10.05.25 Day 4 - Oldenburg-Wohlenbeck. Nice weather, great bike lanes and an exhausting finish.

After a little fog and another chilly morning, I had another day with a lot of sunshine. I'm lucky! And the standards of the bike lanes in Germany really impress me, maybe even better than the Netherlands (never mind Norway). But the trip became too long because the road proposed by Google turned out to be a sand track.

It was worse than it looks, impassable

Moving on steadilyin the direction of the Ostsee. I forgot to fill my water bottles (second time, of four...), and asked for water at a farm. Which resulted in a nice "conversation" in my substandard German. But again, meeting nice people.

The first part of the trip went through endless meadows and dairy farms. They seem to be huge.

Staying interested in renewable energy (no surprise here), look what I saw in a village.

West-oriented roofs with solar panels

I had not seen that before. Not so efficient in Norway I assume, the sun is not high enough in the sky.

After about 40km I crossed the Weser, which flows to Bremerhaven, by ferry. There is a tunnel also, not accessible for bicycles.

Weser ferry at Braken

Now look at this roof, 100% utilization for solar PV.

What would their annual production be?

In Selstedt I saw a memorial from the First World War. Feels a bit awkward. However, also German lost their loved ones due to crazy dictators. Will it ever end? We could start with not voting for persons with such inclinations.

WWI memorial in Selstedt

Finding a place for lunch is sometimes challenging. It happens that I end up using my super light Helinox chair. Brought it for camping primarily, but at campings there are normally facilities so you don't need it. Handy underway also.

Lunch on the side of the road

But look what happened.

Not a good spot for lunch today!

Fortunately the wind mostly blow the dust away from me (and I was almost finished).

As said, the final part of the trip became exhausting. Google proposed a sand path, but of course you don't know before you're there, and have to turn around. Made the trip 10km longer (and with 115km a bit too long). Won't really blame Google though, might have taken that road using a map also. The challenge is to avoid the main roads as much as you can. The bike lanes are super, but you get fed up by the traffic. Then to find the roads that are "small enough, but still good".

Staying at another Airbnb, 23km from the Elbe ferry tomorrow.

Statistics:

116km, total time 9:30, active time 6:45.

Total 419km.

Fun fact: more hilly towards the end. Total up&down today 150m, yesterday 45m.