Enough of feeling unfit!

During the long pandemic, I neglected going to the gym. At the same time my dog became very old and our walks became shorter and slower. Now, in early summer, I feel unfit and sluggish. So I decided to do what is extremely popular in northern Germany: cycle and start the Sunday with a bike ride.

The first two tours proved to be challenging. My muscles protested and I was out of breath at the smallest incline – there are also those in Northern Germany. It scratches my pride a little when families with small children or people much older than me pass me on their bikes, but then I tell myself that by autumn at the latest I will be the one overtaking untrained cyclists.

The nice thing about my home town of Lüneburg is that you can be in nature within a few minutes by bike. Some old, narrow roads have been turned into bike lanes, but there are also many forest trails that are good for cycling. Between the villages there are cycle paths almost everywhere next to the country road, so that even I, as a somewhat sluggish and slow elderly lady, feel safe.

This morning I passed the house of a local artist in one of the villages, Heiligenthal. He draws attention to himself with art in a box and I liked that so much that I took some photos for you guys. Maybe you have an old teapot and don’t know where to put it.

I saw this sign less than 1000 meters away. Only 5 – 6 km away from Lüneburg, wolves are roaming through. I find that fascinating, and no, I’m not afraid.

And what did I do with the rest of Sunday? SH and I took a car trip to a nice cafe in the middle of nowhere that offers fantastic cakes and tarts. I think I deserve some extra calories today.

Sunday in Lüneburg

Today started with sunshine and spring in the air, so the dog and I took a morning walk through the park, admiring the wood anemones.

Since the pandemic began life has become a bit monotonous. Most days I am communiting between our home, the foodstores and the job in Hamburg. On workdays I walk the dog around the neighborhood, at the weekends we explore the parks and woods nearby.

Today I felt for seing people and celebrating spring with a big icecream and SH, my partner, and I set off to some of our favorite places in Lüneburg. There are some magnificent magnolia trees in the yard of the old townhall and we were happy to see that they are in full bloom. Just a few meters away is the courtyard of the library and the entrance to the children’s library. That was my favorite place while growing up, each book a promise of adventures …

From there it is not far to walk to the “Stint”, as the streets around the river Ilmenau are called. There you will find most of Lüneburg’s night life, but it is also lovely to sit in one of the many outdoor cafés and restaurants. However, most of the are closed now, but it is allowed to sell food and drinks to take away. As you can see, that’s what a lot of people do, and even though we are wearing masks most of the time and cannot enjoy meals in restaurants it is still possible to have a good time.

We did have an icecream – white chocolate with cranberries and yoghurt with sallow thorn (Sanddorn – I hope my dictionary is reliable 🙂 ). It was so yummy that I forgot to take a photo.

All that walking left us hungry and guess what we are having tonight. We do have to support our local restaurants during the pandemic, don’t we?

Evening Mood

Now and then during this pandemic we miss going to a café or restaurant. Therefore we took the car, bought a coffee and some cake at a bakery and drove to the harbour in Lauenburg. Sipping our coffee and enjoying a sweet bun we watched the sky change until it grew dark.