The second section of our bike tour from Berlin to Copenhagen was through Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Although this state is home to some Hanseatic cities and beautiful castles, we were most looking forward to hiking in the Müritz National Park located around Germany’s largest lake (Lake Müritz) and to visiting Rostock. If you haven’t read about the first few legs of our bike trip through Brandenburg, check it out here.
Useriner Mühle to Boek
Technically Boek is not on the Berlin-Copenhagen bike trail. But its location on Lake Müritz at the edge of the national park made it a good spot for finding a hike. We thought it would be a short 20 km pedal to get there. Since we were no longer following a trail, we missed a turn or two we didn’t know we needed. And then most of the “roads” were gravel or sand forcing us to get off and push our bicycles. Although tough, an advantage to this route was being in the forest and not the hot summer sun.
a piece of the Müritz National Park
After setting up our tent on the shore of the lake, we walked from the Boek campsite to Müritz National Park and did a 7.5 km hike marked by a red stag. In the Kernzone, or core zone, of protected forest, the woods noticeably changed. Many forests in northern Germany are dominated by a monoculture of sad pine trees. In the core zone, the vegetation variation signaled a thriving and healthy environment. The trail took us by two lakes, Priesterbäker See and Hofsee. At the first one there was a path which extended to a small dock with a bench near the end of the lake, making it a peaceful rest stop. Although the trail was pretty, we weren’t terribly impressed, but I am certain the National Park has many other beautiful places to offer which I would like to explore at another time.
Boek
On the way back, we had giant slices of cake at the Kutscher Café next to the church in Boek. C had poppy marzipan and I had cake made of rice pudding and berries. Since we had biked and hiked up such hunger (and the cakes were too delicious to resist!), we then shared a slice of apricot streusel.
Back at camp, we decided to go in the lake. LOL. We walked in nearly half a kilometer and were only up to our ankles in water. So much for swimming. But with low tide-like water levels, there were tons of small creatures to admire in the shallows.
As we began to cook dinner, a storm started brewing. The wind picked up, it began to thunder, and we could even see lightning strikes! Anyone and everyone outside rushed for the shelter of their tents and caravans. Luckily our dinner had just finished cooking and we decided to break the number one tent rule: no eating inside! But good thing we did, because it rained and rained all night long. Neither of us ventured out of the tent until morning.
Boek to Waren
From Boek, it was possible to meet up with the Berlin-Copenhagen bike trail in Kratzeburg and then continue on to Waren, but we took the easy way out and just biked directly to Waren. Unlike the previous day, this detour rewarded us with “really nice dirt trails” according to my travel journal. On one of the bike trails/walking paths, there was a look-out tower. A sign at the bottom warned about the raccoon poo on the first floor of the three-story tower (which gets cleaned up every other day or so by a ranger), along with other interesting raccoon toileting facts. In the top of the tower there was a nest of baby starlings, which I realized only after taking several photos of the adult starlings attacking us.
Waren
We had to cycle through all of Waren to get to the campsite. Once we were out of the Altstadt, we cycled on a nice path along the lake. At one point, we had to get off our bikes to cross a pedestrian bridge/boardwalk over some serene marshy ponds. This campground was rated five stars, but what we really liked was that the shower deducted 1 cent per 3 seconds with the option to stop and start the water. It’s funny what strange little things you appreciate on a bike trip.
After pitching our tent, we took our luggage-less bikes and rode 3km back into Waren. First order of business was Fischbrötchen on the harbor. I don’t think you can go to Waren without having these fish sandwiches. C had a Backfishbrötchen (fried fish sandwich) and I had a Fischsuppe filled with tasty tomato and celery. Since we had visited the city before, we just wandered around, relaxed in the grass, and had some ice cream.
Waren to Güstrow
Some days there are several campsites in a row, and others you feel like you will never see another campsite ever again. The stretch from Waren to Güstrow was the latter. Neither the cycling guide book nor the cycling map had a campsite listed in it from Waren until 70 km later shortly before Güstrow,. Even then it was just a phone number and a maybe. C called multiple times starting the night before with no luck. But we set off anyways hopeful that things just might work out.
It drizzled on and off the whole day. I spent most of the time wondering if I should wear my rain jacket (and be sweaty) or not (and get wet). As we stopped to check our map on one of the sandy, gravely paths in the forest, another biker we had seen a few days earlier stopped to talk to us. He also hadn’t really enjoyed the camp in Himmelpfort and told us that he was purposefully cycling unpaved paths in no particular direction, just to avoid traffic.
There was an option to take a shortcut around Krakow am See, but we decided to still go all the way around the lake anyway because the path on the map looked appealing. I was more than slightly disappointed at how few views of the lake there were while we were cycling around even though there were plenty of hills where I expected to see the lake at the peak.
Tired and wet, we pulled up to the Burg Hotel where we could only maybe camp to see the owners coming out the front just about to go fishing for the afternoon. WHAT LUCK! They said we could camp in the yard for the evening and took an extra few minutes to show us around. It was lightly raining while we pitched the tent and would keep on drizzling throughout the night. Since it was Monday and the Biergarten at the Hotel was closed, we were able to stay dry while cooking dinner under one of the umbrellas there.
Güstrow to Rostock
We woke up to a sunny morning bike ride through Güstrow. Since the Burg Hotel was just at the edge of town, we actually hadn’t seen any of the pretty Alstadt the day before. We cycled by the Schloss and chatted with a couple from Britain who were also cycling to Copenhagen. In the town center, we rode by the enormous church and snapped a few quick pictures. The visit was too short for me. I had never heard of Güstrow before, but it’s so close to Berlin, I’d really like to go back for a weekend-long visit.
Out of town, we rode for a long time along a canal. It had a decent enough bike path, but it was continuously covered in hay. I wasn’t sure if the hay was supposed to be on the path, or protecting the raised sides of the levee, but it was annoying. Sometimes we shared the path with a car traveling to a farm, but mostly we just saw other cyclists. Along this canal and for the rest of the way to Rostock, we passed by and through villages with names which sounded quite similar to Güstrow – Bölkow, Gülzow, Bützow, Karow, Kassow, Neu Kassow, Bandow, Letschow, Pölchow… Seems like no one was too creative with town names, or only had a handful of letters to choose from!
Rostock
After what seemed like another very long day, we arrived in Rostock, pumped up our tires, and ate our daily “obligatory” ice cream. We had rented a beautiful AirBnB outside of Rostock on the way to the Rostock Überseehafen. After a luxurious night in a bed, a shower without a timer, and not having to go outside in the cold in the middle of the night to pee, we were ready for a day of sightseeing in the Hanseatic city.
We started our discovery of the city by walking around to some of the various old buildings – the Rathaus, Neuermarkt, Marienkirche, Petrikirche, Nikolaikirche, and University. There is an impressive astrological clock inside the Marienkirche. Unfortunately, we couldn’t take a look around the Nikolaikirche because it has been turned into apartments! The Petrikirche was the city’s church for the poor. It’s a simple church with one of the best views of the city. The roof of the tower makes it appear twice as tall, but even though you’re not as high up as you thought, the view is still great.
At the University, we went inside the Zoologische Sammlung (free entrance). There were hundreds of taxidermied animals on display to see. Some of them are famous, like the polar bear who fathered all of the ones in the Rostock Zoo and a stork (Pfeilstorch) with an African spear through its neck. The stork’s arrival and death in Rostock was one of the first confirmations that storks migrated between Africa and Europe.
There are many more interesting museums I’d like to visit in Rostock, but we didn’t have much time. The next day we’d take the ferry from the Überseehafen in Rostock to Gedser in Denmark (check our our journey from Gedser here and the final days of cycling here). We had finally reached the end of Germany on our journey towards Copenhagen.
Photo Credits: C.O. and myself