Magdeburg, Landeshauptstadt

The second night of thunderstorms and rain wasn't as bad as the first and it's quite useful for the rain to be over and done with in the night, leaving us with a dry sunny morning to lead into the day's cycling.

Our boat harbour campsite with us as the only guests cost €4 (plus 1€ each for the shower). THAT is a bargain. We didnt expect to get a campsite that cheap outside of Eastern Europe (well aside from the offer of free camping from the museum campsite in Lithuania). The harbourmaster was a nice chap too with the great ability to take a hint that we were ready to leave and turn it into a whole other life story! He was also of the age where he could talk about other nationalities in a very inappropriate way without knowing he was saying something a little "risky" but at the same time not meaning anything negative about them. :) On the 20 minutes we talked to him he told us alot about his life and health, as well as the life and health of an employee at the best local bakery! :D

The best local bakery was indeed pretty fine. Even better was the lovely location in Arneburg town centre where we set up our breakfast camp. A glass-covered pergola with a round table, sided with info boards all about the town. Very vistor friendly despite it being a small place.

The 90km route for today started with a Wizard of Oz "yellow brick road" style cycleway. Wide and a good few kms long, rolling through the countryside it was a great ride and an absolute cycling dream. We crossed the Elbe and then followed the Elbe- Canal for a stretch before reaching Magdeburg.

Peter fulfilled a lifelong wish of finding out where Bundesstrasse number 1 is, its near Burg and has a crazy cycle lane where both directions of cycle traffic share a single lane. For our directon of travel we were facing oncoming traffic. Despite it feeling like the most counter-intuitive thing in the world we quickly got used to it, finding the advantage of seeing the traffic rather than the usual style of having a large lorry breathing down your back - Good cycling!

Magdeburg makes a good impression to cycle into. I was last here 10 years ago and it seems cleaner and brighter. Lots of nice gardened areas, bee-meadows, modern "art" and some very amusing anti-capitalist graffiti. It was rather hipster graffiti based on the well -formed cursive script complete with punctuation and high-brow content! :D

We're now tucked up for the night in another boat harbour. €5 all inclusive bargain again right outside MD city.Read more