It was a good ridng day today. I started at about 9 AM and quit riding about 7 PM. I covered about 95 miles, with only 800 feet of climbing, in seven hours abd 45 minute of riding. The first five or six hours were nice, but the last two hours were not fun because I was sick. I still had to ride since ther was no place to stay, but some of that riding was pushing my limits, and, when I did get to a hotel, I was in pretty bad shape. Now, several hours later, I'm feeling much better.

The immediate cause of my illness was what I ate for lunch. but I think it was coming on yesterday and I did not feel quite right this morning. when I was riding in Germany. Hopefully I will be in better shape tomorrow!

Breakfast was great at hy 25 E room in Ankland, and I had a nice visit with my hosts. Good folks in a lovely place to visit and, as I found out today, a very nice place to ride to Poland from. I suspect it is a lovely place to ride from in almost any direction. That part of Germany is very beautiful, with lovely waters - lakes, rivers, the Baltic - and forests.Anklam itself is one of the nicest small cities I've stayed in Germany. I highly recommend both the town and the hotel - www.hotel-pension-anklam.de.

The Rathaus and Church in the center of Anklam
The bike route to Poland goes north between them

I rode from the hotel, north through the central park and between the Rathaus and the Church to get on the bike path to Poland. Actually, it doesn't go all the way to Poland, or at least there are several long sections where you have to ride on roads with no shoulders and somtimes heavy traffic, but it does cover most (75% or more) of the roughly 40 km distance.

Images of some of the parts of the bike route
most of it is away from the road and some of it is smooth dirt through forest

Although I'm not a bike route fan, I enjoyed most of the Wanderweg today. It was peaceful riding in beautiful surroundings, and mostly smooth. There were some short bad sections, but not enough to make my butt or my knee sore. I stopped to rest and snack - I shouldn't have needed to rest yet - about 20 km into the ride, at a bench with a covered trash can in the middle of a forest. I bailed out on riding the last section - a dirt road to the last town before Poland after I talked with some German riders who were coming the other way. They said it was terrible - deep sand and lots of mosquitos! - and that I should ride the road despite the fact that bicycles were forbidden on that section. I rode the road without any problem. Nobody even beeped at me. I think east Germany is a lot mellower than west Germany.

On the free ferry crossing the river

When I got to the Polish border, it was a zoo. Hundreds of people on foot or bike or in cars, where crossing the border to get to-from the beaches on the Polish side. Most of them went right through after showing ID papers. I got to wait five minutes or so because of my US Passport. On the Polish side there was a big market setup along the road for a kilometer or so. Thousands of people were shopping there. I didn't stop, preferring to ride on until I could get to the city center and get some Zlotys. I already had about 25 Zlotys left over from last year, so I could have stopped to eat and drink, and I should have, but I wanted to get out of the zoo area and into the more peacful part of Poland on the eastern side of the river. When I did, I discovered that it was too uncrowded. There were no restaurants over there, so I had to settle for a snack. In the city, I stopped to look at a map to find out whe I was and where the ferry terminal was. and I got to help a German tourist find the Polish market. He asked a Pole if she spoke German - she didn't - so I asked him if he spoke English. He did. He told me what he was looking for and, since I had just ridden by it, I could tell him how to get there. I was pleased since I rarely get to help people find things when I'm on tour.

The little road: 102

The big road: 3

After my snack on the east side of the river, I had a choice of roads to take. I could take the little road that went close to the cast or the big road that went south and east for while and then went south all the way to the Czech border. I picked the little road, even though it started out as bumpy brick. It soon got better and I was enjoying riding it. Then it entered a construction area and, a km or two later, it was closed and I was routed down to the big road, E3 ;-{.

A pretty view from 3

Riding 3 was usually good although there was one section a few km long that had no shoulder and a lot of big truck traffic. Mostly it was a good road with a great shoulder. A bit noisy, and there were several places where I was kicked off and forced to ride through a town befrore getting back on, but generally it was good, easy, riding. I stopped, at a very fancy service station/restaurant/bar/store/motel just before Wolin, to get a map of Poland, to use the toilet and to have lunch.

Lunch was interesting. I ordered a hamburger and a Greek salad since those were among the few things I recognized on the menu. When I got them - in sequence, hamburger first - I had a hard time recognizing either one. The hamburger did have a bun and a meat patty, but it was served like a Donner. The 'Greek' salad was salad, but tht was all it had in common with what I call a Greek salad. It was cabbage based, with fried meat pieces and corn as well as other salad stuff. Both were spicy and tasty and, with a .5 liter beer, cost me a total of 20 zlotys or between six and seven dollars. It was an expensive place to eat ;-}.

Small road 108 - nice

Waiting on a train
The nose of the train is on the right hand side

In Gloczewo, the church was the prettiest things in town
This is not unusual in Polish towns

When 3 headed south, I continued east on 108. That was very nice riding almost all the way to Ploty, the place where I planned to stop for the night. Unfortunately, after Gloczewo, my stomach was hurting and I felt sick. When I had lunch, I finished the 'hamburger' and the .5 l beer at the same time, then they brought the 'Greek salad.' I ate it quickly and without drinking anything. As I rode my body tries to digest lunch and, needing water, drew it from the rest of me. When I stopped to pee, my urine burned, a sure sign of dehydration. I drank more wather, but it didn't do any good.I was dehydrated and my digestion was messed up.

When I got to Ploty, the main street was under construction and so rough that my rear pannier came off and fell in the middle of the road. The bumps did not make my stomach feel better either! I rode through town looking for a hotel, then rode back to a small service station and asked. The man there didn't speak German or English, but he told me that the nearest hotel was in Nowogard, 18 km south.

I really didn't want to ride another 18 km, but I didn't have much choice. South was not the waay I wanted to go either, but, at that time of the day, there was a north wind so south was the easiest riding direction. I rode south on 6. it is the main road between Gdansk and Szczecin and it has a lot of traffic and very liittle shoulder. Not fun, but I covered those 18 km in 45 minutes.

In Nowogard there are at least three hotels. I picked the nicest one. It cost 70 Z for the night and 12 Z for breakfast. That totals to less than yesterdays 25 E. My room is hot and noisy - 6 is right outside under my window as is a drinking eating area - but good. I do not feel well this morning, but I will ride on east from here on little roads. I have given up on Gdansk for this trip. I would not want to ride 6 for two days, and I'm not up to taking the train where I have to be able to quickly carry my loaded bike up and down stairs to get between tracks. Just climbing the stairs to the first floor of the hotel was hard this morning...