading the way on her bike, into a strong headwind for 5kms, to put these two
cyclists on the exact path….well this story may have been exaggerated. Yes….the lady was 80….yes, she was on a
bike…..it was definitely a headwind and gusting…..and it was 5kms that she lead
the way……..but to say that the two much younger cyclists were struggling to
keep up and thought she was going to blow them away with her sheer power on a
bike, without even puffing and talking as she went……well that is just not
true….and I get so angry when I hear that story….as if that could happen….?
We were awake at 6am this morning and without any breakfast
supplies, so that was first on our agenda.
After packing up and hitting the road, we found a supermarket 5km down
the road and then went to rejoin the cycle path we were following. We were lucky there was a supermarket right
there as when we came back to the cycle path was when we noticed the arrow
pointing down the road of the supermarket.
We were so close to missing it and stuffing up our direction right at
the start of the day.
So next thing we wanted was a nice place to eat our
breakfast. We pedalled along patiently
waiting for the right spot. Somewhere
quiet, a little off the track, sheltered from the cool wind which was already
in force and with nobody else using it.
We passed several seats but decided they were either too close to the
track or too open to the elements and we wanted one with a table if possible.
After passing through a cornfield, past a wheat field,
through some woods, our route brought us out beside a main road. I said to Pete, “I’m beginning to think we
should have taken that seat in the woods” when Da…Da…Da da, there loomed out
from the side of the road, tucked into some trees, the perfect table and bench
seats with a good strong German roof covering the whole lot and two walls
protecting us from the wind – unbelievable!
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| the perfect breakfast spot |
After a delicious breakfast in the perfect spot, we set off
again on our bike trail to Munster. We
followed it faithfully and it took us down a bumpy gravel path. It had been so good until now, that we
persevered, willing to forgive this minor transgression as long as it was only
temporary. After about 2 km of this
uneven surface, I said to Pete, “I’ve had enough of this rubbish”, we turned
the corner and lo and behold, a smooth tarsealed road…..spooky.
We thought we’d try our luck a third time and I said to
Pete, “I wonder if it’s ever rained money”, but sadly nothing happened. What did happen though was we were caught up
by our friends from yesterday – Monica and her 78 year old husband (we never
found out his name). When I say ‘caught
up’ I must stress they both had e-bikes.
It does make you feel bad though when you see these old people powering
off ahead of you! So we all rode into
Munster together, had a nice chat on the way and parted company when we got to
the Zentrum.
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| Munster Zentrum |
Munster is a beautiful old city and they were busy setting
up for some music festival there with a couple of stages in the middle of town,
right by their two most stunning churches, so it did tend to ruin the
photographs a bit. After walking round
taking photos, we went to McDonald’s as we had three days of blog to upload and
messages to check. Unfortunately the
computer would not connect to the internet for some reason. After checking with Tourist Info, they put us
onto a computer shop and although they didn’t repair our computer, they let us
try connecting to their wifi and it worked.
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| Munster Schloss |
So at last we got to do what we needed to do and then it was time to make
some ground. Got some supplies at the
supermarket on the way out of town and then kept an eye out for a place to
eat. Nothing was forthcoming and we were
on quite a busy road. Next thing it
started to rain so we took shelter in a glass bus shelter and made our lunch
there. Not exactly pleasant as the
traffic was screaming by, but it was 3.45pm and we were desperate for
food. Of course right after we finished
lunch, we found not one, but two fantastic shelters within 2 kms of where we
had stopped.
On we pedalled, sticking to the main road as it was directly
north-west and had a good hard shoulder.
Filled our water bottles at a gas station and chatted to another
bike-packer there. Then onto Laer where
we grabbed a couple of supplies for dinner at the local supermarket…..and this
is where we met Hildegard.
She was a lovely lady and determined to show us the correct
bike path to Burgsteinfurt where she was sure there was a campground. What a struggle to keep up with her on her
e-bike into that wind. She was breezing
along at 20kph and for us it was the first time we’d got a sweat up all day as
it has been dead flat. When she set us
on the right path, we shook hands and thanked her very much and enjoyed a
beautiful ride up what must have been an old railway line. It was totally flat and every few kms was a
little brick hut that from the looks of the pictures on the wall were replicas
of the old railway huts that used to stand along the line. Only, true to German form, these were
immaculate. The first one we saw even
had windows in and a fake baked cake sitting on the outside table. It had an inside table and bench seats as
well and was a very inviting place to spend the night. The next one was even better positioned for a
night’s sleep but we didn’t want to upset anyone by sleeping in one of these
lovely huts, so we merely sheltered from a passing shower and then continued on
to Burgsteinfurt.
Of course when we got there, we discovered the camping platz
was actually just for motorhomes, but luckily for us there was a nearby field
with plenty of cover, so we set the tent up there. It was by now 8pm so we cooked up a delicious
dinner of spaghetti Bolognese with meatballs and green beans, followed by
coffee and a pastry each. This will be
our last night in Germany and tomorrow will see us in our sixth country,
Holland. Looking forward to plenty more
flat ground there and hopefully the weather stays ok.
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