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16.07.2020 The sea, finally. It was quite a long way from our place in southern Germany to the coast – mostly because there was so much to see and do on the way, and due to the fact that we most definitely chose the scenic route over the short one. And then, when we finally arrived on the country's most eastern island the day before yesterday, we did not really feel the maritime vibes right away. Reason one was that Usedom is only a stone's throw from the mainland and separated from it by what is basically a big lake and some streams, and reason two was that the cycling paths here barely run along the coastline, and the roads, towns, fields and forests of the central island look very much like any other in Germany. However, once we had crossed the island and reached its Baltic Sea coast, we can see why people praise Usedom's pretty seaside resorts and fantastic white beaches. Unfortunately, it was rather cold and rainy during our stay, so we did not have the option to just spend the day in one of the comfy roofed wicker chairs for two that are so typical of German beaches. But we gave it a try as soon as the sky opened up a bit yesterday, and whiled away the rest of the day in Usedom's cosy cafés. The rain also kept us from cycling over to Poland again, which is only a couple of kilometres to the east, as the border runs right across the island. Today we are leaving the island via a bridge in Wolgast and cycling on to the city of Greifswald and beyond, but we are planning to be back at the coast tonight and start a new island adventure tomorrow. #scoutbound #usedom #heringsdorf #strand #strandkorb #ostsee #trabant #trabi #ddrmuseum

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14.07.2020 To the sea. No tour of East Germany would be complete without a visit to the coast of the Baltic Sea, and after spending so much time in Berlin, conquering the great outdoors again sounded just fine. For people living in Berlin and feeling like a quick trip to the seaside, the go-to option is a three-hour drive to the island of Usedom, which is separated from the mainland by large bodies of brackish freshwater while the Baltic Sea touches only its northern shores. Usedom and the capital are linked by a popular cycle path, but we decided to take the long way and follow the river Oder, which quite precisely marks the German-Polish border. Starting in Berlin, we went east until we reached Lower Oder Valley National Park and then followed the Oder-Neiße cycle path, another scenic and comfortable route to the coast. It was pretty much only when Addy's bike ripped a shift cable that we decided we should take a little detour to the closest bigger city, which is Szczecin in Poland. So oops, we cycled out of the country again! Having successfully shopped for and repaired Alter Falter, we had some utterly delicious Polish food in this bustling place. In the evening, we camped on a tiny pony farm in the most remote corner of our country. Today, we have reached the town of Ueckermünde, where we are now waiting for the little ferry to take us and about 30 other cyclists across the waters of Stettiner Haff to Usedom. Ship ahoy! #scoutbound #cycling #worldbycycling #polen #poland #szczecin #stettin #stettinerhaff #ueckermünde #oder #oderneisseradweg #odra #unteresodertal #ferry

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10.07.2020 The capital. The biggest milestone on our way through the east of Germany was a stop in Berlin. Addy had never been to his own capital before and Eva had visited once as a kid and again in 2018, with two American friends, but just for a very short time. That is why both of us were eager to spend a couple of days exploring this historically significant and culturally diverse city. It bears marks left by the imperial period, the Nazi regime, WW II, the division of the country during the Cold War era – when the Wall ran right through the city – as well as modern city planning, politics and lifestyle. We visited lots of sights, but former border checkpoint Tränenpalast, abandoned airport Tempelhof and GDR State Security prison Hohenschönhausen were the places most fascinating to us. The first few days in Berlin, we stayed with Anna and André. They accepted to host us even though Anna's cousin and partner from France were also there for an evening. True to the motto 'the more the merrier', we spent a great German-French evening together, with traditional East German food. Yummy! With a tent that needed (and got) some repair and two old friends from school we wanted to meet up with, there were a lot more things to do than just sightseeing, and we ended up spending an entire week in the capital. We are going to continue our journey tomorrow morning, but we still have a list of ideas and things to do for the next visit to Berlin. #scoutbound #tempelhoferfeld #berlintempelhof #berlin #germany #alexanderplatz #fernsehturm #fernsehturmberlin #tränenpalast #bahnhoffriedrichstrasse #hausderdeutschengeschichte #hohenschönhausen #brandenburgertor #ampelmann #cycling #worldbycycling #sonycenter #potsdamerplatz #rejka #camp4berlin #camping

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03.07.2020 The Spreewald experience. The easiest way to get from the Elbe valley to Berlin was, in our opinion, to cycle to the city of Bautzen and then follow the river Spree to the capital. The morning we set off, we got to know two like-minded travellers: Lena and Hendrik from Kempten in Bavaria, who are also cycle touring the East for a couple of weeks. We promised to meet again at the Bautzen campsite in the evening, having no idea that we would actually spend quite some time together in the days to come. On our way to Bautzen, the two of us actually left Germany for about half an hour, as there was a shorter and flatter route on Czech soil. The next day, we explored Bautzen in a group of four, and we found that with its numerous historical towers, a unique cemetery in and around a church ruin, and – with Bautz'ner Senf mustard being the city's most famous product – the inevitable mustard shop, it is a place really worth visiting. From Bautzen to Cottbus, road signs are bilingual: Due to the presence of a Sorbian minority, most places have a German and a Sorbian name. North of Cottbus, in an area called Spreewald or 'Spree forest', the river shows some weird behaviour: It splits into several small branches which, together with a bunch of artificially built channels, form a dense grid of waterways. This area is well known for its pickled cucumbers, incredibly cute little villages and endless opportunity for leisure paddling. So yesterday we rented a paddle boat for a day and toured the area, stopping when we felt like it for drinks or a picnic. It was so much fun, and exercising our arms instead of our legs made for a nice change. And although we had gone for different campsites, we bumped into Lena and Hendrik again, and did so once more today, when cycling on towards Berlin – a good occasion to share a jar of Spreewald pickles with them. #scoutbound #spreewald #bautzen #cottbus #sachsen #saxony #lichtenhainerwasserfall #storkowersee #spremberg #spreeradweg #gurkenradweg #cycling #worldbycycling #kajak #kanu #paddleboat #sunset #lake #see

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28.06.2020 Micro adventure. Our Dresden hosts Tina and Matthias have different classifications for their bike rides, depending on how long they are. Yesterday all four of us started out on a 'micro adventure' into the Elbe Sandstone Mountains, where we wanted to stay for one night. We cycled along the river Elbe and then up into the highlands to a bivouac shelter Tina had found for us, close to the Czech border. Some hikers had chosen the same destination, so we were quite a few people to spend the evening together at the campfire, baking bread on sticks, frying sausages and singing along with Tina, who played the ukulele she had brought on her bike. On our way back down into the valley we hiked up to the top of Großer Zschirnstein, the highest hill in the Saxon Sandstone Mountains, and enjoyed the stunning view across endless forests. Back down at the river we had lunch and some beers before finally parting company. We had a terrific time with our two fellow adventurers and we wish them all the best for their future rides. Having visited a lot of cities in the past few weeks, we were very happy to be in the great outdoors again, and we are now looking forward to spending some more days in the countryside before reaching Berlin. #scoutbound #cycling #worldbycycling #dresden #microadventure #elbsandsteingebirge #elbe #elbesandstonemountains #sachsenforst #biwak #bivouac #forest #zschirnstein #großerzschirnstein

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27.06.2020 Dresden, now and then. Both of us have been to Dresden before and we are excited to be here again. Dresden is one of Germany's most beautiful cities and it could be even more gorgeous if it had not been bombed and destroyed to a great extent at the end of World War II. We visited the 360 degrees exhibition 'Dresden 1945' in an old gasometer, which provides a lot of information and pictures of different eras: what Dresden looked like before and right after the war, how it changed during the GDR period, and what is there today. Strolling through the city and climbing up to the top of Frauenkirche cathedral we compared what we saw at the exhibition with the sight that meets the eye today. But it is not just the city of Dresden that is awesome, this is also true for its people: Tina and Matthias gave us the possibility to stay with them – to be precise, they let us choose between sleeping in their living room or on their balcony, above the rooftops of Dresden and beneath the stars. We went for the second option, although our hosts have the coolest and most interesting flat we have seen so far. They own a pet chameleon, they build their own bikes out of bamboo and they are bike enthusiasts too, so we always had something to talk and laugh about while enjoying the evenings in Dresden's beer gardens. One more discovery we made is that Chemnitz is not as ugly as a lot of people had told us before. On our way to Dresden we spent a day in the city formerly called Karl-Marx-Stadt and we liked it. The city has a beautiful centre and we enjoyed a ride on the park railway. #scoutbound #cycling #worldbycycling #dresden #frauenkirche #panometer #panometerdresden #zwergchamäleon #chamäleon #chameleon #viaduct #cherryeating #cherries #chemnitz #karlmarx #karlmarxstadt #nischel #parkeisenbahn

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23.06.2020 Spontaneous invitation. We did not spend a lot of time in Halle, but will remember it for its very affordable no-frills campsite. We discovered some amusing murals, saw the fault line running below a central square, and emptied a box of Halloren chocolates while listening to the church bells. Our next stop was Leipzig, where we camped in an area called Neuseenland, 'land of new lakes'. It truly is full of big artificial lakes that were created to renaturalise open pits when brown coal mining stopped not too long ago. On our first evening, we got to know a super lovely couple, Suse and Stefan. They are Neuseenland locals, love riding their road bikes around the lakes, and also have some cycle touring experience. We quickly found common ground, and in the end they spontaneously invited us to their place for a night. We were really thrilled by this degree of kindness and hospitality, which, quite frankly, we had not expected to experience in Germany, where people do not readily open their doors to strangers. We did not think twice and extended our stay, and our hosts treated us to a great evening at their cosy family home, where we had yummy food, got to know two of their kids, and totally recharged our batteries. They also helped us deal with an issue that had come up a day earlier: Eva and her bike got hit by a car. Luckily, the doctor that Suse advised us to see just confirmed that the injuries are only minor – and Elfi is fine, too. With the extra time, we could spend a full day at the lake and still visit the city centre of Leipzig. Upon Suse's recommendation, we went to Zeitgeschichtliches Forum, a fascinating museum covering German history after 1945. Leipzig and its people played an important role in the peaceful revolution of 1989/90, and it was great to learn about key events at the museum and then see some venues in real life, like the building that housed a branch office of the State Security of the GDR. Outside this place, people once gathered to stop the destruction of telltale documents that had started inside once the authorities realised their case was lost. #scoutbound #halle #leipzig #gdr #ddr #halloren #cycling #völkerschlachtdenkmal

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19.06.2020 Wine lovers' paradise. The region between Jena and Halle is a designated natural park dominated by two rivers, Saale and Unstrut, and famous for its wines. On our way through, we have passed vineyards and little wineries, inevitably had a couple of glasses, and even got to know a young wine expert. In Jena, we were hosted by Anna, a geography student and passionate traveller who knows a thing or two about edible herbs and plants, sustainable living and healthy mindfulness. She lives in a shared flat with three other people and we were treated to an awesome evening with the entire lot. Sharing a meal, many stories and some bottles of wine with these warm-hearted people really inspired and energised us. One of Anna's flatmates, Leonie, is well on the way to becoming a trained grower and maker of wines. She patiently answered all our questions about her job, and in the end even gifted us with a bottle of her first very own wine, which we vowed to keep for a very special occasion. Moving on the next day was a little challenging for two reasons – not only because we would not have minded staying a little longer with our new friends, but also because the rain came down in sheets pretty much all day. However, we bravely cycled on to Freyburg, home of what is probably the country's most famous sparkling wine, and in the evening reached a great campsite with wooden cabins shaped like wine barrels, hot showers and lots of sheltered space for our gear. The campsite is located on the shores of Germany's largest manmade lake. Geiseltalsee was created after a huge surface mine finally ran out of coal in 1993 and was abandoned. As the site was renaturalised, they created a really attractive recreational area with marinas, comfortable tracks for cyclists and walkers, and even a small vineyard. We stopped there for a second breakfast this morning, before carrying on towards our next destination, the city of Halle in Saxony-Anhalt. #scoutbound #jena #geiseltalsee #wine #wein #studentenleben #cycling #rotkäppchensekt #geiseltal #lake #see

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17.06.2020 City hopping. The second evening we camped near Hainich National Park, weather conditions changed drastically and we experienced serious thunderstorms. In the pouring rain, even our very reliable tent gave in a little, and we repeatedly had to mop up water that was coming in through the seams. We decided we needed to find ourselves some drier accommodation for the following nights. In the morning we set off to Erfurt, via partly washed-away gravel tracks and through temporary fords. Luckily, the owners of the campsite there let us dry our dripping tent in their garage, and we slept in a super cosy Hobbit-size wooden cabin that kept us well dry for two nights. The city also totally made up for the experienced hardships with its beauty and rich history, and during our sightseeing stroll we even bumped into a group of local scouts – as well as some stars of Erfurt-based children's TV channel KiKA. It is only a stone's throw from Erfurt to Weimar, and another one from there to Jena. They belong to what translates to 'Thuringia's (bead) chain of cities', the state's six largest cities, which happen to line up nicely within a stretch of 130 kilometres. They are linked by very flat cycle paths that often follow rivers, so it is very pleasant and easy to go from one place to another. However, we took a little detour on our way to Weimar yesterday in order to visit the memorial site of Buchenwald concentration camp. It was near there that we got to know Helmut, a recreational cyclist, Weimar local and former citizen of East Germany. He was full of stories, and so happy to share them with us that he joyfully honked when he spotted us again this morning, turning his car around and stopping for another chat. Having paid a short visit to the city of Goethe and Schiller where we especially loved climbing up the bell tower of St Jacob's church, we are now cycling on to Jena. #scoutbound #erfurt #weimar #buchenwald #kinderkanal #bernddasbrot #krämerbrücke #schillergoethe #thueringen #cycling #worldbycycling

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13.06.2020 Above Thuringia's forests. After more than one week of rather cloudy and rainy weather, the sun is out again and temperatures have gone up quite a bit. We have been making the most of this presumably brief period of fine weather by walking a little in Thuringia's rich green forests, which the region is well known for. However, it took quite a while for people to decide that, after various periods of intense deforestation, the remaining primeval broadleaf woodlands of Cental Germany are something worth protecting. 1997 saw the creation of Hainich National Park – apparently Germany's biggest deciduous forest, consisting mostly of beech trees, and now listed by UNESCO. There are countless hiking trails there, and a pretty cool canopy walkway, several metres above the ground, which we visited this morning. It was fascinating to be on eye level with the very tops of trees and see them sway in the wind. Yesterday, on our way to Hainich, we also took time to look down on treetops – this time from Wartburg castle, just outside the city of Eisenach. The castle is a very impressive, well-preserved structure that in parts dates back to the 12th century, and is mostly known as the place where reformer Martin Luther worked on his Bible translation from Latin to the language of the common people, some 500 years ago. We accessed the fortress via a gorge called Drachenschlucht, a magical place full of high, mossy rocks that create a nice path with some very narrow passages to squeeze through. It was shadowy and cool under the trees and down in the gorge, a welcome change from the blazing hot sunshine. #scoutbound #drachenschlucht #thueringerwald #wartburg #eisenach #nationalparkhainich #hainich #baumkronenpfad #wanderlust #dpsg #cycling

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