A perfect start paves the way for the oncoming adventure While I pack my last bag, my friend Jonas already rings the doorbell. I invited him for lunch and he will accompany me for the first week. After lunch we pack leftovers for dinner and some Earl grey teabags and the newspaper comes by. After saying goodbye, we finally start at 2:45 p.m. We drive through Brake and have to stop briefly to say goodbye to other friends who are standing by the road and waving. At the Weser ferry, Jonas’ stepfather and my brother await us to say goodbye. My brother and the newspaper take a few last photos before we cross the river. We cycle through countryside and stop by to buy some wood to cook on in the evening – we forgot the gas at home. When we start looking for a wildcamping spot, we soon run into a barn. It looks like someone has prepared it for us. We make fire to heat up our meal and soon go to sleep. In the morning I get hit by some raindrop. It started raining and the roof isn’t 100% waterproof so I have to move a little. No biggie. We wait for the rain to stop and then pack our stuff. Today we need to cross the river Elbe north of Hamburg. I only took my first Cholera Vaccine one week prior and so I now have to take the 2nd dose. It’s easily done since it’s an oral vaccine. It’s getting dark and we arrive at some resting area with a fireplace and grill. We make fried potatoes and sleep next to the lake. The cycle paths in northern Germanys ‘Schleswig-Holstein’ are a total mess, our bikes are being challenged and one of my bag’s clips breaks. (Please do some maintenance!) We arrive in Lübeck and stay at my cousins place. We get to shower, wash our clothes and sleep on a warm mattress. We help finishing their puzzle and chill out. The next day we do some sightseeing and walk through the beautiful old city. We check out the vaccination center and I get an additional corona vaccination. We become hungry and eat lunch at some vegan restaurant and then head back to my cousins. We pack our bikes, clean the chains and continue our way towards the Baltic sea. We follow the coast and cycle through Wismar, Rostock (where we buy Rostocker Export) and ‘The city of stars’ – Stralsund. From here a 25 km cobblestone road leads to Greifswald. Shortly after Jonas’ saddle falls of it’s mount. The biggest screw on his bike just broke. He didn’t plan to cycle much further anyway and we continue our ride to Anklam, from where he will take a train back home. On the way we pass by an Alpaca Farm – such cool animals. From Anklam I continue my journey alone and spend the night in a forest on Usedom. The first night alone feels a little strange, but after waking up everything is great again. As expected I eat a fish sandwich in Heringsdorf. I cross the first border and reach poland. In Poland I follow the EV10. This route should show me the way until St. Petersburg. On the one hand there are parts with perfect pavement and signage. But on the other hand it seems like the asphalt and signs have been stolen from time to time. Also the pipeline seems more important than the cycle path :/ I continue my way through forest paths and before I reach Ustka the road turns into a mudpit. The mud is too much to handle for my fenders and they snap out of their brackets. I let it grind on my wheel until Ustka and fix it there. After Ustka another forest path appears and I soon look for a meadow to raise my tent on. The next day pavement doesn’t get better and while I take a short pause another cyclist appears from behind. Janush (48) from Warsow started at the German – Polish border and wants to cycle to Hel and then further to Danzig to take a train back home. We now cycle together. We are now in the Slowinski national park. It seems this area was flooded entirely a few days ago and the water has not disappeared yet. So it’s currently a huge swamp. Not the best cycling consitions. We often just stand there and ask each other ‘and now what?’. Going through this together gives it some funny note at least and it somehow unites us. This goes on for kilometers and afterwards we are happy about every cycleable meter 🙂 We arrive at Lebo where Janush has booked a hotel room. I plan to cycle out of the city and look for a camping spot, but out of simpathy he doesn’t want me to sleep outside and invites me into the hotel – they have another cheap room for me and we eat some good dinner together. We have a great Valentines breakfast with candlelight and get ready for another day of cycling adventures. The route leads through a forest along some sand dunes. The path is very bumpy due to the roots and sticks on the ground. After 7 km a big stick gets stuck in my rear wheel and I hear a loud crack. Fortunately only my fenders broke. We readjust them and eventually figure out a position in that they don’t scratch the wheel. We continue our ride and in Debki meet my friend Richard. Janush invites us for lunch (again) and we warm up. Janush has booked a Hotel room in Hel and we want to go wildcamping on the Peninsula. On the Peninsula Janush shows us a perfect wildcamping spot around 10 km before Hel. For Richard the first day was a little too much and he stays there, while I leave my bags with him and follow Janush to Hel. I leave him at the Hotel and sprint back to campsite. The next morning we meet up with Janush again and cycle to Puck. Since Janush has to take a train from Danzig, and it would be too much of a challenge to reach it in time with just cycling we take a train from Puck towards Gdynia and then cycle the last part again. We even see a wildpig between those two cities. In Danzig Richard and I booked a cheap hostel room (the cheapest). Richard brought me some replacement parts for my bag and I now repair it. To get a taste of the polish kitchen, we eat some polish style duck and a bread soup. We plan to have a rest day where we just explore the city and then cycle out to go wildcamping – it didn’t really work out that way, we had no luck finding a decent place. It is stormy outside when we leave Danzig. While looking for a somewhat safe place we fight the headwind and in the end just sleep next to a restplace on EV9. It’s not the comfiest place but we manage to get safely through the night. Since the storm will rage for atleast another day, we already look up a better place for the next night. Through Komoot we find a perfect location, arrive there early after only about 65 km, dry our stuff and cook some dinner before we spend the night there. Eventhough we haven’t been cycling too much in the last few days, my body feels exhausted. So the backwind comes in handy and we cycle to a campsite in Pieniężno. The owners are too kind and let us sleep in the common room with a couch, fully equipped kitchen and bathroom. We even get cool beer, warm dinner and dessert. Outside the storm is raging and we decide to stay another night. My body might need it and cycling in such conditions may not be too smart anyway. The worst part of the storm is over and we sit on our boneshakers again. The storm has left its footprints behind.
It’s still stormy, but we are pretty lucky with the weather. While it’s pretty dark all around us, not much comes down where we are. The next day, after we ate breakfast, Richard wanted to use the signposted toilet next to Stoczek Klasztorny. It was locked, so we rang the doorbell of the monastery. A guy showed Richard the way and came back to me. I told him about my plans, he looked a little irritated and then told me to follow him. He invited us for tea and cake. Nice!
Later that day i tried to activate 2 sim cards, since these are very cheap in poland. It took a while, since unfortunately not too many polish people seem to speak english. In the evening we set camp next to a staple of straw bales to seek some wind protection. Unfortunately in the night the wind turned and blasted into our tents. It was quite loud within my tent, so that I didn’t fall asleep until sunrise.
When we woke up, there was a little snow in front of our tents. We took a very little detour to a Bismarck tower.
Over the day it was hailing and snowing a little, but we stayed dry. The Green Velo bicycle path consists of many very sandy parts. Our heavy bikes sink in a little, which makes cycling feel like going uphill all day. Luckily I’ve got time 😉 The landscape is painted over with snow and in the evening we raise our tents on top of it for the first time. In the morning we clear our tents from the snow, which is not entirely successful since it’s still snowing. Today is tough. The roads are covered in snow and therefore kinda slippery. In the morning we are quite cold and pause in a bakery in Goldap to warm up and eat breakfast. Over the day we cycle mainly through frozen forest paths, and only a few km on asphalt. In the afternoon the snow melts in some regions and leaves muddy roads behind. We have to walk our bikes for long sections, otherwise we’d probably fall all the time. We arrive at a holiday apartment near the border to latvia and are awaited with liquor. We make frozen pizza and dumplings, wash clothes and let the evening end.