Day 16--Finally, Kartoffeln!

Well, we didn't get to see the French guy leave this morning. We were ready to go before him. For the first time in a long while, it was clear blue skies when we left. No leg warmers needed!

We went back to the main road (but, of course, there was a separated bikeway), and rode to Gifhorn. In Gifhorn they have a Windmühlen Museum. We were too early to go in, but we could see them from the outside.

This one was outside of the museum and was actually turning (not from the wind, of course).

After having a look at the Windmühlen, we headed out of Gifhorn. At our usual mid-morning snack time, we found this Bäckerei. It was quite good (although, I haven't been to one that wasn't good).

We were on the Aller Radweg. True to these Radwegs form, we were soon on something less than ideal. In fact, it seemed like we spent about as much time on unpaved surfaces as we did paved!

Yup, another fine surface for a long-distance bike route! However, notice the plants to the left? Potatoes! I had been looking for the Kartoffeln fields (since Germans eat so many spuds). Finally, today I saw numerous fields of potatoes! Also, corn, but we've been seeing corn fields all along.

There were even a couple of Kartoffeln farm buildings.

We crossed the Aller a few times. Here's one such crossing.

We came to the larger town of Celle. We had lunch in the Marktplatz area. As we rode into the Marktplatz, we saw a couple coming out of the Altes Rathaus (old town hall) that had just been married.

We continued into the main area. Next to the Rathaus was a church (just about next to everything is a church).

What was really cool about Celle was the style of the buildings.

Christian said this is a very old style. I liked it.

Celle also had a Schloß.

After Celle, we continued on the Aller Radweg. We had a little trouble getting back on it going out of town. We finally found it, only to ride for awhile and, while following the signs, end up at a field of grassy double track. We decided to take the street instead and meet up with the Radweg later, when maybe it would be better.

We did our grocery stop (some Nudeln mit Käse) for dinner. And then tried to find our way to the campground. I put the address into the Garmin, and I think it would have taken us here, but the bike route went a different way. Regardless, we made it. 

Christian's friends (who live not far away) came a visited with us for the evening. Dirk and Doris were lots of fun. They both spoke pretty good English, so I was able to talk to them too. They brought cute little bottles of schnapps. I didn't care to have the schnapps, but I like the bottles. They gave them to me. They left around 9:30. 

My tent is in an unusual place. I'm surrounded by big rolls of fencing. Well protected, I'd say!

As I was sitting in my tent typing this post, there was a loud bang. It sounded like it was right outside my tent. I took my headlamp and went out to investigate. I couldn't see anything wrong. When I got back into my tent, something didn't look right. Then I looked up to the tent pole. It has snapped in two. A bummer since, one, it's a brand new tent, and two, I have a lot more nights to spend in it. The shock cord is still intact. The tent came with a repair coupling. When we get to Bremen tomorrow, I will fix it. For now it will have to be okay. At least there is no rain in the forecast.

And here's another Kartoffeln field photo.

Total miles today: 56

Total miles going in the right direction: not 56