A mixed bag to Travemunde

 Today was a day of contrasts - from a wet start and breakfast in the tents (apart from me who was outside watching the Trangia and ferrying milk and jam between the tents!) we had some long sections in rain, the sun was very hot when it did come out - we felt a bit like we were living in a steam cooker. 

There were some lovely small villages and Travemunde and the towns before it were very nice. We had an ice cream stop in Scharbeutz which was well timed as although hot when we sat down it started raining again but we were luckily under a large sun umbrella, which did an admirable job of keeping us dry. Heavy showers are a pest as you get soaked to the skin in a few seconds and take hours to dry out again - so avoiding a second dousing was very welcome. 

After that we rode on towards Travemunde which was getting ready for regatta week. There are some very grand building on the outskirts of the town and the old harbour in the centre is also pretty. We continued a few km out the other side to the camp site. 

We were happy to see it had a pizza place and an outdoor pool, so we snuck a quick swim in before supper. We are now all tired after a 50+ km day and are looking forward to a day off the bikes tomorrow and not having to take the tents down in the morning! 

On the last stretch before Travemunde

A beautifully kept yacht in Neustadt - one of a fleet of classics that seem to call the place home judging by the plaques on the quayside. 

From holiday island to caravan city

 Fehmarn is basically a giant wheat field with camp sites and beaches around the outside. I can’t say much about the east coast as we skipped it due to the rain yesterday. It’s nice in a kind of Skegness kind of way. We woke this morning and had an easy time getting underway. The sun was shining and a tailwind promised. We crossed the bridge with a fleet of yachts sailing under it. The riding today was uneventful some in agricultural land and some along the dyke. Many of the resorts we rode through seemed a bit Disneyland  - even the one with thatched cottages as when you have fifty identical ones it looks a bit strange. 

We stopped for lunch in a village - and found a park with somewhere to sit. A few raindrops made us wonder how the day would go -  but they cleared and the day ended well. 

 Our campsite is just outside Grömiz which is a city made up of caravans and campers. Y cooked for us, which is lovely. A walk on the beach after supper was lovely and we saw a square rigger out at sea, ponies walking along the beach and people generally enjoying the calm evening. 

Tomorrow on to Travemunde - timed perfectly for the start of Travemunde Woche - one of the biggest sailing regattas in Germany. 

Rain rain…

 The day stared well, we were woken by the sun heating the tent almost instantly to unbearably warm. This is generally a sign of good things to come. This time though it did come with warnings of rain. Breakfast was made particularly good by both Emil and Sonja going shopping and somehow not meeting each other so we got a double ration of rolls. 

Although warm there was a little drizzle in the air so we didn’t linger over breakfast. We took the chance to get packed while things were mostly dry. The campsite was very long and narrow. Only a few caravans wide by very long - the recycling being by the entrance and the tents at the far end, it was a long walk to take glass and paper for recycling. I was almost back at the bikes when the heavens opened. We waited out the initial onslaught under a tree before venturing forth under a drizzle. 

As we rode on this got steadily heavier till we were riding on under solid rain. Sonja and I stopped as her brakes were rubbing and the the first lightning came… I didn’t manage to fix the brakes but we decided to ride on as the boys had disappeared into the distance. We found them under the nearest roof of a beach cafe. We spent the next hour and a bit there drinking coffee - marooned with a few other tourists and cyclists counting the time between flashes and thunderclaps. Fortunately coffee chocolate and chips helped. 

At some point it cleared a bit and we headed out - but soaked to the skin and cold we soon decided to cut our losses and head via the main settlement on the island, Burg, and directly to the next campsite on the south coast just before the bridge back to the mainland. 

We had a lunch stop (on a bench - harassed by two seagulls - a parent and juvenile who seemed to be able to mount attacks on all fronts at the same time) and a coffee in a warm cafe before riding the last few km to the campsite. By now the weather seemed to have settled down, but the wind strong from the west, giving a headwind for the last km. 

I was interested to see on the hard at the marina in Burg a well known junk rigged Vertue; Chu-Fa - a recent build made from the start with the junk rig in mind not a later conversion. I would have like to see her close up - but we had to get to the camp site before the reception closed. 

We made it on time and were allocated a nice camping spot with lovely short grass any cricketer would have  been happy with.  After the wet day we ate in the campsite restaurant and are now happily in bed. Although not a long ride it felt much longer than it was - likely from being cold for so long (for the first time this trip)

I was also very happy that my squeaky brake got fixed with a washer made from a yoghurt pot lid. I thought I had it fixed a few days ago - but it had been back and plaguing me for days. Today it was quiet again. I hope it remains so.

From flies to Llamas

 We had a very gentle start at the campsite - a good breakfast with fresh rolls from the bakery. It was also dry and warm which made a very pleasant change from yesterday. 

We were underway by about half past eleven, but the first hour or so was plagued by small flies that seemed to have chosen this day to come out in their masses. I don’t know if farmers were harvesting somewhere nearby. The overall effect was unpleasant at best and poor Emil was somewhat overwhelmed. Luckily as the day wore on they became less prominent. We didn’t have far to go, so after going to look at a lighthouse (from the outside as it was closed on Mondays) we had a beach stop for a swim. H and Y decided they didn’t want to get wet, or that their phones were more interesting. E however did make it in. Lovely clear water - the whole effect was slightly spoiled by slightly too large pebbles making up a few meters just as I got into the water which made walking rather hard on the feet. I must have looked quite silly!

We rode on to a kiosk selling ‘fish Brötchen’ which are the local specialty. Bismark herring, fish burger, battered fish, eel if you are lucky. These ones were particularly good, the whole experience enhanced by the rather nice ‘beach’ they had made - and the Llamas hanging out in the adjacent paddock. There was also one escapee that was just wandering around the kiosk - apparently the grass was better and they couldn’t be bothered to put it back inside the fence. 

A few km later and we were at our camp site. E cooked for us which was nice - not finding out you needed special coins from the now shut reception to use the washing machine less so. 

A relatively short and easy day - tomorrow will be a bit longer and rain is forecast again. Fingers crossed it’s not too heavy or long lasting. 

From wet - to summer

 The evening before we looked at the long range weather radar forecast and that suggested a big band of rain hitting our campsite at about 8 am. The camping site, though super friendly, didn’t have any shelter for campers either small tents. We decided that if  we were awake early we would get up and have breakfast before the rain arrived. 

I woke at six to sting wind from the East and intermittent drizzle. We got up and were packed in record time. A simple breakfast and then we got underway sometime around eight. We did get rain but not as much as forecast. The headwinds though were strong and slowed our progress somewhat. As the morning wore on the showers became less frequent and we started to warm up - waterproofs were discarded as we progressed through a landscape of rolling hills cereal fields and ripening oil seed rape. 

One surprise of the day was happening upon one of Germanys largest bring and buy sale - organised by a small football team for fundraising. It had got bigger and bigger each year and now the raffle sells over 40,000 tickets, with people driving half way across the country to visit. We were a bit of a nuisance on our bikes trying to get through the crowded village on our bikes!

By now we could see the bridge to the island of Fehmaan in the distance.  We lunched in Heiligehafen, Holy Harbour, which had some nice old buildings and some very ugly new ones, but seemed popular, it was busy in town and the quayside seemed to be busy with maritime activities. 

We found a good bench for a lunch stop and the headed for the bridge. We were somewhat surprised to be asked on a sign to walk our bikes on the footpath over the bridge - this is over 2km. By the time we got onto the bridge proper it became clear why. The was a very strong wind from the side and only low barriers between us and the heavy traffic on the road. 

We got over and rode the last few east km to the campsite. It is big but nice and the staff friendly. We got a good camping spot and dried all the stuff that got packed away wet this morning. 

The boys went to the beach while Sonja and I sorted tents etc. At the beach we found a windsurfing school and as we had time managed to fit in a fantastic wing surfing lesson with Jens. This was such fun - but exhausting and we weren’t finished till around 9 pm! It was great of him to fit us in while the wind was still blowing and he did a great job. Supper and bed - I think we will sleep well as we also had our longest distance on the bikes of 50km. 

Beaches - rain and a little flexibility

 The day was forecast wet and we feared the worst - imagining breakfast in the pouring rain. In the end it was windy but dry. So we enjoyed our breakfast at our bench which was sitting handily close by when we put our tents up the night before. A few minutes cycle ride into the bakery got us rolls and croissants- what luxury! 

After packing we started along the dyke (here the dyke is the high part - not the deep part) and enjoyed a lovely ride along the sea front. The path had a wide short grass ‘verge’ about 20 or 30 meters wide on the landward side - I guess the grass is there to keep the sand bound together and make it more resistant to storms. It also looked very pretty with some short yellow flowers in it. 

We cycled through a few nature reserves - and I saw signs about a type of swallow I had never heard of before with a bright blue back - but no red on its neck. I must look it up. 

 had struggled all day (and the day before) to make contact with the camp site we originally planned for - and when shortly after four we arrived at one that looked nice and had space we opted to pitch our tents there. It was just beyond another wetland nature reserve and has a restaurant close by. It’s still showery and a heavy one arrived shortly after we got our tents up - so I think we will opt for a civilised supper and keep our supplies for tomorrow. 

I also had to do a bit of a detour to get some more meths for the trangias as nowhere we have been yet had any, and we didn’t have much left. 

Over the Kieleförde

We chose our camping spot well, under a beautiful old oak tree, on high ground away from the path to the loos and with morning sunshine to dry our tents. This all worked perfectly till about 8 am when we were ‘entertained’ by the arrival of a man and teenage son arriving, driving about and then basically shouting at each other for the next three hours. They also had with them the most amazing array of half home built contraptions that had come in their trailer. Home built E-scooters, diving gear, inflatable boats, wake board the list went on and on. All the while they seemed to communicate by shouting at each other in such an aggressive manner it was hard to enjoy breakfast. 

It was a lovely day and we started with Ekernförde in the sunshine - a lovely beach resort, with at least one lovely looking small gaff cutter amongst the small yachts on their moorings. 

We rode on through a forest on what seemed to be the old main road, now a cycle path. A kiosk selling fruit stopped us for a few minutes as we loaded up with the loveliest fresh apricots and blueberries. 

We had a ferry to catch to cut off the ride into Kiel itself. These urban stretches make for tiresome navigation and are not much fun for the kids, even if I do find these town interesting- we will save exploring old towns till we get to Lübeck later. We made it to the ferry stop at Strande where only three ferries a day make the crossing to Laboe. We were a bit worried there might not be space for us. While waiting for the ferry we had fish sandwiches which are typical here. Bismark herring for S and I and fish burgers in a roll for the boys. We met a few other touring cyclists waiting for the same boat and sat in the sun watching the local youths jumping off the harbour wall. 

We did all fit and the short crossing was well worth it. The campsite a few km further along the coast is fine,  the sea somewhat full of seaweed. A late supper and bed. The next few days look wet again. Let’s hope not too bad.