Ferry to Germany

Marielyst – Niendorf (Germany)   43.1kms  nil? Ascent.

Well, if yesterday was the best, today has lagged a long way behind. We woke to the sound of rain pattering on the roof of our cabin, rapidly followed by rain thundering on the roof of our cabin. A dash to the loo confirmed that the sky was entirely overcast with much wet stuff dropping from it. With a whistle and a smile (bit of an exaggeration) we downed tea and muesli, packed our bags, cleaned our cabin, paid our dues and set off in the right direction for the ferry. Just prior to leaving the campsite, Alan had spotted what he thought might be a camera crew but, if it was, they missed the biggest story of the day! We are, after all, professionals!

It continued to rain so we thought to reduce the journey to Gedser to a minimum, which involved a head down run along the main road. Brilliant idea, except that we were one and a half hours early for the ferry, and this ferry port offered nothing in the way of comfort. I mean nothing. We shared a corrugated roof with three bikers who appeared to be genuinely interested in our journey. They had shared the Nordkapp experience and then travelled through Norway where it had rained every day! So we stopped whinging. With about 10 minutes to spare before the ferry departure time, at least a dozen cyclists suddenly appeared in our shed. They obviously knew better than to arrive early!  Boarding involved pedalling like bug****y along the deck and then trying to find a spot where the bikes could lean without falling over on the first wave. We did quite well until a biker (a really grumpy one) wanted our bikes miles away from his motorbike. Remaining very cool, Alan offered to help him secure his vehicle at which point he didn’t know how to react. Some twenty minutes of fiddling around ensured the bikes and trailers were sensibly secured and we went in search of food. In many ferries of our experience, there is usually a restaurant, which is only marginally more expensive than the food hall, and where eating can take place in relative calm. We found it and enjoyed salmon and as much salad as you could eat, which in our case probably wasn’t enough and we longed for the appetites of a few people we know who shall remain nameless but who assuredly know who they are.

Disembarkation was frantic and fraught, dicing with juggernautes as to who had the right of way. For a second time, we were fortunate to be able to follow those who had done all this before and we shot off at great speed and also in the right direction. For us this had to be the middle of town and a tourist office. So well prepared were we, that we lacked any information on the route or of places to stay on the way or even of Germany in general.  So 14  Euros poorer, we had all the information we needed, the sun had replaced the rain and we were off and running again. Despite all this expensive information, the campsite we had marked down as our destination for this night, didn’t exist but we found, instead, a guest house and here we are lodged with full bellies and a long day to look forward to tomorrow.