I took my Brompton on the train to Hamburg, unfolded the bike, and cycled to Poland – PART 2!

My idea on this adventure was to see part of Europe I knew nothing about. I used my trusty Brompton folding bike and trusty little tent, and I cycled and camped across the former East Germany to Poland. It was all new to me and I found it really interesting, and moving actually. From Poland I took the ferry across the Baltic to my husband’s place in Sweden.

The Brompton is so brilliant for combining cycling with public transport. I love how I can just pack my tent and stove, hop on a train, then unfold and pedal away.

Basically, I wanted to go to Sweden anyway, and I thought it would be nice to do a part of the journey by bike, and see whole new region. Whenever I go somewhere – to the local shops, or across a continent – I find it is just so nice to use a bike. It makes the journey into a vivid and interesting thing.

Here’s the second episode! I am trying to put episodes of this journey out every week or so…. It won’t work, I know I am slow at editing, but I’ll try! Hope you enjoy the series! Thank you for watching!

Music – courtesy of Epidemic Sound
We’re All Runners / Craig Reever feat. Nadja Alsén

In spring, I wanted to go somewhere new on the 
way to my husband’s place in Sweden. I i took the train to Hamburg and then unfolded my 
Brompton and headed for Poland, from where I could take a ferry across to Sweden. So far 
it had been really wet. It was now day three, and the plan was over the next four or five days 
to ride across Mecklenburg and Pomerania. I was really excited to see the former East Germany 
because I’ve never spent much time there This was the last village that had been in 
West Germany, and the old border dividing West Germany and East Germany was 
actually at the bridge ahead of me. It’s amazing to me that the whole massive 
border infrastructure that was here until 1989 – all the fences and barbed wire and 
dogs and watchtowers and everything – has been so completely removed that there 
seems to be no trace left now. Anyway, I rode into the old East Germany on a small 
muddy lane. It’s not too bad, a bit soft Apparently when the East German regime 
collapsed, villagers from this village and from the village west of the border 
grabbed telegraph poles and logs – whatever they had – and they rebuilt the bridge so 
they could cross over and meet each other. Now I was in the former Duchy of Mecklenburg. From 
medieval times a lot of the land in Mecklenburg was owned by the nobility and their manor 
houses and churches are part of the landscape. That feels so nice, to sit 
down. This is Roggendorf This manor was owned by the von Lützow family. 
They had owned several manors in Mecklenburg Lovely. There’s like a manor house over there. 
So lunch is oat cakes and butter. Loads of butter So today I was riding 60 70 km across 
Mecklenburg and into my first town in the old East Germany. I really liked it. It seemed like 
a lovely market town, loads of nice buildings They had a railway, built in the 
1890s, by the Duke of Mecklenburg I decided I would look at one of the 
capitals of Mecklenburg. I normally avoid cities when I’m cycling but here 
in the old East Germany I wanted to see what Schwerin was like. The only thing 
was the weather was not looking good. I think it’s going to rain really hard 
in an hour’s time, something like that It is what it is. Next it’s coffee time I’m coming towards Schwerin, 
it’s about 14k to Schwerin Might stop before that. See how 
it goes. It started to drizzle so I put all my rain gear on nice 
and early. Right well this time, it worked. I put all all my rain gear 
on, even my shoes, and it stopped So I’ve kind of got to Schwerin, so that’s 
good. It’s quite a big place though, so I’m not sure how much there is kind of still, before we get to the interesting part. It feels 
like a seaside town. It is raining again Oh I really want to stop for coffee now Suddenly I am here I couldn’t find any shelter apart from a 
bus shelter and I always feel a bit crappy sitting in a bus shelter. I don’t 
like it. So I just sat down here It’s quite cosy actually I’m eating Garibaldi biscuits and 
drinking loads of coffee. It’s so nice I was flagging a bit there actually. It just felt 
like coming into town is quite a struggle actually I normally avoid big towns and cities 
because cities have more traffic and all the junctions means you make slow progress 
compared to bowling along a country road. Coffee is just so good. I’ve 
been looking forward to this This was where the Grand 
Dukes of Mecklenburg-Schwerin had lived This was the very last Duke who abdicated and had 
to move to Denmark after Germany’s defeat in 1918 This is the rain they promised I’ve only got about 5k left to 
do. I’m camping in a camping site, hopefully. I haven’t actually talked to 
them. Trying not to get my leg wet It’s blowing in! I haven’t contacted them, 
cos I wasn’t quite sure where I’d end up Good view from here I’m actually fine. My leg’s a little bit wet. The rest of me is fine A little man just came out – a very kind young 
man just came out and said I can choose where I want to be… So let’s do that. I’m hunting 
for somewhere discreet to camp. I’m going to try down there. I’ve been sort of circling 
around. It’s really really wet of course Perfect. No one will mind me 
being here. Brilliant, right It’s sort of brightening up really I’ve kind of hung up the things that were a little 
bit damp. So I’m going to have some nuts and then tonight it’s going to be I think I’ll have rice,
and maybe curry, could be really nice. I’ve brought all my food with me actually. So I’ve brought 
dehydrated dinners for every night, hopefully. It depends how long it takes me. It’s really 
nice sometimes, not to have to start chopping onions and things, especially when the weather’s 
like this. You just want things really easy So tonight what shall we have? spinach and chickpea curry no I don’t want that it takes a bit longer… 
Mushroom and soya mince stroganov, what’s the other thing? mince soya pilaf… Look, 
all these lovely things! good Ooh, it’s thundering. Wow, really stormy It’s quite exciting My Trangia is called a ‘storm stove’. It really 
is storm conditions now. I’m cooking here It should all work okay So that is the pilaf. It’s fantastic actually, 
just tried it. And the rice is just finishing off. God And it’s dinner time. God It is absolutely lovely It’s really strange weather. The 
sun just came out, really yellow, and it is quite bright now. But it’s still 
thundering and actually I just looked on Ventusky and there’s a whole load of thunder and lightning. We’re actually only at the edge 
of it. So it might get worse Good morning I’m drinking tea I made it last night and drank a couple 
of cups, and there’s a couple of cups left in the thermos Quite nice I’m having breakfast in bed this morning. Not 
really in bed. I’ve made my bed into a chair and just sat up It’s hard when it rains, because everything 
takes longer you’ve got things like socks drying.. They’re the socks from the 
wash not yesterday the day before But I mean everything’s fine. I’m actually 
really pleased how well I’m doing because the weather has been really tough. Just quite 
a lot of rain and really heavy rain. Well, all sorts of rain actually – the sort of light 
little bits of rain that just mean you have to wear your rain gear, which makes everything more 
awkward. And you get warm. Even in a cape you get quite warm. Plus really heavy rain that you’re 
just bound to get wet. So my trousers got wet So they’re they’ve kind of, dried pretty 
well overnight. But I feel like a bit of a slow start and I don’t want to go out into 
the wind until I feel ready for it. Although I think it’s quite a nice day. I 
think it’s going to be lovely day. Look, it’s lovely isn’t it, sunlight on the lake And I’m crouched in this little tent! Actually it’s very nice having breakfast 
in bed sometimes. You don’t need to, like, trot around. Everything’s to hand. Quite nice This time I’m trying a little bit more 
butter. See if it really almost fries it So good Today I’m going to change the plan a little bit. 
So I’m here on Schweriner See and I was going to go all the way across here through Krakow and then 
across here and up to here. But the thing is I’m running out of power. I should have brought 
two battery packs, but I’ve only brought one, and I brought my solar panel, which of course 
I’ve not used at all. And I’ve only got like two, or even now one dot left on my battery pack, 
and I obviously really need it for light, and communication, phone, photos, and my camera. So 
I’m going to go and stay in a guest house. I’ve found somewhere which is sort of halfway, so I’m going 
to cut today’s stage into two. It was a 90k stage, so it was a long one. So I’m going to do 40-50 
today and then 45-50 tomorrow. So that’s the plan It takes so long! But look, this is all 
nice and clean again. Lovely. I wiped it out. I’ve never used the dish cloth so 
often as on this trip. So, close it up Poor bike This is a big trip for oil Not much left. It’s WD40 and it just washes 
off really easily actually. Never mind So there’s an offer, and you get a lunch 
provided. I’ve paid €4 what’s that four quid, oh. See what it’s like I got a bread roll and a wafer, 
a very lightweight wafer. I managed to then get some sort of biscotti thing, I don’t 
know what it is. Quite handy. I’m really hungry now, but I’m going to just do my 
normal thing, have my fruit, and then this will be an early lunch. So nice! Look at 
me, no woolly hat, no jumper, sunshine! Beautiful Hello! Hello! So nice that that kid was out 
just having a ride and then stopping looking at the view, having a drink, and 
then I guess maybe going home, Saturday And that’s the sort of thing I used to do when 
I was young, and I used to dream of going long distances with bags on and everything. And now 
look at me! I’m heading for Poland. I love that. Imagine. I saw another manor house and went to 
have a look. The manor here was established in the 1200s by a noble German family who came 
here from western Germany. The village was a Slavic settlement, and its name today, Leezen, 
is Slavic in origin, and apparently means forest These Slavic place names are a kind of living 
legacy of the Slavic peoples who lived here before the Germans came. As more and 
more settlers from Germany moved in, slowly the Slavic language died out. 
Apparently the last speaker died in 1756, but the old language lives on in all the 
names of the villages and towns and rivers I’m just helping this guy. He needs a pump Mike he’s called Now I had about 30 km left to do and it was a 
gorgeous sunny afternoon. This is really nice It feels really relaxing today. I’m doing quite a short distance – 45, 50k – so just 
nice and easy, and the weather’s nice It makes everything so much easier Blue sky! So lucky… This church is in a village called Demen, 
which was unusual because it was not owned by a big noble family. The houses and fields 
here were owned by small local farmers. I read about it later, and it sounded as if it 
had been a nice community, but Wikipedia entry for Demen says that sadly the experience of 
collectivisation under the communists “broke the links to the tradition of small farmers” and since 
reunification, no new farming community has been able to establish itself, and the young people are 
leaving, and there’s what they called “a lack of identification with the land”. It’s so sad 
that young people feel that they can’t stay This looks like a nice place to sit So this is part of my lunch from the 
campsite. It’s really light, it’s a wafer Hello hello I hope it’s not too smart I have kind of taken off all this socks and 
pants and things. I’ll go and try and look nice Hello hello. Welcome! So I had a great stay here 
and filled up on food as well as recharging my devices. So now I had ridden just over 200 km 
from my start point in Hamburg. I was quite a lot behind schedule now. The next day I 
was going to leave Mecklenburg and come to the border with Pomerania, and things got 
quite a bit more difficult than I expected