The Bicycle Adventure Club - Come Ride With Us!

Dresden to Hamburg-A Classic Tour Along the Elbe

July 20th to August 5th

Ride Director: Albert Balingit
Ride Co-Director: Sue Bunten
Ride Driver: Arleen Sakamoto
Report by: Carlos Alcala

A tremendous amount of planning went into this well-executed trip.

The ride gets off to a slow start, only because we are given a few days in Dresden to get ourselves together, secure rental bikes, take test rides and – above all – explore the city. A stunning number of places to see in the old city, where our hotel was, and people took advantage of it. I aimed for modern art and prints while others looked at treasures and cathedrals. Word to the wise: check out the museum pass – multiple days for all the museums for one price. And another opportunity: If you like swimming, Dresden has a great (stainless steel!) public pool near the old city, usable for a few Euros.

A test ride to Bad Schandau also gave people a chance to try a few things. One could ride all the way there and back. That was a bit of a long trip on the heavy rental bike. But others caught the train in a few places. Marvelous scenery along the Elbe in this direction – toward the Czech border.

For much of the rest of the trip, those first days present a model in the sense that there are a lot of options. For one thing, the Elberadweg hugs the river – often on both sides. If one uses a guidebook or two, and online route gps, one can choose what to see and where to ride. I went with another rider up the side of the valley to Moritzburg (castles and art museums) while others used that day to visit a marvelous cathedral.

There are numerous sites that people visited along the way, ceramic tile museums, border monuments from the days of divided Germany, art museums, natural parks and medieval cities.

Tangermünde was a great place to have a rest day and explore this fascinating old city from our base in the Schloss hotel with a beautiful view of the river.

I would say that Wittenberg might be another spot where you’d like to spend some time. Known for its association with Martin Luther, the city has a plethora of sights to see and there is only so much time. Planning will help.

Too many other interesting stops along the way of which I only got a brief glimpse.

The riding was perhaps a bit tougher than the billed 1A, but not due to hills. It was exceedingly flat. Instead, there were days considerably longer than expected (though partly because of not pre-screening them on Rides with GPS to verify the distances), city-oriented rental bikes that made the riding a bit tougher, and unseasonal weather snags.

Hamburg, at the end of the ride, is another amazing city and my favorite. (Bias: My mother was born there.) The river, canals, architecture (Elbephilharmonie!) and museums make this – Germany’s second biggest city – a place that should not be missed, though it is not well-known to American tourists. I will be back.

We had a couple of great tour guides for a bike tour of the city, one of whom took Rick Steves around Hamburg, who filled us in on history and culture.

Overall, Germany is a history nut’s dream – you can’t avoid exposure to medieval castles, the Holy Roman Empire, the upheaval of the Protestant Reformation and, of course, the trauma of two World Wars and the Holocaust. You can find it all along the Elberadweg.

Can’t say enough about the flexibility of the ride leaders (Albert Balingit, Sue Bunten and Arleen Sakamoto) and all the participants, who bailed one another out with the inevitable snags that come with bike touring, whether they involved flats, navigation or ferry closures. Thankfully, there were no illnesses among two dozen people spending two weeks together.

Finally, the food: I’m in love with central European hotel buffet breakfasts. It’s hard not to find something that you love to eat. The group dinners were also good and, with few exceptions, we had good opportunities to find ourselves something else to eat when not with the group.