Sunday October 2, Wohlenberg

October 03, 2016

Sunday October 2, Wohlenberg

Kiel

Germany really turned it on for us today, sunny and warm and only one downpour late in the afternoon. Farewells to Conny and Gerhart again, they are heading West and home to Dusseldorf next week, and we headed to the north coast. After the torrential rain we had driving during our first few days in Germany it felt so good to cruise along enjoying this beautiful part of the country. Rolling paddocks, lots of trees, small villages and delightful houses. Sadly there are very few places on these two lanes roads where you can pull over for photos so have to make do with snaps out the window. The country roads are often lined with avenues of oak trees, and there are signs for trucks to make sure they don’t hit them!

As it was a Sunday, we thought it would be a good day to explore Kiel, a city of over ¼ million people. Jilly got us there with no issues and we found a parking area near the centre and wandered down to the middle of town. There were crowds everywhere and found out that it was the Autumn Sunday market, there were stalls set up through the middle of the street selling all sorts of food, beer, crafts, and live traditional German music. Couldn’t believe our luck. Everyone was enjoying the sun, and the food, a great place for people watching. We joined the crowds and walked the streets with a happy smile on our faces! The smells coming from the barbecued Bratwurst stand had our mouth watering so of course we needed to sample…and they were so good. Cooked over a huge circular charcoal grill in the middle of a tent and served on a bun. Intrigued that the buns were quite small compared with the size of the sausage!

The shops opened at 1pm and from what I could understand from the signs, they all had sales, although it was too nice outside to be shopping. Wandered back to Ruakiwi and the car park was chocker, a good thing that we had arrived when we did.

Our internet is a bit intermittent and often only 2G so can be very slow, and it seems to drop out frequently. But managed to get online when we got back to Ruakiwi and checked out where the Stellplatz’s were further along the coast. Found one at Travemunde, at the port of Lubeck so put the co-ordinates in and off we went. As it is all in German, I can’t read the comments about the sites, and this was not a good choice, arrived about 5pm with crowds everywhere, obviously some celebration was going on, and the Stellplatz was not only full to overflowing but dusty and not at all inviting. They could have squeezed us in but we declined, so at 5pm it was back on the road and making Plan B. There were quite a number along the northern coast of the Baltic so seemed like a good plan. We were soon off the highway onto the country roads which were quite narrow and busy, but after Norway, a breeze. Once again often like avenues lined with oak trees.

Near the coast we noticed a concrete three storied tower with viewing slots and at first wondered what it was, but shortly we came to a town where the housing was much older and very different. Realised that we had entered what was East Germany. Gerhart had told us a lot about the time of GDR and then the re-unification and had marked on the map where it had been. Presume the tower was part of the old border. We were fascinated by the old buildings, there really is a different feel to this area. We passed through the town of Klutz and wished we could have stopped but it was getting late and knew we had to find a camping spot. But the narrow road wound through the cobbled streets, Ruakiwi bumped it’s way through, and the buildings were amazing.

Feeling very excited about this region and looking forward to exploring it. Found a good campground on the Baltic and finally parked up at 6.30pm…and opened a good German Pilsner!