Monday 11th July

Stiepelse to Zollenspieker - 40.5 miles

Good old Portugal won last night so I guess waking up to the wind howling was a cross we had to bear.
We also had to bear a rather strange breakfast - it cost us €8.50 each so we were expecting something rather special. Silly us.
Having to lay our own table didn't impress and although there were some scraps of food on the sides there was no-one around to tend to our needs. Eventually we had a bun or two and a cup of coffee and as we were leaving a scruffy guy appeared and asked us if we'd like an egg. We declined (he had no shoes on!) and paid the bill.
This was to be our last full day's cycling and the strong headwind made it a bit tiring. However, we endured and before crossing the Elbe by ferry again we passed an old lookout post and a sign about the partitioning of Germany.

We had come across these on numerous occasions and this part of the Elbe seems to have been a wide belt of 'no-mans land'. Perhaps that is why there is such good wildlife. By the way 18 storks were grazing on the flood plain and sadly they were our last sighting.
I digress. Over the ferry to Blekede and a coffee and then no sign of food or drink for the next 30 miles! It was a good job we had bought a sandwich at the coffee shop. More wind grimacing and frequent stops eventually got us to Hoopte where we took our final ferry across to Zollenspieker.

            Our final ferry across the Elbe

The exceedingly posh hotel seemed a bit much for us two grubby cyclists but the only other accommodation before Hamburg wouldn't answer their phone so rather than risk another 10km and possibly no bed, we did posh.

                       Jenny doing posh

After looking at the menu, we might have to restrict the beer drinking and perhaps we'll also have to make do with a side salad. All will be revealed in the morning.

 Beers of the day - Hasseroder Furstenbrau
                 Und - Zwick'l Schwarzbier

Jenny always has a Weissweinscholler. She had popped up to her room to get more clothes on when I took the picture.

                       Weissweinscholler