David – Off We Go

Elite Athletes – and Dresden

September 15, 2017

7:51 am

1 Comment on Elite Athletes – and Dresden

David, Dresden, Dwayne, Elbe, Linda, Meißen, windmill

On the way from Meißen to Dresden, I noticed with some disquiet that the three other members of my cycling team were scooting away from me, despite my superbike. I realised that in the course of our 6-day journey, they had grown fitter and tougher. They had become real elite athletes, while I was lagging behind, softened by my artificial power. Of course, the lack of wind might also have been a factor in their zippy cycling.

**On the Radweg – from Meißen to Dresden**

I didn’t care that I was at the back though. For one thing, I was following team rules. For another, what I love about the Elbe Radweg is the miles of quiet solitude, the chance to contemplate my existence, and the daily meandering, like the river itself, through the landscapes and the villages.

As we arrived in Dresden, each member of our crack team of cyclists began to reflect on our short tour and anticipate the days ahead. Each of us reacted to our arrival in a way utterly in keeping with our characters. Dwayne announced cockily that he had won the yellow jersey. Linda began to eye shopping opportunities, Davey looked around for bike shops and I wondered if Dresden harboured a Hugendubel.

And all of us looked with fascination at this city that had been rebuilt stone by stone after the unremitting bombing of the Allies in February, 1945.

Soon we shall leave the Elbe River behind us. Rivers have a soul and character of their own – like languages and people. I love the Elbe River, the German language and the members of our cycling team. It will be hard to leave the first two behind.


Arches and towers in Meißen	The view from our hotel window


Our team…	…arrives in Dresden.

Final Notes

Hotel: Park Inn Hotel – sterile and unwelcoming. Linda described the woman who checked us in as a “sour mole” – and she wasn’t exaggerating.

Compliment: Our tour organiser, Augustus Tours, didn’t put a foot wrong. They showed minute attention to detail and everything fell neatly into place.

Dwayne’s Video of the Team in Action:

Wittenberg: Varying Dreams

by Roslyn Green

September 8, 2017

3:23 pm

1 Comment on Wittenberg: Varying Dreams

Cycling, Travelling

Augustus Tours, bicycles, Cranach, David, Dwayne, Geelong Cats, Hundertwasserschule, Linda, Luther, Lutherhaus, Wittenberg

We came to Wittenberg with different ambitions.

Davey hoped that his meticulous organisation of our bike tour would turn out exactly as he had planned.

I wanted to encounter some history firsthand and hear it, if possible, in German.

Linda’s aim was to watch the Cats versus the Tigers.

Dwayne mainly wanted to drink German beer, eat a lot of meat and tease me mercilessly.

We all fulfilled our aims. but there were a few twists along the way.

Davey’s Aim: Although Augustus Tours, our bicycle provider, had managed every aspect of the tour with the utmost care, the hotel staff didn’t entirely understand our requests in English. We realised that we needed to find out if the bikes had been delivered and enquire after the materials that we had been promised by our tour operators. For once, my attempts at communication in German turned out to be quite useful, because after I had explained the situation, the young man at reception located both our bikes and, later in the day, the posted packet of information that was missing. Relieved and excited by our new freedom of movement, we went for a short ride to the Hundertwasserschule, during which I discovered that the extra electric oomph of my bike makes me feel like a superwoman.

My Aim: The Lutherhaus Museum was interesting without being inspiring. While I enjoyed the German audio tour on the whole, I was disappointed by the lack of imagination shown in the Museum Shop. On the other hand, judging from some of the kitsch souvenirs available in the town, perhaps it was just as well that the Museum’s offerings were rather sparse. One magnet in a particularly unattractive shop, instead of providing the standard translation of Luther’s words, “A mighty fortress is our God”, displayed the sentence: “A firm castle is our God”. I pictured God doing pushups or showing off his six-pack.

Linda’s Aim: Although Linda did indeed get to see the football game, the Tigers outplayed the Cats in the last quarter and she was sufficiently cast down to seek retail therapy immediately afterwards.

Dwayne’s Aims: Dwayne fulfilled all his hopes, which, as he would say, is the main thing.

Final Notes

Our hotel: Best Western, perfectly adequate but somehow not as homely and pleasant as the Concorde in Frankfurt. No brothels in the neighbourhood though, which is a plus.

Additions to our list of Germany’s most impressive aspects: Widespread bike infrastructure; courtesy of drivers towards cyclists

Heard around the traps: Dwayne to Davey: “I have some good news. The shops are shutting.”