Day 6 - Nykobing DK to Schwaan DE - 9 1/2 Weeks - Copenhagen to Lecce 2019

September 24, 2019

Day 6 - Nykobing DK to Schwaan DE

I Picked the Wrong Week To Quit Smoking

With a nod to Airplane's Steve McCroskey (played by Lloyd Bridges), we are now heading into Germany. At the Gedser Ferry terminal we go to to ticket vending machine, buy our two tickets, with bikes, and also get this!

Classic European / German touch! A voucher for ‘cheap smokes’

Gotta love it!

A few years back when we were on a source to sea Rhine tour, we were winding through a residential area on the EV15 and as we were approaching a school yard, what did we see ... a cigarette vending machine! Nothing else around it, just a big, what looked like, permanent vending machine dispensing smokes to the fine burghers of the town.

Good luck in this country McCloskey!

With that, today was country # 3. After a short but sweet whistle stop tour through Denmark, we arrived in Rostock Germany. The weather report for this morning turned out to be accurate. When we got up in Nykobing it was foggy with a heavy dew, but NO wind.

Once again, no cafe's or bakeries open to get some caffeine, and breakfast was a banana and bun in a supermarket parking lot.

The 25 km ride down to Gedser was very nice, mostly winding along the coast. We are assuming it would have been very pretty but with the fog, the was not much for views of the sea.

We had it reaffirmed in spades that we are travelling 'out of season' when we got the the ferry terminal. It is very well set up for bikers, with a separate bike path leading directly to a bike boarding gate, adjacent to the foot/bike passenger waiting area. We were the only people in this whole area! We were also looking a bit like the Jode's on their trek to the promised land with our (still) wet laundry hanging off our bikes.

The ferry arrived on schedule and we were personally escorted by a 'ferry guy' on a bike to load on the lower truck deck before it filled up. Nice.

However, while we were waiting to board, I looked down at my rear wheel and saw I had a broken spoke! I had heard an odd rattling noise earlier ... and there was the reason. I guess I know what we were going to be doing once we got off the ferry in Rostock.

The voyage took about 1 hr 45 min, foggy the whole way. First task once on board was to score a cup of coffee. I set off in search of it while Kirsten held our seats (while we were the only foot/bicycle passengers, the boat was pretty full.)

I spot a coffee kiosk selling Starbucks (ugg), 5 Euro's each for a latte or Americano! Say what!!

I move on a little further down the boat ... a dining area with an all you can eat buffet ... including coffee, cakes and ice cream, for 20 euros each. It was just about lunch time, we're on a cycle tour ... done deal.

Stuffed, we rolled off the boat, into the rain in Rostock. We did find a large covered bus shelter though and we set up the repair shop. Within about 40 minutes I had the spoke replaced and the bike reloaded. And the rain had stopped!

First impressions ... busy, industrial but still bike friendly.

We've traveled in Germany quite a bit over the last few years, but all of it has been in the former West Germany. This was our first time in the 'East'. Still Germany, but a little grittier. Not sure if that is an east west thing or a big port city thing. Probably both.

We got through Rostock very easily on bike paths and were soon in the farmland to to the south, all on bike paths or very quiet rural roads. Given our several waiting periods today, the ferry, the bike repair etc, we had a modest day of biking. We set our sites on Schwaan, a small town about 20 km south of Rostock where the 'lake district' seems to start. The local campground set beside the lake was very nice and we even got a bit of late afternoon sun to dry out the tent.

Dinner was a Indian feed at one of the 3 restaurants in Schwaan. It was good and seemed very popular. So good I was too stuffed to even consider writing all this drivel and uploading pictures when we got back to camp! The blog would have to wait.

I think that will be a recurring theme for the trip. Limited blog up dates when camping!

Song of the Day, King of the Road covered by The Proclaimers

' Trailer for sale or rent, ... rooms to let 50 cents, ... no phone no pool no pets ...

I ain't got no cigarettes"

'cause you weren't taking the ferry we were!

The classic Roger Miller tune covered by the twins from Leith. Feeling a bit vagabondish today, and getting the cig voucher had this song stuck in my head ... and everyone can sing along!

Heart

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