Bremerhaven - Bederkesa 14 July

We leave Bremerhaven when the tide has started to go out so the water level is only about 1 metre lower than high tide. It was low tide at 2 am but we slept through it. Yesterday at low tide Lellebelle was almost touching the bottom. We thought we might wake up with a bump at 2 am!

Today we are heading for Bederkesa, a place Carl visited when he was about 17 years old. He remembers it fondly and has of course built up very high expectations! 

After about 3 km we reached a Tidesperrverk where we had to wait an hour an a half for the water level to go down before we could pass through

Carl and Calle patiently waiting. We had to take down the mast and even then it was touch and go getting under the spear.

But we did and after 4 hours, 8 km/hour, on the Schifferverks canal, we arrived at the lovely little town of Bederkesa. A lake on the left and the town on the right. Just a pity that it started to rain and just continued all afternoon. 

Carl tells us that he was here when he was 17. He was crew to an elderly gentleman from Kungälv. He had a classic wooden motorboat, mahogany, " Petterson". Carl, the gentleman and two 14 year old boys were to take the boat from Amsterdam to Kiel. They stopped over here in Bederkesa where Carl was left to take care of the boys for a few days. He took one of the boys out on a a salboat in the lake. And as soon as they were out it started raining and storming, they managed to get back to the marina, just when the sun came out. So he took the other boy out and exactly the same thing happened, thunder, lightning and storm. For the rest of the time they spent in the Hallen Bad, indoor pool. So we had to go there as well, the weather being the same as when Carl was there 47 years ago. 

The two Carl's have both been hit by sleeping sickness so I took a walk into town.

This information board tells about how this part of the country was formed, with ice ages and glaciers causing lakes and "moore" which I think is where you find peat. The "mores" are associated with wellbeing and therapeutic treatment. 

I took a look at the Burg Bederkesa mostly because I was interested in "Roland".

Here is Roland. We met a "Roland" when we crossed the Pyranees in April. There was a memorial dedicated to him. We have recorded the story but we have no internet connection here do cannot check if it is the same Roland.have tried to read in the brochures but cannot work out if this is "our" Roland. Will research tomorrow.

Have checked, not our Roland. The Roland in the Pyranees died in the year 778.