Lutherstadt Wittenberg

The whole section today is along the Elbe river , 62 kms of forests and riverside paths.The ferry swings back over with another load as we check out the Route. Mmm, 14kms should be about coffee time.Gross Kunhau. There’s wagons like this laying around everywhere! Constant reminders that you’re in East GermanyRight on the button! 10.00am coffee at Dessau. The lady made her own cakes and went to great trouble to describe how ( in German) When we shook our heads and said we didn’t understand a goddam thing, she repeated it all LOUDER !In the middle of the Forest was this very old Inn. Stopped for another coffee for me, just so the wife could have a pee. ( there’s a poem in there somewhere)We’re now entering into a UNESCO listed park, set up by Duke Frederick Franz Van Anhalt-Dessau in the 1760sHe called this the Swiss house, just a pavilion!further along in Worlitz are the English and Italian gardens he set up, including his own mansion.but all a bit ho hum when you’re only 2. This lady had biked from Liepzig with her babyback over the Elbe to Coswig. We’ve met dozens of cyclists today , all travelling down the Elbe. The route starts in the Czech Republic and ends past Hamburg. Look up ‘Elbe-Radweg ‘if you’re wanting a good rideOstrich farmer ( see the baby)A working water mill . And just before Wittenberg is this historic meeting place of the Soviet and American forcesbut the joy was short lived, this became part of the ‘iron curtain’Lutherstadt Wittenberg. The town square from our hotels kitchen window. Martin Luther was a monk in the monastery ( the big white building) when he was Discomunicated from the Catholic Church and went on to start the Lutheran’s ,later the Protestant church. The far statue is of him.Our hotel ,the Cranach, was named after the painter Lucas Cranach who acquired this property in 1518. He ran an Artists school here supplying artists for the Princes of Europe.The courtyard. The hotel part is more modern but I’m sure the plumbing isn’t 🥶