Day 18

106 km, Zossen-Lauchhammer

At the same time Trondheim has its coldest July for a very long time, we were blessed with 26 C and mixed cloudy and sunshine here in south Brandenburg. Almost too warm, but it could have been far further from perfect at this time of the year. :-)

We cycled through fields, alleys, forests, town, and stop here and there to buy mineral water. It starts at around 19 cents for 1.5 litres, a fraction of what it costs at home, and gives back some of the minerals we sweat out during our cycling.

As soon as we came to the town of Finsterwalde we stopped at a little Gasthaus that had been in the same family for exactly 100 years this year. In the parking lot there were two horses who looked at us with friendly interest as we arrived with our bicycles. :-) Excellent food for cyclists, meat, potatoes, onion, cheese, lots of coke to drink (and banana juice - we have to find the recipe for this when we get home).

After Finsterwalde, towards Lauchhammer, there was a sign that the road was okay until the road works, but further passage was not possible. We accepted the gamble, rather than making a long detour, so we went anyway. First, alone on five km on perfect asphalt, except for one car. The last half of this had no trees, only sand and occasional bushes. It reminded of what one could expect from going through a desert in Arizona. Yeah, except for the heat of course. An impressive landscape with views to far away, like in the Scandinavian mountains, but flat. Apparently the landscape was a result of coal mining, so it was dangerous to leave the road, said the signs.

Anyway, we got closer to the road works, and met a young French student, working in Germany for the summer, who explained that it was only two km of bad road that we could walk. He had ridden a mountain bike through the road works. We talked a bit and wished each other luck for the continued journey. Walking through the open field, almost plowing the ground with our bikes, was had work, but still beautiful. We had plenty of time before the sun would set, we had plenty of water with us, and two hot-air balloons were accompanying us from a distance.

Arriving to Lauchhammer we quickly found a place for the night, a family hotel again, had a wash and went to bed. Tomorrow we'll have an early start, finally. Hopefully we can have a mechanic solve the mysterious noises from Orsi's bike, that we failed to make quiet.