The day started out grey and rainy with the promise of better things to come. The decision was made to delay the start from 9:00 to around 10:30. With a slight mist in the air (your basic Bellingham day), we headed off on a bicycle tour of the surrounding country side.
We started off crossing the Elbe and heading out through an old industrial part of town.
Ingo & Dave
The paths that we took were a combination of bike paths, roads, single track, stairs, rocky ledges, and everything in between. The first 100m climb was to an overlook of the Weiseritz river outside of Dresden.
Old Factory
After wandering around some more small towns we ended up in Rabenau. From there we took a dirt path that followed an old narrow gauge steam line that followed the river. Sometime the trail would get really steep and we would have to do a bit of hiking.
The grade continued for quite a while and deposited us high over Dresden in these gorgeous hills.
Soon after this we had a couple of big hill climbs and then a big rocky downhill that resulted in a big old flat tire for me. Luckily, we had all of the goodies required to fix the flat and soon we were bumping along down the road. This was especially challenging since I really didn't have brakes. It made the downhills really interesting. After a couple of more hill climbs (about 3000' total by now) we ended up at a little Biergarten for lunch. From here it was all down hill to the next stop. After a quick 5k downhill run on the road we ended up at the Weesenstein castle.
It had a nice little beer cellar that had been renovated to look like it dig back in 1860. This, of course, required another stop for a sports drink. Biking is hard work.
Feeling refreshed we headed out for the final 25k back to Dresden. It was late and we were nourished so we were moving fast. But the adventure wasn't over. We had to cross the river on a local ferry.
Then it was only another 15km or so back to the flat. A quick shower and then a quick dinner at a nice little Italian place.
It was a gorgeous, so we walked to Neustadt to grab a late night beer at a Munich styled beer hall. We were able to sit outside and watch all of the people wander by.
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