Sunday, September 16: Sunny and warmer, although still a little cloud about
Hiking: 25.0 km (with detour to the lighthouse)
Marco’s
Very peaceful setting here, some distance from any road, but the sun shining into the living room window got me to wake up and start doing something with the day, which was turning out to be better than yesterday.
Breakfast was the coffee with some fresh milk, the yoghurt and a bread roll with two slices of meat; then the lunch had to be made up and the pack packed for a satellite day, so apart from the lemonade it was rather light.
The bus seems to run late as a rule here, especially if the bus driver is not 100% with it. Today’s driver accepted my Kurkarte for the whole of the trip (which meant travelling without a ticket for the last three stops). Once in Wustrow I took off for the last km to the beach, and then along the beach for the first hour or so. I saw a map which had the E9 marked on it so I took a photo of today’s section, just in case.
A couple of photos of the sea along the way (mainly the dwarf coastal cliffs, and one section had been cordoned off with no one taking any notice at all), and in Ahrenshoop the track passes through the center of town (plenty of cyclists on the footpath, with no one attempting to get off and push) and then along the dike on the other side. No real markers, and the signs appeared to be a little out, although they could have been accurate if they were describing a cycle path that somehow went all around the place.
Once inside the national park, the bike path along the dike continued, and I had taken notice that one path would turn up that would lead to a carpark and a youth hostel, and that was not the turn to take, but one further. In any case signs started showing up with the lighthouse, Prerow and an intersection called the Great Star, so I knew I was moving along the right path.
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The going was now a varied forest with plenty of shade, and still lots of cyclists. I stopped at the Great Star for lunch, as the signs seemed to be saying that Prerow and the lighthouse were both approximately equidistant at just over 6 km. Also the white-blue-white marker had turned up again, with no other interpretation allowed other than I had been on the right path all along. The path was dead straight from then on, until the last intersection where I had to decide whether or not to go to the lighthouse. Briefly looked at the watch and decided I had the time, so off I went.
The lighthouse itself was very well populated (today being a Sunday and good weather, not surprising), but not many good opportunities for a bracket, so I left it at a couple of single shots. Then back down towards town. Managed to overtake an extremely large group of walkers who were effectively blocking the rather narrow track by taking the guide track next to the horse and carriage track that was also in operation today. The markers had since disappeared again, so in town I was left to wander towards the main street, where a map was used to identify a bus stop. That being sorted, I went for an ice cream (mango and lemon) at the ubiquitous Janny’s.
Interactive Map
Along the Baltic shores. GPS quality: 30/30, coverage: 100% Can’t see map? Click here!
The bus taking me back was surprisingly on time, and the driver had a much better attitude than what I had previously observed, and we kept pretty close to the timetable. For the record, the trip back was €6.2 as far as Dierhagen, where my free ticket took over. As far as I can work out from the VVR website, the whole trip should normally cost €8.2, so together with today’s fareless journey there, the savings today came to €5.1, which already exceeds the cost.
I was afraid I might run out of eateries, so once I was back and a bit washed I looked at Google maps, and discovered another Asian place at the station (Asia Wok). They had their hands full when I arrived just before 6:00, but I got an order in, and things settled down a little afterwards and I got my Peking soup with chicken fried rice in almost the time I sat around watching other restaurant guests yesterday. A variation on the Chinese takeaway is that these guys also do Döner in all its variations. In any case the soup was run-of-the-mill in price (€2.5), but the fried rice was almost sensational for €3.9, and the beer was €1.5, 50 cents cheaper than the beer at the Döner place last night. Don’t tempt me to compare the Döner prices.
Friday, September 14: About warm enough for the season, quite sunny with a few clouds
Ani’s (airbnb, €22.8), Rostock
Packing was quite organised today, with the new vanity bags coming into use, and everything being weighed. I cleaned up the flat as much as possible, and even got the ghost lighting to work after having found a manual on the web last night. The only thing that doesn’t appear to be working is the digital cable receiver. For the money: This will record to a hard disk, but not play from it; it will play from a memory stick if the .idx and .meta files are present; it gets totally confused if it tries to read from a card in a card adaptor (meaning it will be in standby, but never wakes up to find the card and start recording). Can’t someone test these things before they go online? I saw one on ebay for under €23, and real seemed to have some on sale next week for just over €30. I’ll see about that in the course of the week.
Anyway, what was forgotten in the packing seems to be very little: The mains-USB adapter (although I have the multi-USB adapter with me just in case), the ipod (last minute rush to get to the bus), and a pen. Hey, I was writing with one of those. That’s about it.
Caught a bus to the station, and there had been an accident at the tram exchange, with one tram spread-eagled across the road while police were out with measuring sticks protocolling everything. I thought the bus might be delayed just getting through the scene, but we were in good time for the train. A couple of minutes delay on the first train to Celle, about ten minutes on the further train to Lüneburg (made the 32-minute wait less demanding), then the trains to Büchen and onto Rostock were pretty much on time.
I was here after just over fifteen minutes walk, rang the doorbell at Ani’s, was surprised that someone answered (Christina and Martin, who are friends of the hostess and are also staying here), went upstairs past a welcoming committee that was smoking in the stairwell. Took a little while to determine where Ms Andres lived (turned out the ground floor, and hers was one of the few flats with a legible name on it), got my key as Christina and Martin made their way off to town.
Headed for the supermarket for something for breakfast tomorrow, found a coke can on the street which was redeemable to €0.25 (it’s come that far! Old man supplementing his pension by collecting deposit cans off the street!) and was back here by 8:00. Have sussed out where the necessary light switches are (with a bit of disco-style psychodelia in the hallway) and will spend the rest of the evening checking the pictures on the camera and charging batteries.
Saturday, September 15: Sunny and warm to begin with, becoming increasingly cloudy, with a drop of rain or two, and cooler. One stronger rain burst as I was waiting for the bus, but that was soon over
Hiking: 30.1 km
Marco’s (airbnb, €53/night)
The room didn’t have much in the way of curtains, and the view was that of some high-rise settlement on a distant hill to the east, which is where the sun rose, and me with it at just on 8:00. The other inhabitants were also motivated to get up and moving around, so that four people in the very small kitchen was quite a crowd, yet we managed all to have our breakfasts and perform our ablutions without so much as getting on anyone’s toes.
I was soon packed and ready to go. The trains were every fifteen minutes, so there was no hurry, but I tried aiming for the 9:18. In hindsight it would have been better to catch one of the trams for the final two stops, because then I would have had a ticket for all the way to Warnemünde at no extra cost, but with some saving in time. By the time I got to the station it was 9:15, and two couples had occupied the two ticket machines and were humming and hawing about what they wanted to do next with them leaving me the only alternative of going to the ticket counter and trying to get a ticket before the train left. Got the ticket, remembered to ask whether it had to be validated or not, and had just climbed to the top of the stairs to see that last of the train leaving. Found a validation machine in good time for the next train.
Once out in Warnemünde I took a very roundabout way to the ferry (puzzled at why there should be two routes, but one went down a tunnel, the other was on level ground. In any case I reached the ferry (with a ticket) as it was about to leave. Took a couple of pictures of a yacht on the short journey, and off on the other side set down the pack to restart the GPS, sort out the glasses, and generally try to make sense of the maps on the camera.
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Today was not a day for a lot of markings on the track; on the road into Markgrafenheide a couple of signs showed up, but then as the path left the road, the same symbol was also shown going into town. At a holiday village the signs insisted on going some distance inland before returning to the beach, and here there was a sign that said that the path to Graal-Müritz was either the bicycle path (longer) or the E9 (shorter but 1 km along the beach). I ended up doing most of it along the dunes and then the beach, and there were no signs visible from the beach. Just into Müritz I stopped for lunch, and out the other side I came across a marker again, with a sign that said 14 km from Hohe Düne and 15 to go to Wustrow (after 3:25, at 13:42), which I thought was a bit tight for getting the bus. I tried to keep up the pace for the rest of the track, but it seems like the sign was a little bit biased in the opposite direction (it was in fact 16.3 from Hohe Düne, leaving just under 14 to Wustrow).
By now I was following the bicycle track come what may. The number of walkers decreased bit by bit, and the number of cyclists increased. After reaching Neuhaus and Dierhagen Strand the distances to Wustrow seemed more reasonable and indeed doable without any panic at the last moment.
Access to the beach was measured at around every 200 m, and eventually Wustrow came into view. I ignored the first sign pointing towards the center, because I wanted to reach the pier at least before retiring to the bus, and pretty soon Strandstr was reached, which was the end of today’s walk. I trudged up the street to the main road, found the bus stop immediately and had half an hour to kill, some of which was taken up by eating an apple. Then it started to rain. At first only a couple of drops, but then it was cats and dogs. One woman also waiting for the bus set up camp in the bus stop, followed by two other women, then a couple of bicycles. Swarms of hundreds of swallows passed overhead every now and then, despite the rain, but probably surfing on the wind.
Interactive Map
Start on the final stretch along the Baltic Sea. GPS quality: 30/30, coverage: 100% Can’t see map? Click here!
The bus was late, and the following journey didn’t make up any for time. By the time we had reached Ribnitz, the delay was over half an hour. I had a brief look at a map to refresh my memory of where Marco’s place was, and was soon there. The holiday unit has an entrance at the back of his place, so we walked through past the bunnies and there I was. First thing was to check the internet, couldn’t find the password, but could see a guest access, so I went around the outside back to his place. The password was above the coat rack, the last place I would have thought of (instead of in the useful tips for guests). Anyway got my internet, then set off for the shops to get some stuff for tomorrow.
I had seen a Rewe supermarket on my way to the flat, the nearest Lidl was beyond Wustrow. I managed however to get the full refund for the Lidl cans from yesterday, bought some beer (will have to try out a couple of six packs of Störtebeker’s craft beers just for fun), then with nearly everything set off for dinner.
This was not easy. The Vietnamese place I first tried (Lotus) had three very dysfunctional staff who just weren’t getting anything done. I was left without a menu for the entire time I was seated. Several couples sitting around me had become so bored with waiting for their orders to be taken that they repeatedly opened and closed the menus for a bit of light relief (and in the time I sat there, only one couple’s order was taken). The guy who was collecting the money was having an awfully hard time getting the bills straightened out and one woman came not once but twice to the front counter to pay, and was sent back to her table on both occasions, although it appeared that she had paid on leaving shortly after the second incident. I nabbed the payment guy to ask him to give me one of the menus he was toting around and when he started with, “Just a moment,” I judged it time to leave.
The next place I visited wasn’t much better (Akropolis) – not even the empty table was on offer, nor the place after that: Paganini – the waiter didn’t make much of an attempt to find any space and suggested taking a table outside. Well, smartarse, if I’d wanted a table outside I wouldn’t have gone inside to ask.
The number of available and visible places was becoming fewer. In the end I tried the Hanse Grill (Südlicher Rosengarten) which after some discussion with the waiter I was able to get a moderate-size döner with salad, bread and a beer for €9. That will do. Then it was back to the supermarket for tomorrow’s yoghurt and two bottles of lemonade for the walk.
Was back here in time for the news. The better weather is due at the beginning of the week. Nice, but very small place here, will do for one, and can use the Kurkarte to get a little off the bus tickets in the following days.
