Last night was very relaxing, actually felt like I was on a holiday rather than a mad dash around the Baltic rushing to get a ferry home so I can get back to work on Monday. Found a pizza place around the corner from the hotel run by Italians who were very happy I switched to my terrible Italian instead of my atrocious German. Managed to order something I actually wanted rather than something I knew the German word for. Was surprised also at how cheap it was. Afterwards I took a walk along the sandy beach which are truly endless in this part of the world. I really had no idea that Germany had such good holiday beaches.
Slept well but woke early thinking over my options for the day. I pretty much ruled out a long day in the saddle trying to get to Sassnitz as the ferry arrives in Trelleborg at 0430 in the morning and I would have too long to hang around waiting for the bus with nowhere to go. I then ruled out the overnight ferry at 2300 as it would leave me too little in the morning to make the bus (Trelleborg is 35km from Malmö). That just left the 1500 ferry so I spent the next hours booking ferry tickets, hotel for the night and the bus journey back to Stockholm.
On the road just after 0800. Funny hotel really, you can feel its communist era background even now after the wall has been down for 25 years. Weird door sizes (mine was a single room so the door to get in seemed half the size of a normal room). Furniture hasn't been changed in years but it was all cared for and clean. Loads of staff and very Germanic attitudes, breakfast was at 0730 and not a second sooner, they even locked the door so you couldn't go in beforehand.
Didn't take any extra food which was a mistake as it was a 93km ride which though is not such a great distance meant that it was harder than it needed to be. The route was fairly straightforward though Wisar was a maze to get through. So glad I stayed in Boltenhagen though as Wisar was a depressing looking Ex East German city that hasn't really prospered as much. You can really tell that you are in the former east though, everything looks that much poorer and less well maintained, also the bike paths have almost vanished making it seem like I was cycling in the UK (where there are none). Very friendly chap in Wisar tried giving me directions but sadly the route he described was in German so I politely waited until he was out of sight and then went in the opposite direction from where he said to go
One thing that you see cycling around the Baltic are war memorials and signs of the impact that war and conflict have had over the last 100 years. In Sweden there are memorials to soldiers killed defending the border with Finland and graves of sailors and airman who died on Swedish soil. In Finland there was of course heavy fighting and there are graveyards dotted all over the place sometimes with many headstones. But nothing compares to cycling through Germany as you know the Allies pounded this country flat and then invading armies carved it up. Rostock was heavily bombed and hundreds of Russian soldiers are buried here. A stark reminder of darker days.
Finding the ferry port was a nightmare as the normally efficient German signposting vanished almost all together. Would be ok if you were a car but as a cyclist the signs were nowhere to be seen once you left the busy main roads. A number of us formed a convoy to the port but we gradually got separated. I made it good enough time but I am so glad that I chose to come earlier and not try to catch the later boat which would have been tough in the dark, plus it really started to rain.
Trip over was relaxing and arrived back in Sweden about 2100. The train that I was going to catch doesn't start running until December so I tried my luck with a local bus. No problem as they all have bike racks on the back of the bus, why the hell don't they do this in Stockholm! Found the hotel, really nice to be back in familiar territory and home tomorrow.
No comments:
Post a Comment