We headed back onto mainland Denmark then on to the ferry terminal at Rogby. We had a good laugh at a guy at the front of the queue who was doing yoga poses next to his car. I asked Colin to promise he’d never do something so embarrassing.
It was just a 45 minute sailing to Puttgarden, the ferry port on the German island of Fehmarn. We drove a short distance to a nice beach area on the North coast. We pulled over to see why there was a large group of people with huge binoculars and cameras. It turned out that they were German twitchers looking at some cows, but after reading an information board we discovered this was a nature reserve where a large volume of migratory birds pass through and breed throughout the year.
The beach area along the road from here was heaving with German holiday makers enjoying the hot weather. There was a popular beach bar/restaurant and lots of unusual sun chairs which we discovered are called sun baskets or Strandkorbs. They are popular in the Baltic Sea area where there is often a stiff breeze as well as sunshine. They are basically wicker chairs that wrap around the back and over the top.
We drove down to the south of the island and parked up in a harbour area next to a U-boat ready to meet our German friends. With a few hours to kill we got on the Bromptons and cycled into the local town. We were surprised how busy it was with German holiday makers. Another thing we had to get our heads around was that cash is still King in Germany and for the first time of our trip our Revolut card was not accepted. We then cycled around the bay where there were more popular beaches, and some very 70’s looking holiday apartments.
Gudrun and Toby arrived early evening after a 1,200km drive from Switzerland. After giving them the guided tour around Lo11y we went to a local fish restaurant they know well and enjoyed a tasty dinner and catch up with them. They were heading to Copenhagen the following morning, then catching a flight to Greenland the day after that to walk the Arctic Circle Trail – a 180km trail where they have to carry all their food and equipment over the 8 days it takes. The trail can be boggy and mountainous in places and is probably one of the most remote treks in the world that only experienced trekkers should tackle. They were doing it later in the season to avoid the worst of the mosquitoes that plague walkers. It sounds like a heck of a challenge, but the photos we’ve seen show the stunning wilderness they are experiencing.
We got up early to wave them off the following morning before we hit the road again to visit the city of Lubeck, a historic city with a World UNESCO heritage site Old Town. It is connected to the Baltic Sea by a river, and it is filled with large churches and medieval merchants’ houses on cobbled streets, that were built on the back of the wealth of being a central commercial trading hub in the middle ages. We parked on the edge of the old town and after walking through the main modern commercial area weren’t that impressed with what we were seeing. However, after picking up a map from the tourist office with a walking route to follow that took us past the key buildings, and wound us around the attractive cobbled streets, it really grew on us.
From Lubeck we headed to the Baltic Island of Usedom. The island’s 172 square miles is shared between Germany (80%) and Poland. The island is the sunniest region of both Germany and Poland (giving it it’s nickname of ‘sun island’) and is a major holiday destination for Germans for the sandy beaches, spas, seafood and Victorian seaside towns.
The area that Colin had been intrigued by is Peenemunde on the north east of the island, where during World War 2 it was the site of the chief German research and testing facility for rockets and missiles which were used against the British in large numbers during the Blitz.
We parked up in a nice grassy area in a marina in the town, near the museums and waterfront. I'd like to make it clear that the photo of the two jumping into the water was an advertising sign for a bar we had a drink in - we think it is the bar owner and his wife, but Colin was very disturbed by what a pointless awful sign it is.
The following day we visited the Peenemunde Historical Technical Museum, which is on the site of the former power station that was built to serve the site. We weren’t too sure what to expect, but it turned out to be quite fascinating.
From 1936 to 1945, the research stations in Peenemünde formed the largest armaments centre in Europe. Over an area of 25km², up to 15,000 people worked simultaneously on guided weapons, most famously the world’s first cruise missiles and the first ever functioning large-scale rockets. Both were designed as a weapon of terror against the civil population, made mostly by forced labourers and from 1944 they began to be used in the Second World War as “Vergeltungswaffen” (V-weapons). The museum takes visitors through a detailed journey of the creation and use of the weapons and the people involved.
It was one of the most modern facilities of its type in the world. Initially it was a facility for scientists working towards rocket technology which Hitler wasn’t too interested in, but soon became the focus for development of large scale military weapons once Hitler realised his conventional weapons were no match for the Allied forces. Slave labourers, prisoners of war and concentration camp inmates were all drafted in to assist the engineers in their work and clearing the land and the building works that all took place in a very short space of time.
The RAF carried out a huge air raid in August 1943, but this just meant the production facilities were split up onto multiple sites. The power station where the museum sits was the main building to survive. It was amusing to read that at the end of the war, the scientists were all poached by the Allied Forces nations to come and work on their rocket development programmes, and any war crime records were conveniently forgotten about. Many of these scientists were probably feeling the moral dilemma that Oppenheim went through with the development of the atomic bomb when they realised their work had paved the way for mass civil casualties.
We ended the tour on the rooftop of the power station with great views out over the surrounding area. The visit had taken us much longer than we’d anticipated, but we carried on with a planned bike ride to the seaside resorts of Heringsdorf and Ahleck. It was a very hot afternoon (low 30’s) and we didn’t get off to a good start after being shouted out by an irate German driver who we think was telling us we shouldn’t be cycling on the quiet road as there was a cycle path that we’d clearly missed. After Scandinavia, where everyone speaks impeccable English, we now found hardly any Germans (particularly the older generation) speak any English. The route Colin had plotted on Ride with GPS showed us being on a gravel path alongside the beach. We soon discovered this was in fact a very sandy dirt path through the trees, which in some ways was a blessing as it was cooler, but slowed our progress down considerably. We also couldn’t see the beach, so diverted into a small town to have a look. It was very busy and full of the Strandkorbs. We stopped at a food stand for the local specialty fish sandwiches which were delicious – freshly cooked bread rolls with pickled herring fillets. When we were a few kms off the resort towns we realised it was getting late and we’d not have the time to look around them before we needed to head back, so we cut the ride short, this time taking a cycle path by the side of the road that made progress much quicker.
After two nights at Peenemunde we decided we’d like to have a look at the Polish side of the island. Following a lot of rain and thunderstorms in the morning we set off and went via the resort towns. It was an overcast and breezy afternoon, so it felt like we were at any British seaside resort. There were piers in both the towns, but no penny arcades in sight.
After a fish lunch we continued on to the Polish naval town of Świnoujście. Although just a few kms from the German town of Ahlbeck, it felt totally different and even the people looked very different. We parked up in the port area with a great view of the passing ships. We’d read reviews about a rude young guy in the harbour office, and he didn’t disappoint. After not rushing to look up at us as we came into the office, he made out he didn’t know if we were parking a motorhome or a boat, then continued to be very curt and uninterested – we struggled to keep straight faces as it was so comical.
We Bromptoned into town which felt like the working town it is rather than a tourist spot. We called in at a cafebar for a coffee, and while Colin spoke slowly asking if they could do a flat white, the guy responded ‘of course I can – it’s great to hear a Northern accent – we don’t get many Brits in this town'. It turns out he’d lived in Manchester for a number of years and had worked as a bouncer on Canal Street so was used to dealing with some colourful characters.
We spent the evening ship watching – it was mainly ferries passing. We had a very disturbed night due to some Germans rolling back to their caravans in a drunken state and continuing their party until 4am. When we woke in the morning, we discovered another English vehicle had parked next to us during the night. They were a very nice couple who live in Gdansk. The husband works in London and said he was flying back to the UK the following day.
With only four more days before we had to catch our ferry back to the UK, we headed to Berlin, a 250km drive. The first part of the journey was on pleasant country roads, but we were soon on the German autobahns with no speed restrictions where vehicles were flying past us making us look stationery. We were impressed with the discipline of German drivers where there are road works or accidents. They move over to the sides of the road leaving a gap in the middle for emergency vehicles, then they filter in turn when a lane is closed - no vehicles pushing in.
It felt strange driving into the heart of such a large city, but our parking site was just a couple of kms from the centre. We’d read lots of reviews about the guy in the reception being incredibly rude and unwelcoming, refusing to speak anything but German. We’d booked our pitch online, so we at least didn’t have to go through the process of asking if they had space. He was dealing with a German couple when we arrived, and he seemed OK with them. He walked them personally to show them their pitch, locking the office and totally ignoring my presence in the process. He ambled back and I quickly put our reservation email in front of him. He seemed satisfied with this (phew), but then proceeded to bark something at us in German. When we apologised that we don’t speak German, he did what any Brit would do and repeated it but louder. We shrugged apologetically again, and he just spat out ‘no English’. He then proceeded to shout into his google translate, then shoved his phone in our face – it just said ‘a space for 2 nights, 2 adults, no electric, no dog’ – yes we confirmed (just as we’d put on the booking form). He pointed from the door to the row we were to park in, so we headed down there and parked in the only space available. To be fair it was absolutely fine.
We had booked a city bike tour that afternoon, so we jumped on our faithful Bromptons and cycled into town. The city immediately felt much more edgy and frenetic than the Scandinavian cities we’d got used to. There was a parade going through the centre. I thought it might be another Pride march looking at some of the clothing (or lack of it), but people were following trucks that were pumping our loud techno music. Colin was mesmerised by a young lady walking in front of us in fishnet stockings and no knickers. We had to fight through the crowds to get to the start of the cycle tour. I think we were both high as kites too after all the fragrant smoke we’d inhaled. The cycle guide explained it was the Train of Love Parade, an annual event aimed to promote tolerance, diversity and solidarity with Techno music – apparently techno is a big cultural movement in Berlin maybe as a reaction to the city’s division during the 1980’s.
There were just seven on our cycle tour. Our guide, Patricia, was from the Netherlands, and while she had very good knowledge on the history of Berlin and was clearly passionate about the city and how it’s past has molded it, we didn’t find her quite as engaging as some of the other guided tours we have done on this trip.
The first part of the tour she took us round some of the older districts of the city explaining the architecture and what type of groups would have lived here originally. She also explained how you can generally tell if you are in what was East Berlin. One was tram tracks, as they were generally built in East Berlin, being cheaper and easier to install. The second was the lamp posts - East Berlin generally had concrete posts.
