Admittedly, this summary is a bit later than planned, in my defense we came home Sunday evening, I did some laundry, we had food and went to bed. Next day up at six to go to work, by bike. So now we’re Thursday and this is the first free moment I’ve had to look back and summarize. If you’re wondering why I make a summary of a holiday trip, well, that’s just the kind of person I am 🙂
Best wildlife sightings
Doesn’t look too impressive in this photograph because it was pretty far away from where I was standing, but we saw this red kite manoeuvring close by and it was fun to observe, to find out which bird it was and then observe it sitting in this field. We hoped it would fly again, but no such luck. It did respond by calling out when I played its call from my phone app.
At two particular places, we saw many of these tiny amphibeans, taking tiny hops to move. Might be baby common toads?
Award for best value for money
More specifically: largest volume for the least money. We usually take a light lunch but these quantities were a little bigger than expected: a half liter of coke and a 30 cm diameter folded pizza. I must admit I was not able to finish it.
Award for toughest climb
The view from Stromberg
Don’t laugh, I know there are people who cross actual moutains by bike, but we’re not used to much, so we get to pick an award for the toughest climb. Strangely enough, we can’t agree. I’m voting for the climb up to Stromberg: not very long, but pretty steep, whereas Arne’s thinking about the road to Billerbeck: not very steep, but kinda long.
About the castles
Impossible to pick the nicest castle: some are beautifully situated, some have impressive exteriors, .. So here’s a slide show of all of them:
This roe deer was in a big field just by the bicycle path, the others of its group were even further out but I was able to catch some nice pictures with a zoom lens.
Funniest corona anecdote
We stopped in a small town for an ice cream, sat down at a disinfected table in the shadow and when the waitress came to bring the menus, she ordered us – in a very friendly fashion – to put out our hands and sprayed them with disinfectant, which we then dutifully rubbed out over our hands. Very efficient.
Best spot to sit and relax
The courtyard terrace at Schloss Wilkinghege, surrounded by flowering plants and a moat full of fish and ducks, with constant singing of birds around us. Minor disadvantage: the noise of the busy streat nearby
What could have gone better
- Be more careful around the oak processionary caterpillar. Don’t dawdle near oaks.
- take a length of mosquito gauze and sticky putty, so we can open the windows at night and keep out the mosquitoes.
- Try to learn more about Garmin BaseCamp and the Montana GPS: turn-by-turn navigation only works with routes and routes cannot have more than 50 waypoints.. how to work with this if you want to follow specific roads.. ?
Most fun engineering thing
A pratical demonstration of the strenght of triangles in construction. On the left a 100 year old steel railroad bridge – pay special attention to the girder on the left side of the picture, you can see there’s another one right behind it. On the right a much older half-timbered house with only its timber left – I’m assuming they’re renovating.
What went well
- Gear / outfit is pretty much under control. Good saddle, good biking pants and t-shirt, we were never too warm or too cold
- The small isolating bag was very useful: it fits exactly in the small bag loaded on my front wheel and holds the melty stuff and medication
- I wore a cap under my helmet the entire team: really helps against the bright light and sunburn
- Route was well prepared: we could follow the track from hotel to hotel and never missed a castle, unless we just thought it was too far off track.
| Date | From | To | Km planned | Km Actual | Hours | Avg sp |
| Sunday | Abersloh | Beckum | 44 | 46 | 3 | 15.4 |
| Monday | Beckum | Wiedenbrück | 73 | 77 | 5 | 15.6 |
| Tuesdsay | Wiedenbrück | Sassenberg | 61 | 64 | 5 | 13.5 |
| Wednesday | Sassenberg | Münster | 75 | 81 | 5h20 | 15.1 |
| Thursday | N/A | N/A | ||||
| Friday | Münster | Venne | 60 | 72 | 5 | 14.5 |
| Saturday | Venne | Herberg | 60 | 73 | 5 | 14.8 |
| Sunday | Herberg | Albersloh | 48 | 52 | 3h15 | 16 |
Febe writes 