Lauenburg to Hitzacker

May 2, 2023

Today was a shorter day so there was no real hurray to get rolling so we enjoyed a leisure breakfast in the Schifferhaus Hotel.  It was a really nice breakfast with lots of very nice rolls and excellent North American style coffee.

There was a question as to whether or not the Hitzacker ferry was running or not.  The Hitzacker ferry web page gave hours of operation however there was a large in red letters caption at the top of the page saying that it was not currently operating.  Bob wanted to take the east side of the river but if the ferry was not running then it was a very long detour to the next bridge and then a very long ride back to Hitzacker.  When I had done the Garmin route I had translated the ferry page and decided that it was not running so I did the route on the west side of the river.  As getting to Hitzacker and have no ferry was unacceptable, so we rode the Garmin route I had prepared.  

The Garmin route took us across the Lauenberg bridge and put us on the west side of the Elbe river.  The view across the river to Lauenburg was terrific.  After the bridge the route took us along the river dike and it was a very nice ride down a nice wide bike path.  

At about the 25 kms mark we found a very nice little town and pulled in for a coffee. By not the sun is total wide awake and it is getting down right warm. The morning wind had died down and we could really feel the strength of the sun. 

The ride after coffee took us down so quiet roads and through a lot of river marsh land.  As we got down to the river the pavement turned to a gravel road and we had about 3 kms of gravel before turning back onto the pavement.  
 

As it was getting close to lunch time we were looking for a lunch stop and found one in a roadside place call ELBDorado.  Not fancy cuisine but a nice patio to sit and enjoy our meal.  

After lunch there was only about 20 kms in to the hostel where we were staying, so it was an easy ride although the route did take us down a narrow path for about 1.5 kms which was a lot easier than yesterdays forest trail.  We arrived at just after 2:00 pm and found that we were the only ones in the hostel.  No other guests and no staff.  After a bunch of head scratching Bob figured out that his email had a code which we entered into a small lock box and retrieved the keys.  

In the hostel there was no bed linens or towels.  We decided to head into town and have a beer and look around.  As we sat on a patio enjoying the beer and looking across the river there was the Hitzacker ferry making a crossing.  Go Figure!   As it was Sunday everything was closed so Marlene went into a bake shop and organized a plater of cheese and meat and some rolls for our supper.   Back at the hostel Ken rummaged around and found bed linen but no towels. We then had our showers and had a great picnic lunch in the lobby of the hostel.  About three or four other parties have shown up at the hostel and checked in.  

Tomorrow is about 75 kms down to Wittenberge.  The temperatures look great at 17-25 C however it does look like a nasty head wind of 16-25 kms/hr.  So we will try and get an early start.

Terry