A bridge too far (almost)
Well, as said before, getting near does not count, you actually have to make it, correct? I did not guess it would be a longer day, but it turned out to have quite a few challenges.
Early morning did I rise, think I was on the road by 5:30 or so, there was a layer of fog above the ground, but the sun was shining with all its might. Soon I got to Greifswald, which was a pleasant surprise, somehow I did not think of it as such a nice town. It was quite a feeling seeing the stretches of the Baltic Sea that morning - with the pleasant feeling that I am almost already there. I consumed a nice breakfast at the local bakery and started riding towards Stralsund.
Still in Greifswald, I made an online booking for a car - so that Anne and I are mobile on the island. The booking went through without issues and the car was waiting for me in Stralsund.
So off I ride for the last 30 km or so - or what I though would be the last 30 km...then came an unpleasant experience. There is an old road and a new one. The new one is closed to bikers, or at least you have to ride 30 km/h at the minimum. The old one is cobblestones and cobblestones, a very unpleasant riding experience. At times, I did venture out to then new road, only to be honked at by almost every car and they were whizzing by at fast speeds. Then I went back to the old road, rattle, rattle, rattle. Somehow I finally made it to Stralsund and found the car rental place. The guy behind the counter was really nice, but was not a magician: he explained that he was completely sold out and there was not a single car he could ring up within the surrounding 300 km's. He even phones the competitors, but being a weekend during the peak season, he could not help. Oh well, the website that confirmed the booking made an error...
Then I realized that the cobblestones killed on of my spokes, luckily a bikeshop owner was able to help me out - it was nice of him, just before closing. While my bike was being repaired, I visited the proud city - especially the cathedral was impressive. There are magnificent ships in the harbor, hosting a large museum of the oceans. One could easily spend a day here.
...but then Anne was waiting for me, so there was nothing to do but ride to Sassnitz (notwithstanding the train, bus, etc). I then saw a sign, again, a road sign, 'Sassnitz 55 km'. That was definitely longer than I had thought, but as said a few days back, even the longest journey starts with the first step, so I started the ride. Crossing the bridge to the island of Ruegen went fine, this was the old bridge, running parallel to a spectacular new one. I was thinking 'why on earth are so many cars parked on that bridge?'. Well, as it turned out, those were not parked cars, but poor souls stuck in a giant traffic jam, trying to make their way to the island.
Talking of poor souls, count me in. The island has a good biking infrastructure, but not when you come by bike from the mainland. It took me about an hour to find the right way, I started in some 3 different directions, only to run into either a dead-end or a road where no bikes were allowed. It turned out you have to take a dirt road for a mile or so, then go through a village, then the bike road starts. It was not an easy ride - there are plenty of hills on the island and the 55 km mentioned before relates to the road where no bikes are allowed; the bike track is more like 70 km. You see, the closer I got, the further the destination seemed to be.
As I was making my way through the island, I found myself going up a steep hill. I grabbed for the gear shift, when the chain got caught and with a loud 'crack' noise did it crack. Damn it. There I was, with still about 30 km to go, with a broken chain.
The easiest thing was to hitch-hike and after a few minutes a friendly lady stopped, giving me a lift to the town of Binz. There I first thought of taking a bus to Sassnitz, but then I realized they had a bike shop. Well, it was more of a bike rental and the guy there solved my problem by simply removing the broken chain part and just fixing it together - so there I was riding again with a shorter chain. It did the trick, at least for the short term.
Sassnitz was just 20 km's ahead, first more or less downhill, then came a huge hill. You can imagine, I was quite frustrated with all the things happening in the last stretch, not to mention the fact that I hated the town of Binz the moment I entered. I had ridden through some of the most tranquil parts of the Czech Republic and Germany and now I was in midst of hundreds of party-goers and shoppers - I felt somewhat obnoxious. Well, around the middle of this hill I saw this lady doing Nordic walking and decided to talk to her. I told her my misery and that I disliked the island (it wasn't love at first sight, with all the bad bike-road signs), she tried to calm me down. When she asked where I was staying, I told her it was in Sassnitz, but then she pushed me for the name of the place. You see, I leave such things to the last minute, my plan was first to reach Sassnitz, then to look for the hotel. I fumbled around with my papers till I found the name of the place. She cried out, 'Oh, it's the other way!'. It turned out that I climbed the hill for nothing, the place we stayed was at the bottom.
Well, so I met Anne - while I was really happy to see her and to have made it - I had quite some frustration stacked up in me. In the next couple of days I was able to get rid of these, relax and continue my journey...