Tuesday 13 August 2013

Monday 12 August. Schoenebeck to Magdebourg.

We left our hotel just adter 9am and followed the railway back to town. On the south side today. It was cool but sunny, a good walking day. Within an hour we were on the bridge heading to the north bank of the Elbe. The first photograph shows a view of where we are heading. (NZ readers note the sheep in the distance. A large flock for Germany.) The second photograph shows the view looking back to Schoenebeck.

The walk today was mostly along stop bank and (where this was verboten) farmland and the small village of Randau. Note the pile of sand bags left over from the June floods.

The next couple of photographs give you an idea of the views we get during our walks through farmland. There were lots of large dragon flies about today but I don't think I managed to capture any on film.

We passed a sign showing previous flood levels, just before entering the suburbs of Magdeburg but I couldn't see the level for June this year.

Nearing Magdeburg we passed over a footbridge over the Old Elbe and you can see how it has been dammed by a weir. There was a very nice beach area below the weir but few people on it. The rest of the walk to Magdeburg was through parkland. I have to say today's walk between Schoenebeck and Magdeburg must be one on the best rural routes into a major city.

I expected Magdeburg to be a dark and dirty ex-DDR city, I don't really know why, but on seeing it coming in from the North over the river it was quite beautiful.

The last two photographs were taken nearer the railway station. I have yet to find the name of the buildings. I took the photograph because of the marked contrast in condition. They are on either side of a major intersection.

There was quite a violent thunderstorm after we arrived but it had dried up by the time we were ready to go out. We ate in an Italian resturant which was very crowded as all the outside seating area was wet because of the storm. 

I hope today to see the Magdeburg hemispheres. They have fascinated me since I was a child and I first saw them in an old physics textbook. I thought Magdeburg was a type of hemisphere I didn't realize it was the name of the town in Germany where the effects of atmospheric pressure were first so dramatically demonstrated.

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