It’s Sunday in Germany, and everywhere is closed.  Except petrol stations, where you can get some overpriced supplies, and coffee shops.  My hotel did serve breakfast, which was very pleasant and afforded me the opportunity of making my lunchtime sandwiches.  Their Ruhetag is Saturday, so not sure if they provide a breakfast on a Saturday.  But they did on Sunday morning. Einbeck is a very pretty, timber-house, town.  All very twee and Teutonic.  Most of the towns I’ve been through seem to have kept a large part of their past reflected in the architecture.  I went though Gottingen, which is a university town, but the university looked as though it was in need of much TLC.  The route today was mostly up and down various ridges, with a blustery wind opposing me, so it was a pretty tough ride.  What I saw of Kassel, where I was to spend the night, didn’t impress me too much, although maybe I didn’t see the old town.  I did go through one big square, where pretty much everybody walking, hanging about and sitting at cafe tables were Syrian / Arabic / East African.  Maybe they’ve taken over the square and the indigenous Germans go elsewhere.  Anyhow, it wasn’t the picture I though I’d see in Kassel, which is an historic German town on the banks of the Fulda river.  Another little thing I’ve noticed is that the work gangs on the roads, doing repairs, filling potholes, resurfacing etc. are  pretty much all new incomers.  Maybe that’s why Germany needs so many immigrants, to do the jobs that Germans don’t / won’t do ?  Bit like in the UK.  As Farage might say, why do we need incomers, why are the native Brits not doing the jobs we need doing ? Oh, trust me, I have an answer to that, but I won't bore you with it !  Not now, anyway ! I think I'm still in old East Germany, and every now and again you come across war cemeteries and memorials to the Russians who came this way in 1944/45.  And, by and large, stayed.  The title picture shows a Russian cemetery.  Well kept.  Respected.  Even in the lighty of what is happening nowadays.  That's right, I think.  All those WW1 cemeteries were largely left intact during WW2.  So it should be.

Berlin-Lutherstadt  :   Lutherstadt - Bernberg. :   Bernberg - Blankenberg  :  Blankenberg - Einbeck  :  Einbeck - Kassel  : 

Kassel - Kirchheim  :  Kirchheim - Marburg  :  Kirchheim - Limberg/Diez  :  Limberg/Diez - Mainz  :  Mainz - Koblenz  :

Koblenz - Krov  :  Krov - Remich  :  Remich - Verdun  :  Verdun : Verdun - Reims  :  Reims - Amiens  :  Amiens - Arras