Eastern Europe in a week pt 3

[Geoff W]

By now it was hot in the morning, I was so glad I brought my Kevlar Jeans, they made riding bearable, but only as long as I kept moving. Only an hour or so to Peenemunde, next stop.
The museum at Peenemunde was one of the reasons I did this trip, I am fascinated by rocket development and space flight, I have been to Houston and Cape Canaveral, but this is where it all really got underway. ( I know there was other stuff earlier, but it was here that the liquid fuelled rocket was perfected). As well as the V1 and V2, the Komet rocket plane, the ME262 jets and glider bombs were all developed here. It eventually came to the notice of British Intelligence and was heavily bombed in 1943 and several times later.

Tiger with V2 and V1



V1 launcher, the black plug was fired up the rail by a mobile steam generator, sending the V1 on its way


You cannot call it "nose art" ,"arse art?"
Those nose cones are 2-3mm thick steel and are very heavy, they held the payload.

The major remaining building is the power station - Kraftwerk in German, built in 1940 , and in use until 1990 when Germany unified, that crane is estimated to have moved 4.5 million tons of coal in its life. Most of the building is gutted but some good bits remain.





The pretty windows are originals from 1940, that is what 50 years of coal burning does to glass
There is loads of other stuff there to see, but i was running out of time, so did not go onto the boats.

The sub is a Russian Cold War cruise missile launcher.

But real secret weapon was the "Dalek on a Stick" put that above the surface and point it a ship and " EXTERMINATESKI! EXTERMINATESKI!"

I left the museum after 2-3 hours and headed to Lubeck, beautiful mediaeval city, I found a great hotel in the old city, the charming lady behind the desk pointed me to a microbrew bar 75 meters down the road.

Great beer, I was so dehydrated that I drank 2.5 liters of it and still did not need a piss, however the alcohol was working really well. The icing on the cake was that there was a Jazz festival on in town, so I found a great session for free from a fantastic Hamburg band called Urban Academy, if you like modern funky jazz try and find them, full of fun and life. And the bar had very good weiss bier. Sometimes , life throws you a perfect day, this was one of them.
View from hotel window
Lubeck at night
Oddly enough I had a late start in the morning..............decided to take the road to Schwerin, not a good idea as the local council had huge sections dug up and convoy systems and traffic lights, it took me 2 1/2 hours to cover 65kms. However the Schloss of the Duke of Mecklenburg is impressive.

On from there to Bremen, a Big City with big city druggies and drunks passed out in the street and refugees living in cardboard boxes. Possibly my choice of a hotel near the Railway Station was part of the problem , railway stations are always near Red Light Areas and this was no exception. But  in the old city there were some nice squares and good stuff to see.



And if don't have a hangover when you wake up in this hotel bedroom , you will if you stay in it for 20 minutes or more.....

And so a lazy start in the morning and a dull autobahn ride back to Rotterdam Europoort to catch the ferry home, then two hours ride off the ferry and back to help with a barbecue for 20-30 people in our garden.
All in all a good trip, I probably did too many miles, 2,100 in too short a time, but the advantage of being on your own  is that you only have to consider yourself. I will certainly go back to Lubeck, and the Massurian lakes is an area I will explore more fully. Most bike trips to Europe have involved rides around the usual "twisties" , but this was fun to see stuff I have fancied seeing for a long time.

[Sin_Tiger]

Great stuff Geoff, I can almost hear Kraftwerk playing in the background  Fair play to you for doing something different 

You should include Southern Poland as part of your next trip. Impressive mountains to get lost in but that's a story for another day.

[Chris Canning]

Interesting read,my wife's cousin has lived in Helsinki for the last 15 years and when we have visited and I've been in the local bike shop and been asking which route South they use they always say Sweden because the route from Tallinn is flat and full of trees and an absolute no no but some interesting stuff to look at thats for sure plus doing the trip on an antique makes it a lot less nickable 

[JayDub]

Nice one Geoff, thanks.  Interesting report and I like your 'stuff yers, I'll go on me own then' attitude 

[mat-tiger1]

"Dalek on a stick" Love it Geoff! Lol...
Great ride reports! 

[threepot]

Nice one geoff   Shame your not on ABR. You could post your ride report to prove you don't need a bloody GS to have an 'adventure' on!

[nickjtc]

Well done, that man! Great pics. Thanks a lot.

[GavD]

Looks like a great trip Geoff.  My navy days took me to Kiel and Klaipeda, and just down the coast from Gdansk, a place called Gdynia.  Mostly saw the inside of bars rather than the sights!!

The dalek looks supiciously like an Electronics Counter Measures mast. They would have stayed submerged just below the surface and stuck that one up first to 'listen' for any radio or radar activity prior to committing to surfacing the whole sub.