Cycle Tour Iron Curtain Tour, part 3 Gdynia-Aš

In the morning I really appreciated the roofed table and bench set, because the kept pouring down relentlessly. And I had to dissasemble my tent in a very wet state. One sunny moment I had, though. While I was doing my morning toilet, which can easily take half an hour, Anja sat and waited on a bench because she wanted to say goodbye to me. That was  sweetly done of her. Since the coffee girl in Greifswald, I had not been so close to female close contact. Back then it had probably all been pure fantasies, but here?? I do not know.

The weather was still bad with rain and gusts from the north and west. But as I went south, the north wind wasn't bad at all, and I made good progress. First a big detour around Lake Dassow, which had belonged to Luebeck, i.e. West Germany, while the shore was in Mecklenburg, i.e. East Germany. Now I was permanently interested in, whether I was in the East or the West. I had reached the very soul of my Iron Curtain tour in the form of this formerly divided country. Along with that I noticed the absolutely monstrous blocking measures the GDR had set up along its "state border west", as it was called, whenever there were remnants. And BRD (an abbreviation the West Germans hated and which was consequently widely used in the East) was the "class enemy", "capitalist" or just "the enemy". Ideological delimitation was total, and so was the physical one. Nevertheless, there were Germans living on both sides of the border. And the border was to be my theme for the next three weeks after the first two along the coast of the Baltic Sea.

The rain stopped in the afternoon. I shortened the route a couple of times, because the stage to Gudow was very long. But it ran scenically through a lake landscape with several large lakes such as Ratzeburger See and Schaalsee. The border went down through both of them, and both of them are almost completely uninhabited along the banks. Schaalsee in particular is a haven for the soul with its many bays and islands. And wildlife has fine conditions here. In Lassahn I walked down to the bank with my front panniers in order to make coffee on the lakeside. But there were a lot of mosquitoes. Plus another woman who was bathing from the jetty with her dog. However, she was properly dressed in a bathing suit. And the dog growled at me. But we struck up a good conversation. The dog didn't mind it. I didn't jump in myself. It didn't rain, but time had progressed and there was still a long way to Gudow.

After Zarrentin at the very bottom of the lake, I got a fresh headwind to cycle due west in. So I only made it to the campsite in Gudow after it had closed. It usually doesn't matter, because then you just pitch your tent and settle with the camp owner the following morning. But here the gate and barrier were locked. Disappointed, I looked over the fence when a middle-aged couple arrived on bicycles. They had a key and locked me in. Plus they lent me their bathroom key so I could take a hot shower and did not have to swim in the lake. Which I had just done, but it was nice with a little care. They lived in an almost antique Volkswagen minibus with a two-part windshield. The man was forever proud of his vehicle, which was in excellent condition. He told me everything about it, and I listened patiently, but really I just wanted to shower, cook, eat and go to bed, because I was very tired. I must have yawned it bit too clearly, and eventually his wife understood the situation. But they were a nice and very happy looking couple.