Between Dresden and Berlin

We did a night ride tonight and it was awesome. Last night we were in Riesa and spent a good portion of today there.

So the ride tonight... It definitely wasn't our first night ride but it was definitely the best. Several reasons... 1) the traffic was really mellow and Germans (at least in my experience) are really respectful of bikers 2) the road was really well paved 3) there was no moon but the stars were incredible 4) the temperature was perfect 5) the distance was perfect - 36km, which we did in about 1.5hrs. 6) I had a cup of coffee before the last section of the ride.

For the day section of the ride we rode along the Elbe River which was, to our surprise, some of the best riding we've done so far. The Elbe is considerable in size, one of the major rivers in Europe, I think. Anyway, there were well-paved bike paths on both sides that would occasionally stray from the river bank, leading through small towns, often times consisting of no more than 20 homes, many of which had sheep, goats, cows, chickens, etc. Given the recent Easter holiday, nearly all the homes had those plastic easter eggs hanging from small bushes and trees in their yard. Also on both sides of the river were farm houses, independent from the towns, spaced sporadically along the river banks. But perhaps the coolest part about the Elbe River is how green the fields are that it runs through - that lush, thick green grass that will be 6-foot high come August. Another cool thing, bridges across the river were rare, very rare - rather there were small docks every several miles that had a small boat to transport people the approx 60 yards to the opposite shore.