Deutschland

Day 1 in Germany and it didn't rain! Even with predicted thunder storms for the day, it was warm and mostly sunny. Maybe now that we are out of the Viking lands the weather will improve instantly and we will be able to enjoy some late summer sun.
About 2km north of camp was the town of Aventoft, where we both made an early morning dash to the toilet. After packing camp we then headed back through Aventoft which annoyed Nadia that she had ridden 4km for nothing. So the morning session was spent riding along very quietly. Picking up the North Sea Cycle Route again (the 4^th country) we skipped Niebull, making our first stop the town of Dagebull, back on the coast again, and following the same dyke from Denmark.
Riding along the dyke we had to constantly stop to open gates, as the whole dyke in this area doubled as sheep paddocks. Going through 1 of these gates I dropped my bike, which darkened the mood. To top it off I soon after realised that the lens of my camera was buggered, with something in the movement mechanism broken after the camera took a short fall the day before. There was amusement during the ride as we came across people enclosures - small paddocks for people within the sheep paddocks. These people paddocks were so that holiday makers could relax on a patch of sheep shit free grass. And popular they were, with many people in each paddock. It was also refreshing to see that Germany is a country that is not shy of the human body, with many of the paddock users opting to swim and sunbake without the hindrance of clothing.
Onwards, and the dyke brought us onto Nordstrand; a sizable peninsular with roads all over it, but only 1 road onto it. We were looking for fuel for the stove but found no servo. So then we were looking for a supermarket; we found 1 but it was closed. With the day going from strength to strength we took the easy option and hit a restaurant for dinner. Nadia opted for an authentic schnitzel, while I chose blindly and ended up with some cold pork with 2cm of cold fat attached, the whole lot having been marinated in vinegar and tasting pretty foul. Luckily there was lots of spuds aswell.
The night was spent beside the road, under the cover of an info shelter telling tourists about Nordstrand. For desert I drank from the $10 bottle of apple schnapps that we had bought earlier in the day and mulled on some contemplation whilst watching the setting sun light the clouds over Nordstrand.
Our second full day in Germany again gave us a rain free day. After waking for the sunrise I dozed until 7.00. We were on the road by 8.25 and arrived in Husem right on 9.00. In Husem we found nothing open, with the 'Sunday rest day' attitude extending from Scandinavia into Germany. So we kept on moving, with nothing to keep us in town. Right on 11.00 we came into the outskirts of Tonning and to our excitement we found the ALDI supermarket was just opening for its limited Sunday trading hours. We happily stocked up on lollies, muesli bars, fruit and flavoured milk, and the whole lot only cost €8 – an absolute bargain compared to Scandinavia. The 500ml of chocky milk was only €0.35, which is like getting a BIG M for $0.70!
It took us a while to find our way out of Tonning and somehow we ended up on a 'Hauptverbindungsstrasse' which translates into 'important main road'. On these important main roads there is lots of traffic moving at high velocity, and bugger all room for 2 confused cyclists. We had no option but to ride hard and get off at the next exit. Once down the exit ramp and onto a normal street again we found a fella waving us down. Apparently he had seen us riding on the road, so had made a u-turn, came back, found that we had already made it to the exit, so u-turned again and found us at the bottom of the exit. He had done all of this just to tell us that bicycles weren't allowed on the Hauptverbindungsstrasse, which we had figured out also. He told us that it was very dangerous and cyclists had been killed on that stretch of road in the past. After this he introduced himself and gave us his business card. He was local, so gave us some good directions, and disappointedly told us that he would like to make dinner for us, but his girlfriend's father was visiting. He told us to call him if we needed anything and sent us on our way.
Our new path was much more relaxed, and on this path we cruised into the town of Heide for some lunch on a shaded park bench. From a servo we bought a road map and struck out for the town of Albersdorf which was surrounded by forest on our map. In Albersdorf we made a phonecall to Winfred, one of the German fellas we met in Denmark, and the giver of the 3kg mapbook. I organised for us to stay with him the following night, and then we went to find ourselves a campsite for the night.
Technically it's illegal to 'wildcamp' in Germany, as we had done the previous 2 nights and were planning to do again this night. We found some walking tracks through the forest just out of town and set up the tent off to the side of the path. Shortly after that the heat died down and we found the path to be well used by locals and their dogs. Two ladies came by and stopped to say 'hallo'. They were happy to find out we were Australian, and even happier to find out we only planned to camp there for 1 night. Satisfied we weren't bums, they happily went on their way. Shortly after this another lady stopped when she spotted us to say hallo. She informed us that it was illegal to camp in the woods and that maybe someone would get angry. We told her we already knew this, but we were only here for 1 night and we would risk being told to move on if any angry German found us. She gave us directions to her house and said that if anybody told us to move on we could go and camp in her front yard, then gave us a friendly wave and went on her way.
Just before sunset we were just finishing cleaning our dinner dishes when a young lass came towards us from the direction of town. She came to us and said that her mother had talked to us earlier, and that she had been sent to bring us a bag of goodies, which included some juice, some chocky bikkies and some sparkling (bubbly) water which the Germans love.
So on our second day in Germany we had already met several very friendly people who did, or were prepared to go out of their way to help us complete strangers, and this impressed me a lot. The general view of Australians is that we are very friendly people that are happy to help, but I can't imagine too many Australians prepared to double back in their car to help a cyclist, or even many who would be very happy to find someone camping in their woods.
On the 24^th of August we were the furthest inland we had been, probably since Scotland. Even being this far inland we were still blessed with a headwind, which was rather disappointing. We came across some hills that were the biggest since the start of Sweden, but still nothing compared to Norway. The sunny day certainly made up for any wind and hills though, with t-shirts the optimal wear for the day.
All day we were heading in a roughly southeast direction, with rolling visits to Hademarschen, Schenefeld and Itzehoe. The day was so nice that on the way out of Itzehoe we even stopped for an icecream. We skirted the town of Elmshorn and then came into the outer suburbs of Hamburg, Germany's second biggest city. We found our way to Rellingen and to the house of Winfred and Monica. We stopped to buy a bottle of wine and still arrived half an hour earlier than we had organised, so the only person home was Monica's brother. He was struggling with small talk, and with most other things linked with his mental faculty, so it was a very quiet and strange half hour before our hosts arrived home.
The evening was spent freshening up and relaxing, with a tasty bbq dinner on the back deck. We met the daughter and her boyfriend, then chatted until bedtime. Our bed was the motorhome out in the drive, which was spot on. We were invited to stay for a week and promised a tour of Hamburg the following day, so we that night we slept in comfort, knowing that we wouldn't be needing the tent again for a while.

.