Glückstadt – Itzehoe (35 km)
It is Earth Day today, Earth Day. How fitting now as we cycle through Europe with a tree and call attention to the unique and also fragile ecosystem we are allowed to be part of. How can it be that we are not careful about it? Now that we have been on the road for 11 days and have cycled 500 km – 10% of the Tour – through the northern Dutch and German landscape along the Wadden Sea, I have the feeling that it is predominantly green with many areas where nature also gets some space. Like for example this morning along the river Stör, beautiful large farms along the winding dike, small pearls where you see and feel the love and care for nature and culture. And of course we also see the large fields with monocultures and the industrial areas along the coast, and we know how ‘not clean’ they are, or in other words how unsustainable and irresponsible? And that has to be better, much better!
I think the path along the embankment of the Stör River north of Glückstadt is another great example of what the Circle4Change route could be like. Should we start marking these parts of the route on the map already? Naming the taverns along the route would also be good. Like café zur Schleuse, they have an interest in having people stop by. If we include them in our address file and send them our newsletter they stay informed about Circle4Change and can use it because they are part of it. Handing out the little trees is becoming more and more fun. We now often ask: Are you maybe celebrating your birthday this year? And of course they say yes. So they get a tree, almost everyone is pleasantly surprised and warmly welcomes our initiative. Perhaps it is an idea to always give two little trees, one for the person and one to give away to someone whose birthday is/will be? Let’s try if that will work.
It’s a short route to Itzehoe today because we drove further yesterday. Also quite nice. We will now stay here for two days and cycle further to Wahlstedt – Lübeck on Friday. It is quiet in our new accommodation in Itzehoe. Richard takes Yka, Marije, Linda and Sanne to Yka’s car which has been left at the ferry across the Elbe. They drive together to Leeuwarden. And Sanne goes on to Amsterdam for two days because of a funeral. The smallest group since we left, three people: Daan, Richard and me. A man’s household. After dinner we walk into the center of Itzehoe. We are struck by how quiet it is. There is a somewhat hushed atmosphere, perhaps we are imagining it but even this afternoon we felt that social poverty was visible. It is Tuesday after Easter, maybe that is why it is so quiet. Oh yes I heard today that on the2nd Easter Day Pope Francis died. Good timing though with Easter. We struggle to find a place to have a beer. Many cafes have fallen over after the corona told the waiter. We were his only guests. Now that we are in Itzehoe we can finally really start following the circle line again, until now we have mostly followed the coastline.
Day 13 – Wednesday, April 23 – Itzehoe
Slept wonderfully. A real rest day today, we immediately adjust to the pace of Itzehoe, things are a bit slower here it seems. The energy level seems a bit lower here. Fine. More people on the streets today though, very friendly. The town hall was unfortunately closed. A new attempt tomorrow. Tonight the C4C newsletter goes out. And this report is now also on the website with the map of where we are. Top. Daan and Richard run errands and load up the bus, while I handle my e-mails and call people. I was a bit behind, now more or less caught up. Very nice. Late afternoon we stroll through town together and have a beer. We don’t say it but of course we miss the ladies. But we manage just fine. We cook pasta with shrimp and after dinner we rummage around a bit. A day like this is really relaxing. And it was a bit necessary.
Day 14 – Thursday, April 24 – Itzehoe
After breakfast we walked with Daan to the town hall, where we would like to speak to someone from the ‘Klimaschutz’, as I had sent them an email. We get to the reception and she immediately directs us to Mayor – Herr Hoppe, who frees up time for us. In my ‘half’ German I explain what we are doing and what this could mean for Itzehoe with its approximately 33,000 inhabitants. He responds enthusiastically to our initiative but also points out that Itzehoe is already very green (22% trees while the average in the province is 6%). And the regulations are such that for new developments you have to stay 30 meters from the existing forest edge. So that’s quite a restriction, even though Itzehoe doesn’t really have the ambition to grow. I ask if Itzehoe would like to become a partner municipality and if we could organize some form of Birthday Forest or park, and education for elementary schools would be nice as well. They take it seriously and let us know. We take a picture of offering a birthday tree and the press officer also takes pictures. Totally great, what a nice meeting. Later in the day I forward some more photos of the tree bike in front of Itzehoe’s big round Theater building. After noon, Theo Heldens comes by for a few hours. We go over all the outstanding actions together, including prints, website and the Circle4Change exhibition we are going to hold in Nova Gorica in June-July. We also look at the large map of Europe with the circle we keep unfolding on the street. The European landscape comes out well but the circle line, route line and place names could be clearer. We agree to make some new proofs. Daan and Richard delve into booking overnight stays which they will partly take over from Rosalie. We have a bite to eat in the restaurant opposite and go to bed on time. Tomorrow the caravan goes on tour again. On to Wahlstedt. Our weekday weekend is over again! After just under two weeks we have already lost our sense of time, which day it is. Perhaps it would be an idea to associate the days of the week with a special meal so that we can tell by the food which day it is?