Lubeck - Wismar: We leave 'West Germany' - From Bavaria to the Baltic Sea and Back 2011

June 15, 2011

Lubeck - Wismar: We leave 'West Germany'

After a busy day of sightseeing in Lübeck we were again on the road. We could have headed to the Baltic coast from Lübeck but instead chose to travel on a more direct route to Wismar. It was a good decision. We loved today's countryside with rolling hills, fields of grain set off by rows of trees and startling fields of red poppies.

I literally gasped when I came around the curve and saw this breathtaking field of poppies.

Another bicycle portrait - I thought the red poppies went well with my panniers.

After leaving Lübeck, we tried to detect where the boundary between East and West Germany had been. We couldn't. There was no obvious difference in the houses we passed and we could only ascertain on our map that when we passed from Schleswig-Holstein to Mecklenburg-Vorpommern we had crossed the former Inner German Border.

The day was sunny and cool, the countryside enchanting.

Wismar was a first for both of us and we were taken by the well-restored, pictoresque old town with colorful facades ranging from gothic to art nouveau, a gigantic Market Place and the harbor that once helped Wismar become a flourishing Hanseatic town.

Wismar's Market Place is said to be the largest in Germany.

On the southeast side of the square is the Wasserkunst, a water tower in Dutch renaissance style that supplied the town with water until 1897.

Our excellent hotel only reinforced our positive reaction to the town. We stayed in Pension chez Fasan, 55 € including breakfast. Our room was spacious, quiet, newly decorated and we had a balcony. This hotel experience set high standards for the rest of our trip in the former GDR. Would everything be so nicely renovated and reasonably priced?

Today's ride: 67 km (42 miles)
Total: 1,270 km (789 miles)

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