Germany 2022

Trip List Calendar

2022-09-12 : Barge: Peenemünde – Wolgast
We woke up this morning in Peenemünde with a Russian submarine right outside our boat. How interesting! I had never heard of Peenemünde before and had no idea that it was where rocket technology originated. Brent knew, though, and had always sort of wanted to go there, and here we are! We spent three hours at the Peenemünde museum before we started our ride for the day. We could have easily spent five hours, or even a full day there to absorb everything. But, as we started pushing 1pm I got antsy and rushed us through the last parts. Maybe we’ll have to go back someday and see the rest of it.

Riding on Insel Usedom was interesting. It was a relatively short ride today, and largely rural again. We really enjoyed the small harbour across from Karlshagen.

Our ride ended today at Wolgast, which is a very pretty little place. Brent and I went for a walk around, and it seemed like everywhere I looked was a photo opp.

Our fellow ship passengers are getting used to us and talking to us a bit more. We frequently pass by each other on the daily rides. At dinner time, a lady named Irmgard came over and introduced herself and we had a small conversation. Hopefully we will have more conversations with her, and the other passengers!


2022-09-13 : Barge: Wolgast – Szczecin
It is kind of a cold and drizzly day today so Brent and I are sitting inside as the boat takes us to Szczecin. Irmgard and her husband, Ulrich, joined us for a nice long chat.

When we get to Szczecin, there will be a two-hour walking tour in German, which Brent and I are not interested in. Instead, I have researched the ‘Red Route, which is a walking route through the city, and prepared English materials for us so we can make our own tour.
The plan for today was that folks would spend the day up on the roof of the boat, including lunch, but the weather was too cold and drizzly, do we spent the day indoors.

We reached Szczecin around 3:30pm, and the other passengers went on a walking tour while Brent and I made our own tour. We tried to follow the ‘Red Route’ walking tour that I had painstakingly researched this morning, but there’s so much construction in town right now that we couldn’t easily follow the route. Instead we ‘cherry picked’ what we wanted to see and went directly to some places, and followed the ‘Red Route’ when it was convenient. We probably saw about 30% of the total walking tour, but what we saw was great. The city is beautiful and we had some great, dramatic dark skies that threatened to rain on us, but really just enhanced our photos.


2022-09-14 : Barge: Szczecin – Mescherin – Schwedt
Frank and Bob, our swans that we met in Altefähr, keep showing up along our journey to say hi. Don’t try to tell me they’re different swans - this is MY story, and they are Frank and Bob. <3
Today we barge from Szczecin to Mescherin, then bike about 30km to Schwedt. Brent and I are both suffering quite a bit from the saddles on the provided bicycles. We’re going to try lowering the seats a bit to see if that helps.

I’m curious to know why we’re doing no cycling in Poland. We stayed on the boat from Wolgast (Germany) to Szczecin (Poland) and now we’re staying on the boat from Szczecin to Mescherin - just back over the border into Germany. We’ve heard that Poland has poor cycle infrastructure. Maybe it’s that? Or maybe it’s that the tour would require additional insurance for cycling in another country? Anyway. Just a curiosity. The ship had to provide a list of people who would be disembarking in Szczecin to look around. Since Poland is in Schengen, our guide doesn’t think it’s even legal for them to ask. Shrug.
The ride today was nice. Relatively short, rural and uneventful. Moving our seats down helped considerably with the saddle pain. Things aren’t perfect but they’re at least tolerable. We got to Schwedt fairly early, had a look around and had some ice cream before meeting up with the boat. Many of the other passengers are talking with us now - some in English and some in German (limited by my small vocabulary, of course).


2022-09-15 : Barge: Schwedt – Hohensaaten – Eberswalde
We haven’t seen Frank and Bob since we left Poland. I hope they haven’t been detained. ;)

A couple days ago Brent said that he finally feels completely better from Covid. No more residual fatigue. I’m not so lucky yet. I’m still coughing a bit and still fatigued. I’m sleeping more than normal and still tired. I feel like I could just lay down anytime. Hopefully that clears for me soon.

Today is another day of sittin’ on the ship in the morning and then riding in the afternoon. We’ve been so fortunate with the weather. Almost no rain to speak of and very pleasant temperatures. High-teens, maybe low 20s for the whole tour so far.
We had a nice ride to Eberswalde today, with the highlight being watching our ship go up the Niederfinow Boat Lift. We knew that our ship was due to arrive there at 1pm so we kept our dillying and dallying to a minimum to make sure we got there. Brent thought it was 1:30. Good thing Brent was right because we didn’t get there until we’ll after 1:00. We had to wait a while before we got to see the ship go up but it was worth it. So crazy. We finally saw Frank and Bob again along the ride today. Whew! And we also saw a whole other family of swans. <3

We had beer in Eberswald and it was shaping up to be a beautiful evening. We had to have the bikes back to the ship for 5pm, though, so of course we did. Only a few minutes after we got back the skies opened up and we were treated to a heavy downpour, which we watched from inside the boat’s lounge (having second beer, of course. The bicycle bucket brigade were not quite so fortunate.


2022-09-16 : Barge: Eberswalde – Oranienburg – Berlin
It’s the last day of our tour today and we’ll be riding into Berlin. The forecast for Berlin is decent for today and then showers every day until we go home. We’ve been sooooo lucky with weather.

The ride today was very nice. A strong headwind at times, which we’ve had most days. I’ve been so happy to have the gps tracks for each day loaded into Maps.Me on my phone. There have been a few confusing points where I’ve been really grateful to be able to just check the route and know exactly where we are and where we need to be. At one point we ran into a handful of our tour mates. We had a heated discussion about which way to go. Brent and I wanted to follow the route as per the provided map and gps track. Some of the others consulted a woman in town and wanted to follow her advice. We wished each other luck and went our separate ways. We reconvened only about maybe 90 minutes later so both routes worked (although we think our way was superior because our 90 minutes included pizza and beer at the Yacht Harbour).
For our days in Berlin I looked up things to do. One of the things I found that I was really interested in seeing was the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp. Then I saw how far out of town it is and took it off the table. Then I realized that it was right along our cycle route for today and put it back on the table. We weren’t able to spend a lot of time there because we had a fair distance to make on time for Farhhad Curfew, which is 5pm. But we saw some and it was interesting and distressing. Like Memento Park in Budapest, we’re happy that Europe does not try to erase or white wash these things, but rather, memorialize them and hope to learn from them. I think Canada has some catching up to do.
So as it turns out, the staff table we’ve been sitting at for our meals is the captain’s table. Tonight is the last night of our tour so it is the captain’s dinner. We are, by default, sitting at the captain’s table. Three other people won a raffle to sit at the captain’s table but we’re there because we’re the loser English speakers that didn’t fit at any other table. So. Yay us!! We had a great dinner with the captain and the two Rainers (the tour guide and his assistant).


2022-09-17 : Barge: End of Trip
Checking off of the boat this morning was easy peasy. We both agree that while it was a fine trip, Bike and Barge isn’t really our bag. We prefer self-supported and can’t wait for our tour next year.
One of my best-laid plans fell to pieces today. The Berlin airport is quite a long way out from the city. A long time ago I booked us into an Airbnb in a suburb that is near the airport. Before we left Canada I realized I had forgotten to confirm there were no fur people at the place. Well, turned out there were, so I canceled that place and booked us another Airbnb close to the airport. Because that’s the smart thing to do, right? The subway ride to the airport would only be about ten minutes, and it’s about a 10-minute walk to the local subway station.

Well, when we started trying to make our way to the Airbnb today, oddly, the options I had before no longer came up. The Mahlow station just wasn’t in play anymore. We actually saw this one other time on this trip - back when we were trying to travel through Stuttgart and suddenly the Stuttgart station wasn’t available. Guido had told us about the station being unavailable due to a construction project. Same thing here. The Mahlow station is under construction so our train no longer runs all the way through - it terminates at Lichtenrade. Using my handy-dandy data plan I found information that indicated there is a service replacement bus (SEV) that goes from Lichtenrade to Mahlow, but we could not find it for love nor money. The Lichtenrade station is also under heavy construction and you are directed out to a bus loop. We scoured the bus loop looking for any indication of where to catch our SEV. None of the posted schedules looked right. I asked a bus driver and he indicated around the corner. We went around the corner and there were actually some little guiding foot prints on the sidewalk indicating the SEV. We followed those around the corner, but no sign or schedule. We noticed a few more foot prints across the street so we went over there, but still, no sign or schedule. I noticed a few people walking off in the general direction and theorized that they were going to the SEV. Brent thought they were just headed off to the apartment buildings over there. We pondered options and decided on walking the 4km to our Airbnb. It was nice enough out and we weren’t in a rush. Repeating it every time we wanted to go somewhere wouldn’t be viable, though, so we really needed to find that SEV.

The construction also seems to have messed with our trip to the airport, so we need an alternate for that too.

Our Airbnb host told me where to find the SEV in Mahlow, so we walked over there and rode it to Lichtenrade. That’s how we discovered that it does, in fact, stop on the other side of the station (where I’d seen people walking earlier). Then, we caught the 600 from the same bus stop in Mahlow. It takes us over to Wassmansdorf, where it’s a quick one-stop ride on the subway to the airport. It’s not super duper because the 600 only runs once an hour, but it’ll do, and we have alternatives we can use if necessary.


2022-09-18 : Berlin with Dietmar and Brigitte
We headed into Berlin this morning, excited about seeing Dietmar and Brigitte again. They decided to come in for just a few hours to see us!

We met at Trämenpalast (Palace of Tears) which was the border processing station for people entering West Berlin from East Berlin at the Friedrichstrasse train station. It was very poignant to learn of the people’s experienced when Berlin (and Germany) were separated. For the first time I heard that it was announced, mere days before, that ‘there was no intention to build a wall’.

We then walked down Unter den Linden which is a beautiful wide boulevard lined with Linden trees, to the Brandenburger Tor (Brandenburg Gate) which was an access point to Berlin long before the wall, but that was also incorporated into the wall. We saw the Reichstag, and Brigitte told us that you have to make a reservation at least two days ahead in order to visit it. We walked past the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, although we didn’t have as much time there as we would have liked.

We had ice cream and chai at an Indian restaurant, and then walked back toward the Friedrichstrasse station.

We haven’t expected to see Frank and Bob since we left the Bike and Barge, but they popped in to say hi as we were standing by the river saying our farewells to Dietmar and Brigitte.

Brent and I still had a little ‘going and seeing’ left in us, so after we said goodbye, the two of us moved on to the ‘Die Mauer’ (The Wall) Panorama by Yadegar Asisi. It is an amazing, enormous panoramic mural of Berlin with the wall. I am most definitely a Yadegar Asisi fan now. I’m hoping that we’ll be able to see his other panorama that’s in Berlin, Pergamon, while we’re here. ‘Die Mauer’ also includes a chronological display of photos taken of, and around, the Berlin Wall.

After ‘Die Mauer’, we decided that was enough for the day and started heading back to our Airbnb. But then we stumbled onto TrabiWorld, a museum dedicated to vintage Trabant vehicles, so we had to have a quick look at that too.

We also saw the Memorial to the Murdered Sinti and Roma (gypsies). It is so distressing to learn about the attitudes that people can take towards others who are different. One thing that really stuck with me was a card that talked about the ‘gypsy solution’ and the solution was extermination, but of course, ‘extermination by work’ was the best solution. So… yeah… we’re going to kill them anyway, so let’s work them to death.

I am sad to report that today was the day that I realized that the border between East and West Germany did not bisect Berlin, but, rather, Berlin was an ‘island’ within East Germany that was partly West Germany with one train line out to the rest of West Germany.


2022-09-19 : Berlin Museums
Today we started with coffee at a little shop in Mahlow, then we made our way into Berlin. We visited Topography of Terror, then tried (unsuccessfully) to wait out a thunderstorm in a coffee shop (although drinking coffee and eating a cookie was successful). We then visited the Berlin Story Bunker.

Topography of Terror was really interesting. It has a series of photos and placards that follow a section of preserved Berlin Wall, a few placards around the grounds describing buildings that used to be there, plus a museum building which, to an extent, repeats the material from the outdoor display along the wall.

Although it is very interesting, I was not as happy with the Berlin Story Bunker. It claims to trace 800 years of city (Berlin) history with a reconstruction of Hitler's bunker. It also talks about Hitler from a ‘how could this happen’ perspective. What we found is that it doesn’t really cover much before WWI. In my opinion it is overwhelming and unfocused because, beyond Berlin, Hitler, WWII and the bunker, it also covers subsequent genocides, women’s rights, environmentalism, 1968, the Vietnam War, Angela Merkel, global warming and Covid-19. As interesting as those things are, it makes it the whole long and overwhelming (Brent and I spent 4.5 hours there, and that was rushed). It’s also a little poorly structured/laid out. Since it is in a bunker, it is limited by trying to guide folks through a long series of rooms in a sequential fashion in a building that does not lend itself to that kind of progression. Visitors are often squeezing past each other and confused about which piece of information comes next. There is an audio guide provided, but I gave up on it early because it really just reiterated the info on the placards along the route. I suppose if one wanted to listen and look at the pics without reading the placards it would be awesome but I’m a placard reader (or, at least a placard skimmer by the time I reached room 45 of the museum) so it was annoying and redundant for me.

You’re not allowed to take photos within the bunker, so I have none to share from that part of our day.

By the end of the day I’m completely done. Done with WWII stuff. It is so distressing and depressing. I think we might change the plan for tomorrow to go to the Disgusting Food Museum, the Metropolis Panorama and a map store (always a favorite for me).


2022-09-20 : Lighter Mood Day in Berlin
After all of the heavy WWII museums and memorials the last few days I needed to lighten the mood today. We visited the Purgamon Panorama, then the Disgusting Food Museum, and then made a run up to a map store called Chropp where I bought six new cycle tour maps.

Purgamon was fantastic, but I do think I liked the Berlin Wall Panorama better.

The Disgusting Food museum was fun. They broke disgust down into seven categories: Food, Disease/Contamination, Body, Mutilation/Deformity, Animal-Reminder, Sexual and Moral. The museum had a clear political agenda - to steer people towards sustainable alternative protein sources (primary bugs) but I’m ok with that.

They had a lot of really gross and weird stuff. Some of it we were allowed to open and smell. A lot of it based on animal cruelty. Some of it we’ve had before and would happily have again: Roquefort cheese, Blutwurst, Haggis, Spam, lobster, durian, huitlacoche, escargot, gummi bears, jello salad, salt licorice, Thrills gum, Twinkies, Pop Tarts. Some of it we’ve had, but wouldn’t necessarily go out of our way to have again: Steak tartare, caviar, Vegemite. Disgust is cultural so I guess it’s normal that we have no problem with some of the things.

Of all the things we sniffed, the Hákare (rotten, dried shark meat) that made me gag. At the end of the tour, we got to try some things: bugs, and juice. We each had a grasshopper, and they were really dry and crunchy, and did not have the fishy taste of the crickets we had in Mexico. We also tried the fermented carrot juice and sauerkraut juice, both of which I could have happily done without.

I had found Chroop by searching for a map store in Berlin. We took the subway up there and I was not disappointed. They had the best selection of maps (cycle touring maps, to be specific) maps that I’ve seen since we were in Regensburg in 2015. I bought some maps for our tour next year and one for when we do one in the NE (in the area where Dietmar and Brigitte live).


2022-09-21 : Fly Home
Note to self: when booking multiple reservations/airlines for one trip, leave very generous layovers for connections. Our EasyJet flight was late leaving Berlin which out our WestJet flights in jeopardy, and because they’re on separate reservations, we’d have no recourse if we missed them.

Spoiler: we made it onto the flight to Toronto. But only by the skin of our teeth. We were close to the front of the aircraft from Berlin so we were more aggressive than usual getting off. Quick through passport control. Badda-bing. Luggage some of the first off the plane. Badda-boom. I was able to check us in for the flight while we waited for the luggage (WestJet’s website was malfunctioning last night). That’s where our good luck got a little strained. We were met at WestJet by a fellow who told us we need to do ArriveCAN. We had thought that was discontinued so while Brent got our luggage tags, I did our ArriveCAN. Off to Departures. Every person in the UK was milling about near departures, but Brent found our way into the line and we spent about ten minutes waiting in line to find out we were accidentally in the Premier lane. Oops. Switch to what looked like the cattle lane. I talked Brent into leaving line to confirm we were now in the right place - we didn’t have time for another mistake. Yep. In the right line. With every other person in the UK (except for those ones in the Premier line, of course). Finally we make it to the front of the line and toss our stuff on. We have 20 minutes until the gate closes. I make it through quickly, followed soon by Brent… and then…. Wah-wah-wah… his bin is pooped out into the ‘inspection’ pile. There was only one lady working on inspecting luggage and Brent’s bag was about 10th in line. I went off to try and figure out where our gate was, and, of course, it’s somewhere off beyond the endless snake of duty free. I head back and Brent’s bag hasn’t moved. We now have 15 minutes til the gate is closed and we lose all hope of making the flight. Brent says ‘well, we’ll just have to talk to WestJet and see what they can do for us’. Suddenly they add two people to inspect baggage and things start moving. Within a few minutes, Brent’s bag is up and I have hope that we might make it. Inspection is quick. We run to the gate. I think I left both of my lungs in the hallway… one in the endless snake of duty free and one a little beyond. We get to the gate and there is still a small line of people waiting to get on. We’ve made it. Unfortunately for the lady right in front of us, she got punted out of line because she hadn’t done her ArriveCAN. I don’t know if they held the plane for her to do it. Probably.

I swear that airports have become a test of fitness, patience and intelligence, and im sure it won’t be too many more years before I’m unable to pass at least one of those. When we landed in Toronto they announced that people who were in Toronto as their final destination had to stay on the plane and those making connections could deplane. I’ve never heard of that before, but it did add an extra level of cluster to the normal clusteriness of deplaning. Then we had to complete several mazes, do the Hokey Pokey and turn ourselves around, pat our heads while rubbing our stomachs, go back through security and find our gate. Plane was already boarding. My goodness what a day.
I’m a little claustrophobic, which is the main reason Brent and I use such a large tent. Anyway, our Airbnb in Berlin was a really cute little cabin-ey thing with the bedroom up in the teeny attic. I was pretty uncomfortable up there but determined to talk myself through. Until I started having asthma-like symptoms. I think there’s something up there… maybe an animal had been up, or maybe there was dust or something. In any case, I ended up doing most of my sleeping for the last four nights on the couch on the main floor. It was short, uncomfortable, and surfaced with leatherette (slippery). They had a couple of blankets in the closet, which I used, but they were kinda short and kept sliding off the leatherette. Sleeping there really pooched my back. Ugh. I’ve never been so excited to get back to Edmonton and sleep in the bed there!!
This was my first time doing a major trip with only my phone (iPhone XR) for technology. Frequently used apps on this trip:
  • Photos: iPhone camera, iPhone Photos app, Image Size
  • Navigation: Maps.me, Rome2rio
  • Travel: DeutscheBahn, OMIO, AirBnB
  • Notes and Records: DAMDetails, iPhone Notes, Todoist, OneDrive
  • Language: Google Translate
  • Info: Google


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