Friday 3 August

Dresden to Schildau

As usual Mick rode with us until lunch and then joined Liz in the car for the afternoon, helping her pitch the tents at the next campsite, making it all too easy for us cyclists. We reached Meissen at lunchtime and found Liz had parked the car under the main road bridge next to a chap who had pent two years converting his small Mazda saloon into a mini camping van with a bike rack on the roof. He was on a long holiday going down to Bulgaria and showed us proudly how his car had been adapted. We didn't venture across the river to look round Meissen but after our picnic under the bridge rode on to Strehla to meet up with Mick and Liz for instructions how to get to our next campsite.

Mick photographed the plaque that commemorates Otto von Bismarck-Schönhausen (1 April 1815 – 30 July 1898) who was Prime Minister of Prussia at the time of the Franco-Prussian War (1870-1871). He was able to unify the various German states into a single German Empire and became its first Chancellor until 1890.

Mick and Liz had booked us into Campingplatz Neumühle near Gneisenaustadt Schildau on the shores of Seebad Neumühle, a large water-sports lake where they were getting ready for a its summer music festival. We cycled through delightful rolling countryside that Simon sped us through at a rate of knots. We rested a couple of times, once by Waldbad Schmannewitz, a beautifully kept village swimming lake where we sat on a bench and watched as some people who had been chatting to friends entered the water, swam to the other side, walked up some stone steps, across a road and up the drive to their house – all very communal.

We had our evening meal at the campsite restaurant and went to bed, serenaded by the disco.