Ascension Day in Koelpinsee

If I would have known what will happen this day I would not have slept so well. We have our breakfast outside with the view to the Koelpinsee and the murmur of the sea behind the steep coast. Anke offers a splendid meal and we hope not to bother her by our enormous appetite.

We have a fresh wind (as usual) today, Achim and Rainer start a discussion about sailing. Neighbour Jürgen owns a sailing ship that lies at the beach. In former times it was used in the inner parts of the mouth of the Oder (Achterwasser) for during DDR-times sailing at the open sea was strongly forbidden. Achim is a professional fisherman but neither he nor Jürgen ever sailed at the open sea. Some days ago they had made an attempt but failed with a strong wind blowing towards the coast. For we are four men today they think about a new attempt. "I will not" I say remembering another tourist last year who shared a fishing tour and returned with a green face and empty stomach. "Why did we have such a good breakfast?"

But neighbour Jürgen lies in wait already and the three sailors are soon of one mind. Jürgen loads an outbord motor on a small carriage and we all stroll to the beach. I cannot give up not to loose my face. An advice to the two wifes who stay behind: "Don't be fooled by the life assurance".

When the boat is prepared and the motor attached we run in swim shorts through the cold water and when the motor starts we all jump into the boat. A greater wave floats over the bord and we all get wet. As we are far enough from the coast the motor is stopped and the sails are drawn up. It is difficult now to decide who is the commander. Rainer is an experienced sailer, Achim is an experienced fisherman and Juergen is the owner of the boat. So if someone shouts "Larboard" (Backbord) the fisher answers: "Explain Larboard please".

The boat

Three sailors

So we have some fun and the boat runs well. No danger to get seasick and we all are proud to be one of the first sailers who sail at this section of the coast. And I think it's one of the best of those crazy undertakings performed at this father's day. As we have sailed a proper distance and the few small bottles of "Jägermeister" are empty we return and feel somewhat cold.

Kölpinsee

At the rest of the day we walk around, have a cake or a "Küstennebel" - guess what this is - and in the evening we invite Anke and Achim for dinner to the restaurant Achterwasser. They as beeing fisher peoplechoose a Mexican bean dish while we prefer a fish meal. At a table aside someone sweats while dissecting an eal. At another table they present "a carriage of bullshit" and this is a specialitity of this restaurant. Thereafter we join the party down at the shore and enjoy the roaring music. Back home we have a last bottle and Anke and Achim are disappointed that we will go on tomorrow.

Friday, 29.5. Usedom - Wollin - Kolberg 150 km

With a bright sunshine we have breakfast at the terrasse. Achim would like to come with us and we would like to stay some more days at this nice place - but not everyone can do what he wants. Soon we sit on our bikes and wave good bye. We use the main road via Ückeritz, Bansin and Heringsdorf and at Ahlbeck get some money from the bank.

The attraction of Ahlbeck is the "Seebrücke", that is a building built on pylons in the sea and serves for the ships to land. We stay at the coast for a while until the path gets too sandy. At the mainroad they are all crazy. There is a queue of automobiles several km long. They all want to the overcrowded car-park at the border and then visit the shopping center in Swinemünde/Poland. We cyclists need some few minutes to pass this nonsense and we arrive at the border - the Polish adventure begins.

At Swinemünde we cross the river Swine, a mouth arm of the Oder, by a ferry boat. Now we are at the island Wollin. The road until Misdroy leads straight ahead through the woods and is somewhat boring. Two girls want to hitchhike but we cannot pick them up. Some time later they overtake us in a car and wave at us.

Wollin

The landscape gets better now as we pass the Wolinski Park, a reservation area. Once a racing biker overtakes us. And Rainer must prove himself to be as fast and with his panniers he nearly crashes at a pothole. He manges to catch the racer however while I prefer to stay behind. Across a provisional steel bridge we reach Dziwnow and the island Wollin ends. We have a rest and enter a restaurant to find out that meals and drinks are very cheap here.

As we go on the sky is cloudy now but the direction of the wind did not change. The road leads through a wide landscape and the people living here seem to be very poor. New built houses look ugly for they resign to plater the raw brickwork. We later learn that this is a trick because they have not to pay the tax until the house is completed. The farmhouses look like before the war. The main building is parallel to the road and the barns lie at the left and right side of the farmyard. In front of the houses there are benches and the people sit in the sun and chat. Some of those individuals are proper motifs for a photo but one will not be insistant.

We head towards Niechorze which is located at a lake near the coast. There are large areas with vacation houses where the Polish spend their holidays. At Pogorcelica we ask for a small path through the wood but a couple tells us this to be closed by military. Then they offer us a room for the night at a pension nearby. But it is too early yet and we want to reach Kolberg today. But it is very friendly and we say good bye to go on at the normal road.

Treptow

At a bend of the river Rega there is an impressive view to Treptow and its brick church. At Treptow there is a quadratic market place and the city hall stands in the midst of it. At the end of the town we find a sunny cafe again. We then bend to a side road through wide swamp land. This area was a lake in former times and has turned to become land now. At a meadow I discover orchids of purple colour. While taking a photograph one of my feet sinks into the ground and gets wet. As we go on some time later the foot looks black from the dust. This area is very remote and we pass original villages with sandy paths and playing kids at a pile of stones. Finally there is a well paved road to Kolberg.

Orchids

Playing kids

Hotel Solny and we go there to ask for a room. They are booked up but if we wait until 9 pm may be we can get a room here or at another place. So we sit one long hour and wait, anxious to see a bus to arrive. We have a coffee and as the time has come we get a room without any problem.

At the hotel restaurant we only can get cold dishes yet and the waiter is willing to combine a small buffet for us. Forget the word small, say great and imagine the waiters eyes as we present all plates to return empty.

This is not the end of the evening for there is a disco aside. But may be we are too old or the music is too loud or the people are too young or we don't like such places anyway - we soon find ourselves at a comfortable restaurant drinking one or two or more beers. After midnight we leave and unfortunately hit a small bar near our room in the hotel. The bar is not greater than a small kitchen but many youngsters hang around. There are some Germans who start to sing the song "In einem Polenstädtchen...". This was sung during the war by German soldiers and we think you better do not warm up agressions. But nothing happens and we get to bed dazed by this or that "Jonny Walker".

Saturday, 30.5.  Kolberg - Stolp 140 km

Headache and not much interest in our breakfast, this is the reward for the late night at the next morning. We start towards Köslin. As we try a side route again we find a sandy track and pavement made of broken bricks of torn houses or even ash from the stoves. We return to the main road. We meet a group of younger cyclists, their luggage is transferred by a special van.

By the time we regenerate and head to the north to Melno. There will be a new highlight. You can use a road at a narrow stripe of land between the Jamnosee and the Baltic Sea. At a pine wood we go some 100 m to the left and there is the beach of the Baltic Sea. It is a white and wide lonely landscape just as you would imagine the Pommeranian coast. Some years ago we could not dream to come here moreover to do this by bike. Two small nice stones are stored in the panniers as souvernir.

Jamnosee

Before we fall asleep at this romantic place we go on. The land spit turns to heather now. Until it's end it is a wonderful cycling. There is another land spit at the Bukowosee but we only find a sandy track and resign. So we have a detour of 8 km thereby. But the landscape is nice everywhere. Colourful meadows, the yellow broom, sleepy vilages and the wide view over the Bukowosee. Even some nests of the storks are interesting, sometimes they are built in several storeys over the years. Once we ride under a nest built up on a tree aside the road. At the best places we stop and make photos.

Rügenwalde

At Rügenwalde we have a rest at pizzeria at the left and a cafe at the right. A view to the market place, there is a children festival. We pass the archway of the old wall gate towards Stolp, the destination for today. At the city we ask for a hotel. The first attempt fails, the hotel has closed meanwhile and they tell us the next one. This is the "Dominikanska" and we get a room there for DM 20.-. For dinner we go to the restaurant "Metro". But a party takes place there and we enter a Chinese restaurant at the ground floor. No problems.

The buildings of Stolp are modern for the town was nearly completely destroyed in the war. You can be sure that it was nicer then than today for the architecture of the socialism is not the best except if they try to rebuild a historic scenery as to be seen soon.

We take the last beer at the bar of the hotel and take care not to get late again.

	Stolp

Sunday, 31.5. Stolp - Kaschubien - Danzig 140 km

At the hotel there is no breakfast service so we enter the "Metro" again. And again there is a private party of German travellers but the waiter leads us to a table if we pay ourselves. And he offers a tea and two sausages on a plate. As we ask for another tea he shakes the empty carton of the teabags. As the traveller party leaves we do the same and soon stand at the Josefsplatz to take a photo. A girl speaks to us in German, they learn it at shool as she says. A man asks if we are students. "Not merely" we answer. Now we must declare our route at the road map. Obviously they have difficulties to read the map. There should be a castle of Bismarck nearby but they do not know more about it.

We say good bye and start. At "Debnica Kaszubska" we reach the "Gate to the Kaschubian Suisse" (you know, all over Europe they call some hilly areas to be any ...Suisse). Small lakes twinkle in the morning sun among pine woods. The Kaschubians are western Slavs and have an own language which I later read from a dictionary.

So we climb up at a wide road like the runway for aeroplanes. We come up to 100 m height and the landscape looks like the Harz mountains at home but which are 1000 m heigh. At Czarna Dabrowska we enter a small restaurant, have a coffee and a cutlet. Two men at the table aside get more and more interested at us, one of them seems to have had a greater morning pint already. Again we show the roadmaps but they cannot read it neither. We take care to get the pocket with the money and the passport from the table and thereafter the morning pinters declare by hand and feet that they never would steel. So one grabs the gloves, puts them into his pocket and returns them to the table. But then the one has to leave for his "Matka" (wife at home) and we leave as well.

Pool in the wood

Flowers

Now the road leads up and down for we have the Suisse around as you remember. At the top of a hill I feel a beginning of starvation and every biker knows that this is the time to eat something at once. So we do. Some time later we reach a nice pool in the wood and look at the photo, it is really nice. At Sierakodwicie we reach the rails of the train from the Baltic Sea to Danzig. We then come to Karthaus with an impressive church of the former monastery named Marienglück. And we find a cafe again, this is our luck. They offer a table to us but sometimes we must fix the sun umbrella from the eastern storms.

Marienglück at Karthaus

At Karthaus we reach the height of 200 m (don't laugh, it's high at this area) so we can go down for the remaining section until Danzig. Not far from our final destination we reach the 1000 km limit of this tour. We are proud to have made this all against the wind. At the left ahead the Baltic Sea greets between two hills.

At Danzig we pass the usual ugly suburbs until we come to a gatehouse built of bricks. And as we pass this at once we are at the historical center of Danzig. We look around in astonishment and take photos of the high pediments of the street called Langgasse.

Just arrived at Dansk

As I put the camera back to the panniers a friendly gentleman speaks to us in German, where we are from. "From Braunschweig?" - this would be his second home, his brother is living there and he often has visited him. "Mr. Falk" as he introduces himself, offers to help us to find a hotel. The first hotel is booked up but the second is much more convenient: the "Jantar" at the end of the Langgasse. On the way we talk and learn that Mr. Falk as a pensioner works as a tourist guide and was a ship agent in former times. We should take care of the money exchange at the streets, if some gipsies (Zigeuner) want to read the future from the hand you should take care of your pockets. Some time ago he was the guide of a tourist group from Braunschweig, the chief was a Mr. K..., he only remembers the first letter. I say "Kneifel!". He looks in astonishment and then strikes at my shoulder. "Kneifel!!!" he shouts. (Kneifels live some 100 m from my home and repeatedly have visited Poland, as I know). So we have a very funny story just at the beginning of our time here. The world is small... as they say.

Gate of the Langgasse

Hotel Jantar

So we do not go for a restaurant at once, for there is the town's landmark around which I only know from a painting at the wall at home. And at the quay there it is: the Krantor. I am totally speechless for from my youth when I went to school via the "Danziger Straße" I had to wait until now to stand here.

Krantor

Quay

Frauengasse (Mariacka)

But this is not the only sensation. We come at a narrow street named "Mariacka" which leads from the quay to the cathedral "Marienkirche", the greatest church built of brickstone of the world. The peciularity of this street is that you can sit on small balconies in front of the shops or cafes, at the street side there are big balls of stone. They call this construction "Beischlag", better read in a guide about it. The shops offer mainly jewelry especially things made of amber.

Finally we get hungry and have a meal which is cheaper than the beer. This is why we are able to afford a "Jever" which comes from Germany. At the end of  the day we have another "Jever" and guess where: at the narrow road "Mariacka". We think of this last stage today and laugh about the funny story with Mr. Falk.

Monday, 1.6. Danzig

We have a free day for Danzig. The bikes are stored at the lodge of the hotel porter who got 50.000 Sloty (DM 6.25) by crossed hands for this service. At first today we must go to the railway station to buy all the tickets to come home. (I have another problem before which can be solved after I buy some soft paper for 1000 Sloty, Pf. 12,5 and enter the toilet of the railway station). We enter the information office and compare the timetable. But to buy the tickets we must go to the "Bureau international" nearby. We then have some discussions if we should take a train early in the morning or a night train for which we have to start at noon the next day. We decide to take the night train.

Meanwhile a German lady before us tells her story. Her husband had suffered from a heart attack and was brought to a hospital. Now she has to manage all the bureaucracies and counts the Polish and the German money in turn. You have to pay for the section until the border in Zloties, the train in Germany in DM. So by the lady we learn how all this works and get our tickets as well. Back in the town I enter a post office and send a telegram to my family to announce the return.

Now we have sun and summer at Danzig. Near the Krantor I buy four chains of amber for my four ladies at home. Rainer has to provide only one person and must be more careful so he stays to a shop at the Mariacka. Well, there are several nice brooches etc. but I prefer to come back at some day either.

Westernplatte

We now have a boat trip to the "Westernplatte" passing the harbour of Danzig. From a speaker a guide offers declarations in Polish, so we can forget about it and I cannot tell you details. There are huge tankers looking like bathtubs for apartment blocks, which are mended by patches large as office tables. Big cranes everywhere. At the Westernplatte the boat stops at the monument for the beginning of the war at this place. We leave and have a walk for 15 minutes, behind the meadow there is the sea. At the right two huge gasoline tanks, at the seaside gravel and rocks. Some children have a swim. Someone has told us before: "In earlier times the Baltic Sea was blue, today it looks like ink". We cannot prove this. But we know: the famous bath Zoppot some km north is a ghost town today for the sea is poisoned.

The boat goes back to the Krantor. Inside you can see two huge wheels where two poor people had to run inside to move the rolls and ropes of the crane. Then we go inside the Marienkirche. The arches seem to reach the sky, they have built 150 years ( 1343 - 1502 Gdansk Booklet). At the moment they have painted the brickstone structure white but try to restaurate. Nearly all of the cathedral had to be rebuilt after the war, which is less than 150 years. And guess what happens now: we meet Mr. Falk who just had a guide. We invite him for a coffee and he leads us behind a hoarding where the entrance of the cellar restaurant of the city hall is to be found.

Langgasse

We go down some stairs and there as well is the tourist group of the guidance before but now we own Mr. Falk. He shows a piece of paper where he has noted the address of our common friend Kneifel. And it is right. So best wishes and greetings... Mr. Falk calls himself a "Polish citizan of German nation". This is the formula of past history. And he knows a lot of his town, the things that happened at the Westernplatte and what had followed and influenced the next generations until today. At the end of the war the Russians had burned down the town, they have rebuilt it and still do. So at the left and right of our hotel entrance they just have made some paintings.

Mr. Falk then leads us to a typical building to show us the cellars. These are two storeys deep and were built during medevial times. The rooms are deeper than the surface of the sea but they had a secret glue to prevent from the waters. The cellars are connected to each other so they form a large underground labyrinth. Once a clerk out of a dark corner appears and angrily looks as us. So we go up to the air again, change the addresses with Mr. Falk and say good bye.

We have our dinner at a restaurant near the hotel. It is the last evening and we celebrate this by some vodkas, may be there was one too much again...

Tuesday, 2.6. Return Journey

Headache today - a last breakfast at the Mariacka - until we head for the railway station for the 12.18 train to Pozna. In the last moment we recognize, that at the tourist office yesterday they sold us the tickets from Pozna to Braunschweig but not from Danzig to Pozna. So we just have enough time and money to arrange this matter. But the greatest thing is, that we succeed to take the bikes with us, for we don't ask anyone and put them into the wagon as if this would be self-evident.

At Pozna we have 3 hours time until the night-train Warschau-Braunschweig. So we look around a bit and shoot the last pictures of this journey. After all I am impressed of this adventure and - may be - we come back soon?

Impressions from Posen