Poland into Germany
Rolling into my home country…
27th August - 1st September | 2022
This morning I was extremely slow, not even sure why?! I visited the Westerplatte adjacent to Gdansk, where WWII started, which is another historical landmark.
As it was good weather and weekend, I skipped the idea of going along the coast, to avoid too much traffic. However, I decided to get back to the coast around Koszlin as I found a recommended camping ground on the coast. It was indeed a nice spot, quiet and clean.
When I pitched up my tent, a young girl asked me if I could help her with their 4 person tent as she just bought it. Of course, during the process, a young german boy came also to help. Well, actually in the end we both pitched up the tent ;-)
I finally spend the evening with him, his brother and his lovely parents Bea and Steffen. It was a nice evening.
The next morning, it wasn’t raining at least! After saying goodbye to the lovely german family, I found myself shortly after on a motorway-type road towards Szczecin. And then the rain started! And when the rain finished the traffic jam and congested traffic started. So today the ride was no fun at all ... 120km in 3 hours - I probably would have been faster offroad ;-)
The next day was a long day of riding. I tried to leave the hotel in Szczecin early. Used my last Zloty for petrol and an McD-cafe. Once in the area, I wanted to go around the island of Rügen before I went to Rostock. It was a long day of riding and lots of kilometres. So I arrived at Peter & Anne and their youngsters Nora and Keno (Bunk a Biker) really at the end of the day. During dinner, we had nice conversations, but as we were all tired it was soon time to go to bed.
The next morning, I went to Warnemünde for a visit. The place was jam-packed with people! I don’t want to know what it is like when a cruise ship is in town! During a cafe, I had a nice conversation with a danish gentleman from Copenhagen.
As it was such nice weather, I decided to drive around the lake of Saaler Bodden, which was nice. Once around I tried my luck to get a local SIM card. Not so easy! It took me 3 attempts! The first one was at a local Vodafone dealer, but he got with my non-knowledge pretty annoyed so I left (I do not know what packages exist and how it works - sorry Bro´ but I live in Portugal!). Finally, in one big electronic shop, I got lucky and it was only €15 for one month and 5GB - Geht doch!
After saying goodbye to Anne and her father (what a lovely family!) I drove in the direction of the south shore of Schaalsee. I passed a lot of really old alleys again. In the little town, Zarrentin am Schaalsee I had my lunch in a really cute little bakery. After that, I headed off to Dömitz at the river Elbe. Here is still an old train bridge that has been attacked during WWII and after the separation of East and West Germany, it became a bit of a landmark for this area.
I have been over 25 years ago here due to meetings of the FEIF Youth board (Icelandic horse association), and we sold one of our Icelandic horses to this area. It was a bit of a ride into good old memories. Also, I remembered all the hassle I had to get to the meetings as they clashed coincidental with the Castor transports to Gorleben (atomic transports).
I was a bit indecision about camping, as the picked camping spot on iOverlander was another 30km and somehow I was not really in the mood ;-)
However, I found then through booking.com (I think by the end of this trip I must be up to genius level 5 ;-) ) this sort of Glamping spot in Hitzacker (Elbe) called Destinature (www.destinature.de).
In the end, won the curiosity over camping. My "Bett to Go" is a little cabin around my mattress - have a look on their website.
And their soap in the bathroom smells soooo good :-D
The next morning, while packing up, I chatted with my "Bett-to-go" neighbour, a lovely Australian lady travelling with her bicycle. And when we were saying goodbye at the gate, came a 2-year-old boy, chatting us both up! He was really hilarious the little Mr Charming. We all, including the mother, had the giggles!
I followed the Elbe river until Sandau. I found yesterday out, that there is a little ferry crossing the Elbe, so I went for that. It is a "Gierseilfähre" (Engl. reaction ferry), so it didn’t work with an engine; by the time I had paid, we were already at the other side, without even noticing.
After that, I did a bit of boring 200km towards Bad Harzburg, close to the famous mountain Brocken (1140m altitude). This is after Tatra the first time I see a mountain ;-)
Tomorrow I will pass over the Brocken to get to the MotorReiseTreffen (MRT) in Gieboldehausen. I am really looking forward to meeting other overlander and travel-addicted motorbikers. Grab a beer, sit back in your camping chair and soon will be the next blog available here!
In the meantime in the Algarve, Portugal, James is also off this weekend to Avis to the well-known Traveller Event.
Places | Cities:
Rostock, Saaler Bodden lake, Wismar, Zarrentin am Schaalsee, Dömitz (Elbe), Hitzacker (Elbe), Perleberg, Havelberg, Sandau, Stendal, Magdeburg, Halberstadt, Bad Harzburg.
Driven km | Trip:
Total | Steffi: 25565 km
Maintenance | Breakdown:
./.
Health issues:
On and off with a scratchy throat - must be the cold, humid nights; autumn is in the air.
Special thanks to:
Bunk a Biker (a Facebook group) I found that lovely family of Peter, Anne, Keno & Nora to stay in Rostock - thank you so much for your hospitality!
Destinature Glamping (www.destinature.de) for their interesting glamping spot.