Distance: 23km

Duration: 5h and 1.5h break

Weather: sunny with 28C peak temperature, cloudy

Leaving Wittenberg wasn’t easy as I met some great people, had interesting encounters and learned a lot. However, feeling grateful for the opportunity of those connections, I packed my backpack and left the city behind me…which wasn’t actually that easy as it took me about one hour to be back on the hiking path after crossing the bridge across the river and walking along the Main Street out of town. That’s a downside when visiting bigger cities. Once I was back on track, I enjoyed the time and space to reflect on the last two days and the impressions the city gave me. So much that I didn’t really realise that I walked into a dead end being surrounded by water. So I had to walk back and make a detour of a kilometre. Not a big deal but when you know that you have another 20km ahead of you, it feels a bit unnecessary.

The walk was nice and enjoyable with a good length and some variation in the landscape. The final part, however, was my favourite part as it took me through the park of Wörlitz with playful bridges, charming buildings around a big lake. The park was created in the 2nd half of the 18th century and is part of the UNESCO world heritage.

In the end, I even met a family from my neighbour home town…just when I took my flip flops off to cross the little river to the island as I didn’t want to take the long walk. Fun encounter in a small world 🙂

After the last days of mainly solitude, being in such a lively city like Wittenberg was a welcome change. Especially as I was lucky that the host of my guesthouse was extremely welcoming and opened a door for me to what a daily life in Wittenberg could look like. Of course, I did the full tourist program with the castle, the church where Martin Luther pinned his 95 thesis on the door in 1517, the Leucorea, etc. But in addition, I had the opportunity to go for dinner and drinks with someone who lived in Wittenberg for over 25 years and who is extremely well connected in town. And – I had the opportunity to spend time with Finn!! A dog of impressive 16 years of age who is nearly fully blind but has the most wicked personality!

Having had the opportunity to speak to a few people who either were born and raised in Wittenberg before the German reunification or who moved there just after it, made me realise what significant changes happened in this place. I never realised how run down the cities were before the wall came down to really understand the progress that has happened in the last 30 years. Seeing a few examples of ‘before’ and ‘after’ gave me the biggest respect of the effort that went into it, the vision of what is possible and the fighting spirit to pursue the goal despite many set backs. It was just such a small glimpse in that day but already that was an extremely humbling experience.

Accommodation: http://www.wittenbergnacht.de

Distance: 15.4km

Duration: 3.5h and 1.5h break

Weather: sunny with some clouds, around 24C at its peak

This was the first day where I didn’t spend a lot of time walking next to the river which gave me a different experience. There were quite a few lakes, a lot of green and this time, I also walked through forests for a long time.

The walk wasn’t too long with just over 15km, so I got into Wittenberg quite early. My super friendly host even shared his home made lunch with me before we had also coffee and cake. That’s what I call impressive hospitality 😃

I’ll write more about the town in my next blog as I reserved an entire day to explore it.

Accommodation: http://wp.cranach-herberge.de/en/

Distance: 26.5km

Duration: 6.15h walk and 2h breaks

Weather: perfect conditions with sun, some clouds, a breeze and max. 27C

This was so far my absolutely favourite day during this trip! Why? It started with an enormous and delicious breakfast with eggs from the owner’s chicken, the path on the dyke started right in front of the house, the weather was perfect, the landscape beautiful, nice river crossing by ferry, coffee and cake in the castle and a charming village to stay over night!

You might wonder about the breakfast and yes – I changed my habits and started having breakfast in the morning when staying at a B&B. I just couldn’t help it when I saw the efforts that went in.

Despite this part being the second longest so far, I didn’t struggle at all in the same way like on the first day. Don’t get me wrong – it was still tiring but this time, I didn’t feel like having a break every 1-2km in the end. It probably is a combination of my body adjusting but also external factors like weather, condition of the path and the surroundings. Also, I started listening to audiobooks when I got bored of a monotone scenery or when I started to get tired physically. This prevents me from checking my tracker every few minutes.

So after 7 days of walking and with 151km below my belt, I am well on track for the 611km in 4 weeks. However, I have two resting days planned for Wittenberg and Magdeburg to look at the cities and some of the sights.

Accommodation: https://pension-fahrradschloss.de/kontakt/

A few take away a after the first week of hiking:

– I need to check carefully where the route takes me and avoid roads at any cost

– The distance on Google Maps can defer quite severely by the signed out cycling path. Foot paths often even are longer as they are closer to the river and therefore follow the natural bend

– Every day is different depending on my physical condition, my mindset, external conditions which requires adaption of pace and breaks

– It is very rare that I come across a bakery, shops or restaurants (that are open!), so I need to organise myself for drink and food for the entire day and carry it with me

– Ideally, I have my accommodation for the next night confirmed by the night before as it can be quite tough to walk for an additional 2-3km if there is no free accommodation

– It’s amazing how easy it is to cut down to the basics if need to be (food, drink, accommodation, daily distance, minimum supplies). AND – it feels so liberating and I love the ease and freedom of it (ok, ask me in 3 weeks again when I was changing the same 2 outfits day in and day out…)

Quite a few people were asking me why I don’t do the trip by bicycle. Those are some of the reasons:

– I have much more freedom regarding the path as I can walk across fields or right along the river if I want to

– It gives me more time to take in the beauty of the scenery, nature and the space

– I love using my own physical strength without any support

– It gives me independence as I can deal better with an aching knee than a broken bicycle

So overall, the first week has been exciting, exhausting and I love the unknown of what the next day will bring. Let’s see how the next days and weeks go.

Distance: 18.9km

Duration: 4.30h and 1h break in total

Weather: approx. 27C, a bit more cloudy and wind in the afternoon

With the previous day being quite tough due to the hot and sunny day, I was glad to have a bit of a shorter distance and also ‘easier’ conditions from the weather perspective. Even though that the sun didn’t burn down as before, shades in general are very rare at this path which is a bit of a downside. I took more water as well as I ran out of it on Sunday, an hour before the end of the walk.

This part of the trip was far more remote and took me through some of the typical sceneries of the Elbe meadow.

My accommodation was also in a complete remote area, far outside of the next village. It gave me a beautiful view of the sunset. Talking to the owners was also interesting to have their perspective of the impact that the Corona regulations had and still has on their business. For 10 weeks, there was no business at all. Now, the locals don’t come as often to their bar and beer garden anymore as they don’t like the limitations. Therefore, they open only on weekends for the next 3-4 weeks or provide guests like me with dinner as an exception. The financial impact is severe as the earnings through the B&B should be a significant contribution to their small pension that they expect. Is this the ‘new normal’?

Accommodation: http://www.faehrhaus-prettin.de/mobile/index.php

Distance: 26km + 2km by car

Duration: 5.30h walk and 2.30h break in total

Weather: very hot with 29C, no wind, a lot of direct sun

To describe the fifth day, I only need one word – HOT!!! When starting in the morning at 8.30am, I could already tell the difference to the previous days that it was much warmer and hardly any wind. When choosing the route, I made one mistake to follow the walk of Google Maps as it was 2km shorter than the signed out cycling path. With the weather forecast of up to 29C, I thought every km matters. It was a poor decision though as the route took me along a busy road for most of the parts in the morning. Just when I was cursing myself for this silly idea to walk with a 8kg backpack in such a heat along a busy road with an outlook of 26km walking distance, there came this woman out of nowhere ‘get in quickly but you have to rush!’ She was my saviour in that moment and dropped me off in the next village. It was only 2km but such a boost in my motivation and a way to get out of the heat.

From there, I was on the cycling path again which led me through beautiful landscapes along the Elbe and below some trees. In general, there wasn’t much shade though and I had to choose my breaks mainly based on some trees along the way.

In the afternoon, I followed a path which at some point was a dead end and I was standing in front of a massive corn field, joined by a field of purple flowers where thousands of bumble bees were flying around. So I had three options: 1. Go back (no way!), 2. Walk through the flower field with all the bumble bees or 3. Walk through the corn field. I chose the last version, although the field was easily 1 km long. Unfortunately, I had to realise quickly that I wasn’t alone in that corn field. When going deeper, I must have scared an animal hiding and it ran off in panic mode. Judging by the sound and what I learned in the last days, it most likely was a wild boar. This freaked me out quite a bit and I was praying that the man was right who told me previously that they wouldn’t attack me and go in hiding instead. A little further, I heard the same noise again and it couldn’t be further than 5m away from me. I decided to turn up the audiobook on loudspeaker to ensure the boar would definitely hear me long before I get to him. About 10min later, I made it out of the field and it’s a little understated to say that I was quite relieved.

The rest of the trip was fairly smooth and I got into Torgau in the late afternoon. Compared to the previous villages, Torgau was very lively with some bars and restaurants open and a welcome change. After a quick shower, I treated myself with ice cream, a stroll through town and an Italian dinner at a nice place.

Torgau is one of the unexpected highlights so far as it has a well preserved old town with a busy market square, a castle and a lively atmosphere.

Accommodation: https://goldener-anker-torgau.de/

Total distance: 21.5km

Pace: 4.9km/h, then 4.8

Weather: ideal conditions in the morning, then too hot with approx. 28C after noon

As a summary, today was a beautiful day with some great encounters but very hot in the afternoon.

The walk today was great with a diverse scenery. Throughout the day, I met a few locals who were incredibly supportive by offering me to refill my water bottles, checking on me that I was ok in the heat, reminding me that I should drink enough and not walk too far 😊 But it was also interesting as I learned a few things about the region: men were standing with rifles next to wheat fields that were being harvested as they were waiting for wild boars to escape. Also, that there is a big conflict of interest between farmers and the industry about the soil which is fruitful for the crop but equally gives high quality gravel and therefore brings in a lot of money. Lastly, seeing the water levels of the flooding in 2013, 2006 and 2002 was quite shocking and made it much more real than seeing it in the news back then.

Mühlberg is a pleasant village but was completely deserted. The only way to get some food was in the supermarket. Any Cafés and restaurants were closed. I haven’t figured out yet if it’s due to summer break (which wouldn’t really make sense as it’s high season for tourism right now), if they went bust due to Corona or if for other reasons. Thankfully, the supermarket was there though as it otherwise would have been nuts and beer for me on a Saturday night.

Tomorrow, the weather should be even hotter than today, so I hope I can still manage quite well despite the 23km ahead of me. Unfortunately, there wasn’t another town with accommodation beforehand without cutting down too much on distance. So I will be chasing some spots of shade.

Total distance: 17.5km

Pace: initially 5km/h then 4.9km/h

Weather: sunny with around 22C and then cloudy after lunch

The third day was quite uneventful. It was a good distance to manage with good weather conditions as it wasn’t too hot. Also, I learned in the meantime that it’s best to start walking in the morning to cover 10km in 2hrs without breakfast. Then, a small break with breakfast, followed by another hour, then lunch and the final part. I always aim to be at the accommodation by 3pm to have a buffer, have time to look around and relax a bit.

Riesa as town didn’t really impress me, so not really worth a trip. The highlight was to cross the river with the ferry and the chat with the captain 👨‍✈️

Total Distance: 12km

Walking time: 2.5hrs

Average pace: 4.8km/h

Weather: light rain, sun, strong rain, thunder storm

Today, I took it a bit more easy with the walk as I wanted to visit Meißen but also still felt the 29km from the previous day in my bones.

The morning, I spent exploring Meißen which is a beautiful town with many hidden alleys and pretty buildings. It’s very charming with the old town and dome and castle close by. You can see most parts in half a day as it’s quite compact. The dome and castle are located on a little hill and give a beautiful view on the old town. Seeing all those brand new roofs and well maintained houses, it’s very obvious that a lot of money has been invested in the last years to rebuild and maintain Meißen. As part of the wine route of Saxony and the cycle path along the Elbe, it certainly is a tourist magnet well worth visiting. People were also very welcoming and friendly. One lady even approached me laughing as she thought that I carried a dog (poodle) in my backpack which in fact was my pony tail. Not sure what to think about that though…. 😉

At noon, I left Meißen to continue my trip and arrived at the next destination around 3.30pm. The first kilometre was tough as feet and joints were still aching from the previous day as well as my extended exploration of Meißen in flip flops. The scenery was stunning again with vineyards, lush greens and the flow of the Elbe. The weather was very mixed and would change from one minute to the other. At some point, it was a bit scary as a thunder storm came up so unexpectedly while I was walking amongst fields. Spending so much time out in nature makes me respect it even more.

Tonight, I’ll have an early one after dinner and a cheeky glass of wine at one of the local wineries (it would be rude not to try it!) and will start early again tomorrow.

Total distance: 29.5km

Duration: 6h with 2h break in total

Average pace: 4.9km/h or 12.2min for 1km

Weather: initially sunny with slight overcast, around 21C, after midday first light and then heavier rain

Initially, I started walking on the cycling path but quickly moved away from it as it felt like a cycling highway. From then on, I fully enjoyed the walk through nature. Until km 15, I loved every moment of it. Km 16-19 were tough and only a coffee and cake after 19km gave me some boost again. Despite the rain, km 20-25 was pleasant. However, the last 4km were quite a stretch and I was extremely happy when I finally got to the hotel around 5pm. Tomorrow morning, I’ll take some time to explore Meißen a bit more. The first impression is very positive – a beautiful and well restored town with the influence of the wine region (wine route of Saxony)

Accommodation: http://www.goldener-loewe-meissen.com/en/home-page/