E9: Prerow – Barth

Monday, September 17: Sunny with some high cloud, a little warmer

Hiking: 21.8 km

Marco’s

Was a little late off the starting block this morning, still had to get some bread rolls and filling for lunch before breakfast could begin, but that was soon dealt with, and everything packed away for today’s walk. This was going to be some time getting to, but wouldn’t be particularly long. I had gotten the directions by means of a screen shot onto the camera, and with the maps I felt fairly confident this would not be a hard day. Applying the sunscreen was left to be done on the bus.

Bus was reasonably on time and I showed my pass to begin with, with the intention of getting out and Dierhagen Intersection and waiting for the bus to return and buy the full ticket then. But that was not to be. Instead of going via Dändorf and the village (with the long extended return trip to Neuhaus) the bus went to Neuhaus directly, missing out on those two stops. As the driver stopped in Neuhaus, and there was no further advantage to be gained by waiting, I went up and ordered a ticket to Prerow; the driver then realised that he had a passenger with a ticket she didn’t want because she would have preferred to have a return or network ticket for the day, and had a ticket to Zingst that she would rather get rid of. I bought the ticket off her for €6.6 via the bus driver, and he issued her with a new ticket. Do not try this at home.

The rest of the journey was fairly uneventful except for seeing the hiker that I had caught up with yesterday waiting for her bus to go home, as this time she had her suitcase with her.

Once out at Prerow I followed my instructions out of town and to the water where there was a map that was telling a slightly different story. On it, the E9 went all the way around town on the dike, and that was the direction I aimed for after taking a photo of the Sailors’ Church. This was the Baltic Sea Bike Path, again and today it was very crowded indeed. I was keeping pretty good tabs on the track, and saw the camping ground that was on the map – only the map seemed to indicate that the track left after the camping ground. Poor case of symbol placement, because as it turned out, there was no other option but to follow the cycle path, so back I went and followed the now less populated track to the bridge where I had planned on having my lunch. The double structure that I had seen on Google Earth was now demystified: There is an very old bridge which is now out of commission, although it hasn’t been dismantled yet, possibly because it might be an engineering monument. In any case after a couple of photos, I spotted a couple of benches and a table and sat down for my rolls.

Interactive Map

The distances on the signs never seemed to make much sense today, and after lunch they jumped around quite a bit. Along the side of an abandoned railway track, I was soon in Pruchten, then it was through a forest to the main road, and finally along that road into town. Spent a bit of time photographing the Damm Gate and St. Mary’s Church before heading down the Lange Str to the station. Had a bit of time to spare and would have used it for shopping, if only there had been a Lidl market, but none could be found. The return journey by train took a little over half an hour, and I was soon back here where I collected deposit bottles for return, and went shopping. Then it was time for washing (and am now wondering whether it can be dried by tomorrow morning) – all three pairs of sox, one pair of undies and the shirt. Had a shower while that was soaking, and for the interim have put on the pj top to go around town in.

With the washing dripping from a clothes horse I went out for a meal. I thought that it would eventually be unavoidable to have some fish and knew that there were two restaurants either side of the harbour that could do the trick. I settled on the first one I came across, De Zees, and debated whether to have the plaice (which I didn’t really fancy with mushrooms), or the somewhat cheaper pollack, which was served with a “small” salad and fried potatoes. The portion size for the fish was quite large, the potatoes were moderate and the salad was, well, tiny. But worth the €13.7 they were asking for it, and value was given to service. Together with a dark beer (Rostocker) this was an acceptable meal, and as it was moderately warm, I sat outside in the last of the sun’s rays to partake. Walked around town a bit on the way back, and the waterside is very pleasant.

So now the big packing for tomorrow. Will also have to attend to booking places in Greifswald and Wolgast for the last two nights.