Friday, September 21: Fine and warm to begin with, strong gusts of wind and bits of dust storms during the course of the day, just before the end of the hike, rain
Hiking: 28.6 km
R. Biedenweg, Am Bierbach 1, double room as single, shower, toilet, use of fridge, with breakfast (€37.6)
Was unable to sleep much beyond 6:15 this morning, but lay in bed awaiting enough light to go to breakfast. Once that had been dealt with, I checked my email for today’s exact address and sent the hosts an email advising of my arrival time. Everything packed up just nicely, and I had plenty of time to go to the supermarket for today’s softdrinks, and to get to the bus station, where there was only the one bus that was waiting, and with a couple of minutes before scheduled leaving, take on the three passengers.
Jager was another of these places of small, isolated groups of houses that shared a name. Here I could see the wind whipping up a dust storm over the extensive LPG farming areas. The road had degraded to a dirt track, and one dust storm passed over me. I had to make a fine judgement here about which turn to take, because of the lack of further markers and signage. Entered a forest and had a break for lunch (very few benches around) and then in as much as a straight line as I could achieve, out to the other side of the forest to a set of places called Klein Kieshof, where the track crossed back over the railway line and into the Groß version of Kieshof, and finally under a highway to Neuenkirchen, from where the medieval city of Greifswald could be seen.
I was rapidly approaching the target, but the weather was also threatening with the approach of a storm. In Neuenkirchen I had finished one bottle of lemonade and started on the second. I was following the joint path, and could determine the point where the red and blue paths parted company, but no markers were available for a decision. I went down the red path, as it appeared to be shorter, but on the whole it would have made more sense to follow the bicycle path directly from Neuenkirchen to Greifswald and turn left there.
This section was through the forest again, but on exiting I tool a right turn, but not sharply enough, and had to get through another dust storm shortly before reaching the road. Now I was in the wrong place and had to try to use the images to get back on track. This took a bit of trial and error, and I will have to see later how much was trial and how much was error. In any case a reasonable scaled map turned up across a car park and I availed of this to try to get at least to the center of Eldena, when the weather decided it was time for both storm and rain.
Rain coat and pack cover were soon out, the camera and the compass then stowed away in the pack and the rain gear put on. I eventually found my way to the wooden drawbridge (which is the only thing that is still there – everything else is new) and at the bus stop (some shelter!) I had to take the camera out again to decide the further path. The thermometer at the drawbridge was showing 15°, a drop of about 10°. Again I kept with the red track, made my way to the highway, turned back towards town, found the street “Am Teich” and after much searching in the rain, the street “Am Bierbach” where the lodgings were. I was immediately ushered into my room and left alone after having determined where the nearest supermarket is.
Interactive Map
Some time to briefly organise things for drying, and let the rain die down a bit. Then I went in search of the supermarket, and lo and behold the markers turned up again, emanating from the Studentensteig, which I suppose is what the blue track wants to do (but crosses over a field instead). Got my beer, and on the way back was looking for a place to eat, but the one etablissement wasn’t particularly encouraging. Looking at a map I was doused by cars driving through puddles (the condition of the roads doesn’t seemed to have improved much in the last quarter-century), and was briefly back here to put the beer into the fridge, which appears to be about the only piece of equipment that can be put to use. Then it was getting close to 5:30 and I thought I shouldn’t leave going for a meal until too late, as returning in the dark might mean having to negotiate unseen puddles.
I headed for the center of town, which seemed to have a couple of eateries that might come into question. The E9 markers did in fact continue right into town (by now more than I had seen on the track in the last couple of days). In the center, I didn’t fancy the Italian place, and another couple of places were a bit too posh. One place that I could not find was where I stayed when I was here shortly after reunification, but everything looked very new. A couple of fish places which didn’t really fit the bill either, so I chose the steak house (Jack & Richie’s Steakhouse, An der Mühle 8, 17489 Greifswald) for a classic cheeseburger for €13.4 and a large beer for €4.4. Not as good as Frank’s but very good nonetheless. In the meantime the rain had decreased to a trickle.
Returning for the last time today, I noticed that the dust storm had given me a coal miner’s complexion, and I was very dirty indeed. Then some rearrangement of the furniture here to watch a bit of news on telly. Will be getting cooler.
Curious place here. Two double rooms vis-a-vis, separated by a hallway and a breakfast room, where said fridge is. There is also a kettle and a microwave, but to operate those, the fridge has to be unplugged, and there is no other plug in the entire room. The guest room itself is dominated by a gigantic double bed (full 200*200), the bedstead fully clad in leather. Apart from that, one armchair, one coffee table, a wardrobe and two night tables, but no lamps. The one room light has a color temperature of fluorescent-blue, and the bed lamp switch is high above about the middle of the bed. Everything appears to be about ‘50s. There is one very small room out the back with one made-up bed in it, and the bathroom, which is barely large enough to accommodate the toilet, shower and wash basin. No chance of washing or cleaning much here. But there is a small rubbish bin in the breakfast room. Not much use asking for wifi here, and all the networks (rather weak) are all secured.
As I say there was a prior visit here, if I am not mistaken 1991 or 1992, to deliver two of Franz Schubert’s data suppliers a laptop. These were employed in the Prepommeranian Archive and I can remember arriving in the late afternoon by train, and going to their office, where, first of all, Windows had to be installed, disk by disk, and I tried my best to explain to these guys what the machine was doing and what they were expected to do with it. Then being driven through unimaginable traffic to Wieck where I was quartered. My memory’s vantage point of the drawbridge was from the north shore, and further out of town. In any case it was some special GDR hostel and its prices had yet to be brought in line with capitalism. An overnight stay (single room, more of a cell than a room, toilets at the end of a long corridor, no breakfast) cost DM 8. As I say, no trace of it left at all now. The center of Greifswald was in the process of colonisation by Western banks and shops, and the paving was being redone. Then the long, long train ride via Berlin back to Göttingen.
I could be wrong about the hostel, if it had been replaced by the current youth hostel. That would mean my memory has done a mirror image of the drawbridge.
