5th of September, 2021.
It is Sunday. I am walking from the camping to out of town where I am going to hitchhike. But before I plan to stop in a Lidl and get some food. Wrong! The supermarkets do not open on Sundays in Germany. What? Yeah. I have some yogurt and muesli but that is it. Will I have to eat out somewhere in Quedlinburg? I will see about that.
Also because it is Sunday and quite early, there are not many cars passing by. And the few ones doing so, apparently, are not going to Quedlinburg. Aham, sure! When this old lady stops, I can see that she is suspicious and even more when she realizes I am not German or cannot speak German. But then she gives me a look up and down and say I can come.
Hilda is a nice lady after all. She does not speak or understand English but we manage a small chat. She is actually going outside Quedlinburg but she drives me to the city centre. Which is so nice of her! I arrive in town half past ten and face a lot of people gathering around the main square. There is this guy with a microphone, dressed as the devil, and a few other people also wearing costumes.
I come to the tourist office to get a free map and to ask if I can leave my backpack. Before I even ask, the lady ask me if I want to leave it. She says it will coast me fifty cents but I say it is fine.
I am so excited! The town seems really nice and going around without the backpack is just great!
Quedlinburg is a very nice place to visit! The old town is very pretty, there are some incredible buildings all over the place. There are also some pubs, cafes and restaurants which look really nice. The UNESCO Patrimony church, St Servatus, is so charming from the photographs online and might be even better in real life. Of course I could not tell because, AS USUAL, LIKE EVERYWHERE ELSE I GO, it was surrounded by scaffolds and those constructions fabrics. So I could not see shit! Also a walking distance from the church is a very nice but quite abandoned garden. It is difficult to tell if there is someone looking after the place or not. There are plenty of vegetables which seem to being let to rot. I take some tomatoes before I leave and I think it is the best decision I have made. Now behind the garden there is a massive park, Brühl Park, which if was not for the trails you could simply call a forest. It is really nice and natural so if you have some extra time I totally recommend.
My plan is to arrive in Rakotzbrücke today and with enough time to enjoy the bridge and take a lot of photos. It is not a long drive, only about three hours, but it is a weird / troubled route from here. So I leave Quedlinburg earlier then I wanted, around midday, while I keep looking for a place where I can buy food. Should I?
At my hitchhiking spot there is a gas station. Food! I open up my tent so it can dry and I go to buy some fuel. Lei’s body fuel = food! Some things are very expensive. But I am getting the cheapest chips (Cebolitos!), a pack of cookies and I get very excited when I see they have bread! Then I get even more excited when I see that they can actually make sandwiches! The nice old lady understands my signals with a very good humor and kindness. Later on I would actually notice she made two great sandwiches for me, with cheese, tomatoes and cucumbers! OK, they were a bit expensive but much less than what I would pay in one meal if I had eaten out. Now I have enough food for lunch and dinner so here we go Devil’s Bridge!
Nope. I do not know if I do not have the right signs, or if simply people do not know these places or nobody was actually going in that direction. Is that really possible? I do not think so. All I know is that after three different signs, somebody finally stops. The triathlon guy.
The thing which was going on in town, I mean, the reason why there were people gathering and dressed in costumes, is because a triathlon was in process. The guy who pick me up was part of a team and he was doing the running part. He is nice but until certain point. I think he is kind of very systematic, much more than I. Or something like that. We did talk for a while and it was OK. He even mentioned I could come and be an aupair for his kids. He drops me just before Potsdan, where he leaves and it is going to. It is a good spot, a big parking lot with a MacDonald’s and stuff, and there is plenty of cars. But again it takes ages for someone to stop. It is quite late already and I am even considering to camp around here. Which is not so great because there are a lot of trucks and no place where I can hide.
By that time Jan stops. He says not be going far but I say that anywhere is better than here. He does not speak much English but we can communicate. And he seems a trustful person. I tell him about my plan so he decides to drive me to a lake, nearby his place in Zassem, where I can camp, and in his words, “have some peace”. The place is very nice, dense forest, and even so I wish the plants around the lake did not exist, so I could see it better, it is still a very nice spot to camp and spend the night. Way better then most of my last spots. Anyway, before Jan leave, he gives me a cup full of pumpkin soup (from his mother) and a lemon beer. Which for me it is perfect! Even though I do have food, a cup of soup and a beer is a huge upgrade! And the plan is that next morning, at 7.30, he will come to pick me up and drop me at the highway.
Now I do not know what actually happened but Jan did not show up. Is that possible I was too late he came and left? But I even turned my computer on to check the time and I had plenty of time before 7.30. But even if I was a bit late, could not he come and call my name or something? Why would he simply abandoned me there? I even had his mug!
The thing is I was already so in doubt if I should risk trying to go to Rakotzbrücke and then Berlin or go direct to Berlin. Because I was waiting him for already too long (when I asked the time to the neighbour, even though he told me the wrong one, he said it was 9.30 when actually it was 8.30, one hour waiting is a long time) I chose the second option. But the man who picked me up was, I am sorry to say, slightly stupid, and he drove me to the train station of the just next town, Ludwigsfeld. And even worse! When I try to ask him if he knew how much the ticket would cost me, I am sure he thought I was asking him for money. Ugh!
Anyway, luckily the ticket it was only 3.80 Euros and the next train would leave in 20 minutes. Otherwise the next one would be in a few hours. But I almost missed this one because the lady from the small shop where I bought the ticket gave me the wrong platform number. Luckily I came back to ask about the timetable and then she direct me to the right one. That was me, going by train to Berlin. Without seen the devil’s bridge.
