Stadtoldorf

From Amsterdam to here we have not encountered a hill. Ok ,a few rolling slopes but nothing really. Today that all changed, Hiddesen was just a short 5kms away if we took the shortcut I could see on the map… but the map didn’t show how steep or how busy that shortcut was. 😰Relief We’re through that town and the range of hills are now running beside us to our right. The EV bike route wants to keep taking us back up into the hills on the “scenic” route. We decide to follow ‘Bike Maps’ route instead and we are so glad we did. It’s all on quiet little lanes like this and in a fairly straight line east.Looking for Steinheim ! It’s our first major goalThe biking is fantastic today. It’s warm and sunny, rolling countryside with wonderful views in all directionsThe many little villages we pass through are so clean and pretty with absolutely HUGE houses. It was coffee time by the time we got to Steinheim and of course we needed to replace all those caloriesYUM ! Next stop will be Rischenau for lunch, 15 kms away (this must sound like all we do is eat) It’ll be even better through here next year. The roads already have loads of cherry trees for travellers to graze on , and now they’re planting dozens of other types of fruit trees as well. we could see that monastery on a big hill from miles away. “Glad we’re not going up there” we agreed. WELL ! The road wound around and around until we were up level with it. (Christines photographing the road way below that we’d just been on) The good news was ,when we’d reached the summit, it was the most amazing 9 km run downhill and with a strong tale wind all the way to Polle YAHOOOPolle was a strategic castle in the Middle Ages on the river Weser and claimed to be the home of Cinderella ( the golden slipper as proof )The only way across the Weser here is this Ferry. The view of the castle is better as you’re leaving. This ferry relies solely on the strong current to pull it across .

It was now only 15kms into Stadteldorf . It looks a big town on the map so we’re taking our chances today on a bed . What a stupid Thing to do ! There’s only one pub in town and we luckily got the last room. 😱It was further than I had estimated too .78kms We’re STUFFED