Roamin' with the Romans

Since leaving Wesel we have travelled east following the Roman route beside the River Lippe, coming across many Dorfs (farming communities of maybe 10-20 farm houses and outbuildings) showing off their silage mounds and cattle sheds, a few smallish towns and the regional city of Paderborn.

Farmhouse in the countryside

Jo caught hanging around near villages again!

Coming into a village

We try and find a place for morning tea about  25kms in from the start. Backereis usualy serve coffee various ways and offer cakes, slices and buns. The fave at present is the plum cake - sour and custardy and cakey - just the thing to warm a rider's cockles.

Sally, Maureen and Des at a Steht Backerei.

Sometimes for lunch we pack a roll and picnic when we find a good spot. This can amuse the locals who want to know what we're doing in this town. Des' new friend only wanted an good spot to sit and  eat his ice-cream, but couldn't resist peppering Des with questions, even though Des doesn't speak Deutsch.

Des and his new friend.

We had six riding days on this leg and said goodbye to Michael in Lippstadt. This was a bit sad as he is so good to be with.

Michael, Sally, Maureen, Des and Janice at the red floral elephant. I can just see this in Footscray!

A wet afternoon in Werne was spent wandering the picturesque town streets and paying a visit to the local museum. The novelty of having visiting Australians was too much for the woman in charge who promptly gave Jo and I free maps and then filled us with blackberry liqueur in the semi-baronial dining room. Needless to say we didn't get to see much of what the Romans had been up to.

Paderborn is notable for the length of the river Pader coming in at just four kilometres, so unexpectedly, we have now ridden the full-length of an entire river and some parts of two others. This is a wealthy city - easy to tell becasue of the number of beggars in residence. It also has a lovely spot in the park where the drinkers collect to swap tales and neck bottles of wine. They had a pleasant buzz going this morning while we riders took in the local Saturday market.



We rode out to a Schloss and were treated to a marching band and several groups of Schutzenverein marching together. The Shutzenverein is a club of Cathlics whose job it has been for the last 500 years to protect the gold and silver of a particular church. All marchers were dressed in olive green with differrent coloured sashes and embridered banners denoting their particular place of worship. Many were bedecked with medals of silver and gold themselves, probably becasue of exemplary service.

The Schutzenvereins on the move.

Our stats to date:
2 August: Wesel to Haltern am See; 59kms
3 August: Haltern am See to Werne; 45kms
4 August: Werne to Lippstadt; 75kms
5 August: Lippstadt to Paderborn; 45kms