Europe India trip: Day 3 - sightseeing at Munster & then riding to Hamburg via Bremen [Apr 15, 2023]

The day I rode in rain & realized my shoes are actually not water proof :)

So far, I had ridden on non motorways & was a bit scared of entering German motorways (called Auto Bahns) primarily because I was scared that they dont have speed limit & I might have to ride way too fast to keep up with the cars. I had looked at the map & thought Bremen is actually a more doable destiny which was around 200+ kms if motorways are excluded.

I anyway decided to do a bit of sight-seeing of Munster as I was being told Munster is a nice city. I tried looking for a walking tour but Munster does not have one, it being a small city maybe.

Munster had a lot of cycles. I guess most tier 2 German cities have cycles as their predominant mode of transport

I asked for a coffee place at the reception of the hostel & was suggested this shop Easy Livin . I did my own google search for ‘cheap coffee’ & ended up at Flyod Coffee . It had a pretty good offer of a bagel & coffee for 6 Euros & I took that.

The food, especially sandwiches, bagels etc, are pretty yum in Germany. The food quality is in general high & food is very fresh. This is unlike UK I would say.

I then went around a few places which Patrick at the hostel reception had told me & given me a city map. Being used to Google Maps, navigating an offline map was hard for me. So after a while I gave up & just started to wander around.

This building has interesting Gothic architecture (pointed towers) & I think it has some significance around world war decision making.

I came back at around 12 as I had a bit of anxiety to leave for my next destination. After packing my stuff, I asked for a coffee at the hostel & it was made on the house. Guess the whole riding-to-india story is now getting me free stuff :).

Ahmed on left & Patrick on the right. Ahmed helped me with motorbike parking previous night. Ahmed is from Pakistan & we ended up talking in hindi when Ahmed once said to me - aap to desi lag rahe ho :). Thanks Ahmed for all the help & free coffee.

I started to ride to Bremen. I decided to take the motorway & I was surprised how wrong was my belief. German motorways do not have speed limit & they had built it to avoid cross winds. Either the ground is raised on the side (or the road is laid in a trench) or they construct artificial walls on the side so that cross winds dont hit the vehicle. I was easily able to cruise at 110-120 kmph .

I dont have a clear memory but it looks like I probably took motorway from Leuven to Munster as well because it was a long distance & I had lost time taking the detour to the mechanic. I also remember having this conversation about German motorwarys with Patrick & he did mention that the roads are actually constructed with the detail in mind.

But well, a new challenge awaited for me this time. As shown in the weather app & it started to rain as soon as I left Munster. While my riding jacket, trousers & gloves held well, water seeped into my shoes, which I was thinking to be water proof. I had to stop on a petrol station on the way & apart from filling petrol, decided to fill myself with a warm coffee, change socks (which dint help much) & just take time off.

I always had a very ‘mechanical & by the books’ perception of Germany & I never actually looked forward to riding in German countryside. But I was proven wrong. German countryside is as pretty as any other European country. They dont have large farms like French countryside where a large farm of mustard reminds you of the Bollywood movie - DDLJ & they are quite common in France.

I had to stop on a T junction to get away from main road to be able to take these pics.

I have a friend in Bremen, Froggi. I had messaged her that I would reach between 3-4 pm but the longish stop delayed my plan. I finally reached Bremen by like 5:30 PM & Froggi had messaged me that she might be busy. She dint respond to my messages/calls so I decided to look up for stays in Hamburg (there were no hostels in Bremen on hostelworld). I found one youth hostel for 29 Euros which was slightly on the outskirts but that is a good sign me for me because you have higher chance to find parking in outskirts. Hostelworld said the minimum duration is 2 days so I booked the place for 2 days. Hostelworld anyway charges 10% of the amount & the rest you have to pay at the hostel. Now that I have hostel booked, I messaged Froggi that I am leaving Bremen & proceeded to Hamburg. I had not done a lot of ride so I decided to choose ‘avoid motorway’ option in google map to Hamburg.

I desperately needed a coffee & stopped by at this shop. I dint realize then the place has a French name ‘Monsieur Baguette’ & the folks could actually speak okayish English :). I just stopped because I saw large images of coffee on the outside :D

The coffee was good & I also had a chicken Baguette which was good too. Unfortunately they dint have a toilet. So I looked for a public toilet nearby. Found one but it had entrance from the motorway & I was on a suburb road. I rode to the place from the surburb road side, parked my bike & started to walk as per google map suggestion but could not find the path to the toilet. I was in a junglish kind of setup by then so I just happen to relieve myself behind a few bushes :).

I reached Hamburg at around 10 pm. I checked into the Youth Hostel in Horn area (it has a long German name that I am unable to remember). The place had nice large parking & it was pretty big inside.

In the night, I sat in the common area & saw quite a few folks wearing black clothes, with long hair etc. They looked like rock fans. It seemed like there was a rock band that performed (or was suppose to perform) & these folks had come to see them. German culture is mostly about keeping to yourself so I was not very sure of having the conversation & ask them. So I just observed them from the side :).

I had liked the hostel & decided to stay one more day at Hamburg primarily because I did not want to start riding the next morning & I also wanted time to plan where I need to go next. With these thought & a beer from the hostel, I retired to bed.