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Sunrise over Berlin

The "Messe"

The Funkturm by daylight

Old Messe building

It was not long after seven that I was on the bike again, going West.
From the hotel I let the Tomtom show me the route out of Berlin and soon I left the city and was driving in the countryside again. They take green energy very serious here. You don't often see so many windmills in one place.

A lot of windmills here near Potsdam.

They are serious about green energy here

In Gutenpaaren, halfway between Potsdam en Brandenburg, I stopped to look at a nice old church, next to the ruins of some other buildings. The ruin (not the church) was for sale as building land. I wonder how it will be here next time I ride here.

Old church next to a ruin in Gutenpaaren

Storknest

After a while I entered Brandenburg. It has a nice lake and locks to let the ships in. Near the outskirts of Brandenburg was a strange building build as an arch over a fountain and next to a ruin of a building.

Lock for the ships near Brandenburg

Strange building in Brandenburg

Past Genthin I rode to Magdenburg. In Magdenburg I parked my bike next to a big bridge to walk around a bit. From the bridge I took some pictures of Magdenburg and then I got on the bike again.

Church in Magdenburg

The Elbe in Magdenburg

Until now I had told the Tomtom to avoid freeways (Autobahn) but there were so many trafficlights in Magdenburg and so much traffic and it was getting hot, so I decided to skip a part of Germany and do some Autobahn kilometers. I did my earplugs in and told the Tomtom NOT to avoid the autobahn so from Magdenburg I took the Autobahn until I was near Bielefeld

Near Bielefeld I had seen enough boring autobahn but with a cruising speed between 140 and 150 km/h I did made good progress. Time to get on the smaller roads again and time for lunch.
I left the autobahn and stopped at a gasstation to get a lunch of currywurst with noodles. Not bad at all.

Feeling a lot better after a good meal, I started the GoldWing again and drove on to the West.

Herford Laar near Bielefeld

From Bielefeld I drove past Osnabruck and then a little more to the South-West to get on the E3 to Arnhem.

Castle in the rain

Unfortunately it started raining hard again. With my rain overall it was no problem for me but the bike had some problems with it. It started to run on only three of its four cylinders sometimes.
I was happy when I reached the E3 to Arnhem and when the rain stopped and the bike used all of its four cylinders again, I was even happier.

Typical farmbuilding for this part of Germany

Just after half past six in the evening, I crossed the Dutch border. I stopped at a gasstation to fill my tank. Then I parked the bike and bought a sandwich and something to drink.
I was (and am) happy with the drinkholder. I have a bottle to drink something and every time I am at a gasstation, I buy a fresh bottle.

Back in the Netherlands

My original plan was to get a hotel by now but it was dry then and they expected rain on Wednesday....
From here it is only a few hours on the freeway to get home so I decided to go home tonight. It was just a two hour boring freeway ride and then I could park the GoldWing in the garage again after a very nice trip. That night I enjoyed my own bed again.

Epilog
WingDing Europe was a nice treffen to go to. It had some growing pains but I'm sure next year will be even better. Denmark is a nice country to ride a bike and I made some new friends so it was a good trip.

Berlin is a city that I'll come back to. It was much nicer then I expected and much cheaper then big cities like London or Paris. I used the ANWB guide to Berlin (in Dutch) and liked it. It had a map of the center and a lot of usefull information.

Except for the trouble with the heavy rain on the last day, the old GoldWing did a good job. It is old and heavy but much more comfortable then my BMW. This is the real touring bike for me.
This winter I'll do a renovation project, together with the local bikeshop so next year it will be even better.

The Tomtom Rider 2 Europe did exceed my expectations. I really love it. It showed me roads that I would never have found without and navigating in a big city like Berlin has never been so easy. The bluetooth headset works fine and even with my earplugs in on the autobahn it was loud and clear enough.