Day 1 Travemünde

Well, the first day of the tour is over, oh how exciting!

My loved ones at home crawled out of their beds at the same time as me to wish me a good trip. My Karin prepared a muesli for me to strengthen me, and after a strong cup of coffee, we set off shortly after 6:00 a.m.

Since I had no sightseeing tours in Germany in mind, I decided to take the shortest and fastest route. At Aalen, I got on the A7 motorway to Hamburg and Travemünde.

It went quite well until the temperatures exceeded 30 degrees, which was already the case at 11:00 a.m. The thermometer climbed up to 34 degrees by the time I arrived, which is also okay and in my opinion still better than rain.

But what almost brought tears to my eyes was the almost 50 km traffic jam in front of Hamburg. Now people, let me tell you, a vacation in Germany is certainly great. Especially on our coasts and in the mountains, but please not all at once, what a chaos.

On the radio, there was almost a fog warning, so I was steaming and waiting in line at the end of the traffic jam at the back is also not my thing at these temperatures. Our traffic regulations usually make sense, but not always, hopefully nothing will come after.

I then drove to Travemünde and a friendly tow truck driver from the municipal department told me about a free parking space right by the sea and assured me that he had agreed with his colleagues not to tow away today. How nice......

Said and done, parked the car, a bit awkwardly getting out of the motorcycle gear and into my swim trunks. By the way, it's not as easy as it sounds. There is no changing facility on the beach. So I wrapped my motorcycle jacket around me and somehow tried to complete the task in public. Always keeping an eye out for the order men who might give me a ticket for causing public annoyance. Anyway, no old ladies have fainted, everything went well and so I was able to enjoy a wonderful cool-down in the Baltic Sea. Afterwards, a "radler" and matjes with fried potatoes in a garden restaurant nearby and the world was fine again.

Then off to Skandinavienkai, which is about 8 km before Travemünde. There, I enjoyed the peace and the mild evening before finally checking in for the ferry around 9:00 p.m. It worked great, only I and 8 other bikers had to wait until 11:30 p.m. to board the ferry. It was dragged out endlessly.

Finally on board, the motorcycles had to be secured, which, to put it mildly, was a real pain. Four straps per vehicle. Luckily, we had a professional with us who explained the handling to me and the other bikers. After that, we had to wait in the bar for an hour until the cabins were ready. With a Finnish barrel of beer, time flew by. The clock was moved forward 1 hour, and then at 2 a.m., it was time to shower and then off to bed.