From Althagen to Stralsund
Monday 13 July
Monday morning dawns not quite as bright as yesterday, but we are happy
as long as it doesn't rain. Lovely breakfast - we have noticed that the
quality of breakfast is much better in private homes than in hotels or
pensions.
The cycle road (International Radweg) takes us through extensive reaches
of reeds bordering the inland Boddensee (I suppose this is where they get
the material for the many thatched houses). We manage to keep the wind
at our backs most of the time, but as soon as we stop, you really feel
it blowing hard. We pass through several large villages with many wonderful
thatched houses. I suppose they must be former farmhouses - there are no
farms out in the fields - but they clearly have other purposes now, mostly
holiday lets or second homes for people from the cities. In the afternoon,
the path again goes along a dyke running parallel to the Baltic coast,
and the same pattern occurs with occasional access roads to the beach.
The beach is cold and very windy, and people sit huddled in their beach
chairs or behind makeshift shelters. No one is bathing, the water is very
cold.
When we reach Ostseebad Zingst, we turn south towards Barth, crossing
a bridge over the inland sea at Bülten. Barth is a regular town with
a centre which has clearly been circled by a medieval town wall of which
there is only one tower left. There is a large church, Marienkirche which
has been extensively restored. In Barth there are only a couple of hotels
and pensions, no "Zimmer" in every other house as in the coast villages.
We find a nice pension through the Barth Information (in the museum) where
we pay 100 DM for a good room with bath. Most of the town is under restoration,
but there are still many industrial buildings left derelict. "Nothing goes
on here any more", a woman met on the street informs us.
Tuesday 14 July
Another fine day, if very windy, "but only till midday", our landlady
informs us. The first stretch of the day is along an ordinary small, but
newly made road with the wind straight at our backs. At Flemendorf we find
a bicycle path, but with very uneven paving (large slabs of cement laid
down with ends not quite meeting - very bumpy!). We stop for lunch at a
small village which according to the signs have a "Schloss", whatever that
may be. The place where we have lunch is like stepping right back to DDR
times. The "Schloss" on the other hand, turns out to be a large Victorian
villa turned into a smart, expensive restaurant. To reach today's goal
of Stralsund, we cannot keep the wind at our back forever, and as we turn,
we get the full force of it and a little rain. Not for long at a time,
though, it's raincape off and on all the time.
Stralsund is an old Hanse city with many old buildings in the inner
city, and at the "Alte Markt" in the tourist office, they find us a room
in a pension just outside the old city limits. Very nice, very new and
without much character (120 DM).