Day 10 : Tue, Aug 23, 2011 - 57.22 mi [Cycling] Dresden to Finsterwalde

Day 10 : Dresden to Finsterwalde

Day 10 Stats
Distance = 57.22
Time = 05:32:29 hrs
Ave Speed = 10.32 mph
Elevation = 1421 ft
Calories = 2450
Max Speed = 20.0 mph
Max Elevation = 707 ft
Min Elevation = 306 ft

Tour Stats
Distance = 935.83 Miles
Total Time = 78:10:38 hrs
Ave Speed = 11.07 mph
Total Elevation = 32125 fett
Total Calories = 48923

Day 10 :

Quite a slow start as I had not got the Internet key before I went out last night and the desk was closed when i returned so i had to book my Hotel in Finsterwalde and check my route in the Garmin before setting off.
Yesterday was my longest ride and my body was feeling the effects today - I had realised that I was incapable of doing the remaining 140 miles in 1 day so I had decided Finsterwalde was a good half way point.

Once sorted I cycled into town for a quick look around Dresden and to take a few photographs before setting off for the day. I was heading pretty much due North and as I left Dresden my poor sore body was not enjoying the first 5 miles which were pretty much all cobbles and between 4 to 8 miles I climbed another 400feet - Once I went under the E40 autobahn the I turned off main road I had been following and I picked up samller roads which were perfect for cycling.

I made steady progress if not fast and I reached the town of Barnsdorf which .. surprise surprise was cobbled.In the small village of Weissig am Rassutz I stopped as I passed a house with a garden that had been decorated with wood carvings - I think it was snow white and the seven dwarves that had been carved and were forming the garden fence.

At Tetten there was sign post saying Strassen Schaden and I wasn't sure if the road was open or not as half had been barriered off.- I cycled on and the road remained open & Ok but the landscape changed dramatically - the fields were suddenly barren and flat and white, there were no trees and the road was sitting on the landscape with a unnatural ditch between.

Then after a couple of mile I saw a high structure come into view on the horizon - It was industrial, It was massive. It was .... obviously chewing up the landscape and turning the earth into what looked like the moon.
When I reached the machine it was a very large metal framework with conveyors - it must have been 100fett high and 500 feet long.

Once past it the landscape quickly greened up and I was in no time at Licherfeld and a short ride down the road into Finsterwalde.

Route :


Photographs :

1 Mile : I stopped on the bridge across the Elbe to photograph
this wave and my bike !

2 Miles : This is a small part of a wall which remained in the Old Town
of Dresden after the bombing raids in 1945. 

2 Miles : Another view of the section of wall that
wasn't bombed in 1945.

2 Miles : Dresden Old Town

1 Miles : A fountain in Dresden near the Bridge over the Elbe

1 Mile : This is a gold statue which faces the bridge over the Elbe

2 miles : A large stone gothic figure carved into the wall
guards two large doorways in the Old Town. 

2 Miles ; I looked up and saw this view - a dome topped with
a gold winged messenger watched over by two black carved
figures.

2 Miles : A statue in the square of Martin Luther.

2 Miles : On top of an old building in Dresden - the inscription
The Fatherland - To fuss and Honour.

2 Miles : A horse and Carriage in Dresden Old Town

2 miles : The massive Porcelain Wall in Dresden Old Town which
was made by the famous Meissen Potters which is only about 10
miles west of Dresden.

27 Miles : A garden in Weissig am Raschutz with wooden
carved figures

27 Miles : A closer inspection of the figures show that the they
are in fact Snow White and the seven dwarves. 

45 Miles : Just leaving Lauchhammer this sign
warned the road may not be too level - shortly
afterwards there was a barrier across half the road
and I wondered if i was venturing down a dead End.

47 miles : The landscape began to change - the vegetation seemed
to be dying and looking ahead I could see what looked like the Moon 

49 Miles : I approached the enormous Orwellian looking
machine that had obviously changed the countryside over
which I had been cycling for the last 4 miles.

57 Miles : A pretty rooftop in the Town Square in Finsterwalde

57 Miles : Finsterwalde is called Die Sangsterstadt
The Singers Town and this statue is in the town square
The statue depicts the 3 singers from Town who
won a national singing contest in the 1930s

57 Miles : The own Square in Finsterwalde

57 Miles : I wandered around town ans found this very
large and very very odd, derelict looking clock tower.
It almost looked sinister.

57 Miles : A better view of the clock tower ...
but there wasn't a clock on this side of the tower

57 Miles : This is the Town Hall - the Rathaus in Finsterwalde

57 Miles : This painting was on the side of  a building wall close
by to the clock tower - It was massive - about 20 to 30 feet high.
The incomplete part seems to me to look like a hammer & sickle
and I suspect the image is intended to suggest that communism
is being painted away. I also suspect the clock tower was something
to do with the former communist state.

57 Miles : Again just near to the clock tower there
was a soviet cemetery with red stars on the gravestones.

57 miles : When I got back to my Hotel I had a meal
I ordered a nice starter of tomato soup with a brown
roll - or  so I thought - Boy was this a BIG starter and
boy was the bread heavy - I managed to eat the lid and
half of the bun in which the soup was served