I spent last night in Bad Pyrmont. A resort where old Germans apparently go to 'take the waters.' The center of town is very precious. Not my sort of place. I did find a little empty guesthouse in a more blue collar neighborhood and rang the bell. The gentleman who answered could not have been nicer. I think he knew 8 words of English but was so pleasant, it didn't matter one bit. The bike got space in the basement. My plan when I hit these towns is to quickly get settled, clean up, scrounge around for dinner and to see something of the town. Last night I did what I laughingly describe as laundry. I can say no more on the subject except I waited too long.
I passed through the town of Hamlin yesterday but the place was tightly packed with busses, tourists, and guys in tights and pointy hats. The tights are fine, but I draw a thick line at pointy hats. The Weser river passes through town and the path leaves the town alongside it. I'm looking forward to riding along the Rhine. It should be spectacular and navigation more obvious.
Strangely, Hamlin was not my I original destination, but when I was unable to find my way out of Hulsede, rather than spend any more time looking for the path, I just took a road south. This turns out to be an OK technique when all else fails. The path system is generally well marked, but not always. As long as I'm making progress in the general direction, I'm good.
Today, after an amazing ham and egg breakfast, I headed for a well established and well marked trail. Responsibility for navigating is not diminished just because it's well marked. The signs are t always obvious and I've missed a few, sending me in odd directions. I'm getting better at guessing which way I deviate and correct by intersecting further on rather than going back. I did have to go back a couple of miles today. Bad part is there was hill involved.
Just because and for no particular reason, other than it was about 50 miles from where I spent last night, I aimed for and hit the town of Gutersloh where I'll spend the night. This town is the complete opposite of where I was last night. Bertelsmann and several other important companies apparently have headquarters here so the place is all business. No cutsie b&bs or hostels. So I did the next best thing and found the Holiday Inn Express. Funny to think of Holiday Inn Express since I'd always thought of Holiday Inns as being pretty express even before they named it so.
Anyway, a bored but attentive made the sale by telling me her manager liked bicyclists so she proposed 64€. Still more than I've been paying but not totally out of reason. When your tuchus is sore, even 65€ would have been reasonable.
I met a guy today from Poland who works or studies in Cambridge. He was heading to Berlin and then Poland for a visit at home. He remarked that I'd picked a difficult direction since the wind comes from the west. I knew this when planning the trip, but didn't quite count on the strength of it. They are generating a considerable amount of power with this wind. Next time I go east.
I'm finally feeling comfortable on this loaded withbike. The thing is heavy; probably 30# for the bike itself plus another 35 in bags. Compare that to my unloaded 23# carbon bike and you can see that everything on the Bruce Gordon happens in slow motion, except downhills. Hills are interesting. One picks up speed at startling rate. It's much more like a motorcycle when going downhill. In any case, different bikes have different natural frequencies. Until you get used to a new one, you fight it and wobble around a bit. I'm much better now. Not a lot of wobbling.
When I got into the room I realized that my name was now it's Herr no name.
Perhaps this Kodak shop hasn't gotten the word.
Where the trail signage is good, it's really good. The medallions below the directional signs identify the particular circuit which is keyed to maps. Not completely fool proof. I'm this proof.
Warning signs should endeavor to describe what the danger is in a more obvious way. I surmised that it was a killer hill and so it was.
People have sculpture in their yards. This is but one of many.
This shop sells caskets.
My posts may get spotty if Fonic doesn't turn my service back on since I'll need to find hot spots. Hopefully they will do the right thing tomorrow.
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