Cycle Tour Iron Curtain Tour, part 3 Gdynia-Aš

On my last Baltic Sea stage, I was quickly joined by a fellow German cyclist, Bernd, from the Rhineland. We went at approx.  the same pace, and that is crucial, if you want to go along together for many kilometers. It was again nice weather and tailwind, so the stage seemed easy and pleasant. And Bernd was good company. Already in the middle of the afternoon we had reached the border with Schleswig-Holstein and Lübeck. There we said goodbye and good luck to each other, after which I made myself a cup of coffee on a bench near a small memorial here at the northernmost point of the inner German border. I was now on the Priwall peninsula. The beach next to it, which is actually the most northerly spot of the ex-border, is a nudist one, so it was only natural to strip down to nothing and jump into the waves. Afterwards I cycled to the "naturfreundehaus" (House of the nature friends") where I had intended to camp, but everything was closed and locked here. Well, I first had a beer in a bar in the cottage area, then cycled to the mouth of the Trave river opposite the town of Travemünde. A big nice hotel looked tempting. I also met Bernd again, who had checked in there with his wife. That probably settled the case, because I did likewise. And parted with a lot of money for some unheard of luxury like a steam bath in the room. It all seemed sterile and pretentious, including the hotel surroundings, and that's not my style at all. So I felt quite misplaced. The bike had to be parked in a parking garage a good distance away. Poor girl. To save money, I cooked in the room. But picked up a few beers at the bar.