Never trust the guidebook, says guest blogger Dave

May 3, 2013. Dateline Berlin.

Never trust the guidebook. An old lesson relearnt the hard way on a day out from the German capital by train and bicycle.  The anonymous author promised some idyllic country cycling. It started well.

Dappled, sunlit woodland still partly flooded by winter snowmelt; birdsong, and the smell of spring in the air at last. But alas, the ground under our wheels. Cobbles. 

Eager Dave on his shiny new racing bike with its whippet thin wheels, dismounted and pushing disconsolately for fear of a flat in the forest glade. And there goes Terri on her sturdy shopper’s special, fat tyres gliding smoothly over the awful boneshaking stones. Hare? Tortoise? Never underestimate an old lady bike.

Back on blissful tarmac, another take on human endeavour in the landscape, and our faith in German construction is restored by a real engineering marvel. Seven years in the making from 1927, the Niederfinow ship hoist lifts and lowers massive cargo barges 36 metres between two stretches of canal in a giant water-filled cradle. 

Nearly a century on, the elegant steel structure, visible from miles around in the mostly featureless north German plain, is suffering the effects of corrosion.

 But this being Germany, they’re building a whole new hoist alongside. Just keep pedalling!