Monday 26 August 2013

Moday 26 August. Moedlich to Doemitz.

We set off as normal about 9am. There was a cool wind, but it was sunny and even Frau Barr decided a sweater wasn't necessary.

We passed the small church of Moedlich and a little later a thatched house with a stork's nest in the garden. There were quite a few thatched cottages, the first we've seen on this trip. They seemed to be in very good condition.

Another new feature on this bit of the walk were the groynes of gravel and sand stretching from the northern bank out into the Elbe. A lot of them were covered in birds. This part of the Elbe must be very popular with people interested in water fowl.

We passed a large number of donkeys at one farm. We think it was probably a donkey sanctuary. A little further along we saw a stork's nest complete with stork. I tried to get a little nearer and it flew away. Even though they are well out of harms way, at the top of high poles, storks are very, very nervous birds. Worse than sandhill cranes, they only sneak away slowly.

The highlight(?) of our day was our walk through Baarz. I was hoping someone would pass by and I could get them to take a photograph of Shiel and me below the sign.

A builder working on a house in Baarz (actually pronounced more like Bartz more than Barrs) came over to talk when he saw us walking with packs. It turned out he had walked from Dresden to Hamburg in 2008, but he was camping. When I said we were hoping to walk to Cuxhaven I got the impression he now wished he had done that too.

The last photograph shows the nearest I managed to get to a pair of storks on the bank of the Elbe before they flew away. My cell phone has no telephoto lens.

It is interesting that 25 years ago the journey we made today, as two pommes, would probably not have been possible. Whilst Snackeburg was in what was then West Germany, the north bank of the Elbe, where we walked today, was all in Eastern Germany, the DDR. I've always been suspicious of countries which need to put the word Democratic in the name of their country. It very much suggests the one thing the countries aren't is a democracy.

We arrived at our pension at 3pm but no one was in. I rang up to find out where people were but as I have said before my German is not that good. I got the impression a daughter should be coming to let us in at 3.15. Nobody had come by at 3.50 and we were getting worried. A very friendly chap came by on a bicycle and asked why we were waiting. When we explained he said he knew our landlord and would go home and give him a ring on our behalf. We don't know if he did that but about 4.05 the pension door opened and the young daughter of the house appeared and showed us to our rooms. We had the pick of two sets. The rooms, as usual in Germany, are very good, better than zu Hause. (Their showers work!)

We went out for our evening meal and I started talking to one of the chaps sitting behind me. We all left the restaurant at the same time. As he was staying in digs near us we went the same way. He saw Shiel was limping. He made my day when he suggested Shiel could have some green Pferde (horse ointment) to put on her ankle which he himself used when he had sore limbs. I've been trying for days to get her to run cold water over it like they do on horses feet at the RDA.

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