Cycle touring through Mecklenburg-Vorpormmern: Day 4 & 5 - Bützow to Markgrafenheide (Rostock) to Prerow

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This is our final stretch towards the sea. The theme of the day is lost and found. We enter the tentacles of Rostock, where we refuel. We wander through to the sprawling city towards the coast, including a detour west taking us past an IKEA (hotdog break for D) and a local produce market where we grab delicious apples, plums, and blackberries. My companions tell a story of Rostock and neo-Nazis. We finally make our way to Warnemunde, eventually find the ferry which will take us to the east side of the channel, and eventually find the campground, which is a sprawling campervan park. We are given a small plot of land next to the toilets.

By now I have been stared at a lot (Germans are known for not being self conscious about staring), and I deal with it by pointedly smiling and saying hello to everyone we pass. Some people return the goodwill, and some people don't know what to do with me, and grudgingly return the greeting with averted eyes. I like to have some idea of who's friendly and who's not. But in this area I get the impression that there are fewer and fewer overtly friendly people around. Our fellow tourists are less so. All towns now seem driven by the tourist industry.

The next day we continue up the coast towards Darß. There is a large forest with a network of very bumpy roads constructed from concrete slabs. East German construction? At the beach on the western side of the tip, the sand is soft and white. windswept trees extend into the distance. I notice a few bare bottoms around me, and worried that they would not want to be photographed, I walk towards the trees to get a closer view. They are still in the distance, but now I see that the next cluster of people I am approaching are most definitely all naked, and are camped out in a circle of tents. I give up worrying, and walk back a few paces and snap a photo.

Then it is a short trip through the forest to Prerow, where we check into a campground on the beach. Camping in the dunes sounds like a grand idea, and it makes for a soft comfortable bed. But without ground cover and a subtle but present breeze, food preparation without grit is an art that we did not master. Advice for prospective cycle campers: bring a tarpaulin. However the constant wind meant the air was free of mosquitoes, and I linger outside to admire the Milky Way. I also spot a few shooting stars before retiring.

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