Biking in the Teutoberger Wald (Bielefeld)

Managed a bike ride while I was in Bielefeld.  Bettina, the friend I was visiting, lent me a bike and helmet and we went off to ride. We didn't have a cyclometer, but I think we got in about 25 miles.  And this on the hottest day of the year so far (in the high 80s).  We first rode to the little town of Werther, where the Werther's Original caramel candy came from (it's now made about 10 miles away), where we found an ice cream cafe to replenish us.  I learned about "spaghetti eis", a German concoction that takes whipped cream and ice cream, covers it with more ice cream that has been put through a potato ricer or spaetzle press (which really does look spaghetti) and then a topping -- chocolate, strawberry, something green -- that will make it look like a particular kind of sauce.  Like this:



A very odd concoction, but definitely tastes good.

On the way back, we went through the large forest, the Teutoberger Wald, that Bielefeld sits right up against.  The idea was to find shade, which we did.  This was pretty much all on dirt track, which was a challenge for me, on a strange bike with different shifters than I am used to.  But fun.  We probably made a few wrong turns, since the paths, which are primarily hiking paths, were not well marked, but we found our way back.  Here's a view from more or less the highest point of our ride



It was great to get back on the bike for a day, with 10 days to go before our biking vacation.  And biking was a much better way to spend a really hot day than walking around in town.

Afterwards, Bettina and I went to dinner.  Matthias, her partner, (and my former language learning partner -- he was learning English and I German) was supposed to join us, but he works as a legal expert for the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, and was stuck in some sort of a meeting in Berlin. We sat outside under a sun umbrella as a rain storm cooled things off, enjoying our meal.