Day 20 - South For The Winter

5 Sept

Where we stayed last night.

A new morning, GPS set to scenic and we were ready for a more leisurely day. First a quick look at the wharf area of Eckernförde. A cruise ship had docked and its tender was delivering passengers to the wharf. To get to it's docking point, the little bridge had to be raised. A few fishermen were at their boats cleaning and selling their morning’s catch.

Pedestrian drawbridge

 

Fishing vessels line the wharf.
A very pretty town

Our scenic route was taking us parallel to the freeway but at a much more relaxed pace. We were driving beside farms and through villages. One of the things we learnt today was that although there is no recognisable speed sign at the approach to a village, once the village name appears in a yellow sign, the speed limit drops to 50kph. No, we didn't have to find out the hard way. The car in front kept slowing as we approached the village. Once through the village, either the clear speed sign was there or a listed speed of say 70kph. Interesting concept that seems to rely on local knowledge.

100kph roads are short lived between villages

The GPS was showing a lot of roadworks around the Hamburg area. Perhaps the scenic route will miss most of that? Perhaps not. Our track took us through the centre of Hamburg. A couple of missed turn opportunities and to get out of town, we found ourselves following the scenic trucking route through the industrial area. Oh dear! Anyway there were lots of crossings of bridges of diverse architecture.

Brown houses - Nice Merc

This bridge was waving at us

Power any way you get it

Lotsa bridges and new ones coming.

We noticed the time and decided it would be practical for the GPS to return to fast mode. Onto an autobahn, making good time until three lanes became two for roadworks. We crawled along at times less that walking speed, sometimes stopped. Our good time was being eaten into. Complicating the traffic flow was the requirement for all trucks to be in the right most lane. It was wall to wall trucks, all cab-over style.

20 kilometres of crawl.  The Volvo's adaptive cruise was appreciated.

The GPS directed us to the street address where our accommodation was located. Only trouble was the street was blocked off for roadworks. Ugh! Then it was a matter of trying to get into a position that the GPS would rethink the route rather than trying to sent us back to the same spot. No matter what the GPS thought, the road block wasn't being lifted. Eventually we found our way to the address only to find the place seemingly locked up. The booking arranged for check in between 2 and 3 which is why the traffic jam was frustrating. We did arrived before 3, regardless of the roadworks god's attempts to thwart us.

And this is the other thing we learned today. When we stated between 2 and 3, the hosts took that to mean 02:00 and 03:00. It would seem that the German way of describing time is based on the 24 hour clock. Oops!

Once our host opened up our accommodation, we set about getting the inevitable washing done. This time we are packing away the cool weather gear and breaking out the shorts. We have gone from temps of 6 to 10 degrees to 10 to 20+ degrees now that we are heading south away from the Arctic Circle.