Mission - WW2 Germany

Frankly, I was glad to get out of the place and check booking.com for some accommodation. Maybe it was my mood, but when I saw the Gasthaus picked by the website, it was pretty grim. The owner was unfriendly, unhelpful and surly so I bailed out and found a more upmarket place in Bad Lauterberg, the Parkhotel Weber-Müller which was only about 12 miles away from Bates’ Motel. Slightly more expensive but a bit of luxury and the grub was excellent

 
Very conscious that every trip report on here must include food pix, so let's get on with it. Stuffed pork fillet with spuds and creamy cabbage

 
Wapping is always banging on about Kurvinger, so rather than look at more depressing concentration camps, next day I plotted a route through the Harz Mountains (Hills, really) and it was brilliant. So good in fact that I kept on riding through forests, lakes and hills and didn't take any pix, sorry. Great roads :thumb2
 
Luftfahrtmuseum in Hannover-Laatzen was up next.

Loved the FW 190, my fav Luftwaffe aircraft

 
Late again logging on to booking.com, nothing I fancied there but last minute.com found another soul-less but cheap modern place in the Hannover suburb of Messe. Why are these placed always on an industrial estate? No restaurant so had to resort to a nearby McDonald's :barf

It's food, Jim, but not as we know it
 
I fancied a look at the Luftwaffe Experimental facility at Rechlin in Western Pomerania. Learning from yesterdays accommodation cock-up, I found a nice hotel called Sembziner Hof in the Muritz National Park but they had only one night available. No problem, heading North again tomorrow. More flat countryside, straight roads. Might as well have taken the autobahn :blast Nice when I got there, though.



Good food - pizza the size of a bin lid



Followed by a nice beer on the terrace to watch the sun go down



Then watched the Liverpool - Tottenham match. Should have gone to bed early :sleep
 
Rechlin was designated as the central Erprobungsstelle (test facility) of the Luftwaffe - bit like Farnborough I guess. Many of their prototypes were evaluated here including the Me262, Ar234 and He162 as well as V1 rockets. It was also beside a lake so various seaplanes and boats were tested here too.

Some interesting aircraft in the collection, so still undergoing restoration

FW Ta154 Night Fighter



Me262, undergoing restoration



He162



Fieseler Fi103 - a piloted V1 :eek: Somebody's been talking to the Japanese

 
So, again booked early to avoid disappointment and booking.com came up trumps with Gasthaus zur Fahre on the river a few miles downstream from Greifswald on the baltic Coast.



Lovely hotel, room with a view of an old-fashioned swing bridge which creaked open each hour on the hour to allow yachts and pleasure craft to access the Baltic a bit further on

 
Peenemunde was only about 30 miles from this place, so that was a no-brainer for a visit. I should say that I had encountered only sunny, warm weather since my arrival (apart from the showers in Berchtesgaden) and it was over 30° today so I was glad of a shortish trip on the bike.

The main museum is housed in the old coal fired power station at Peenemunde as the research and fuel production required huge amounts of electricity



This is a replica of a V2



And I've included this pic just 'cos I think it's a brilliant photo :aidan



I found the launch procedure for the V1 interesting. You can see where a huge steam-powered piston shoved the thing up the ramp until the pulse jet engine had enough thrust to keep it in the air

 
Back to base for another look at the swing bridge (it fascinated me :D).......



......a beer.....



..... and a schnitzel :bounce1

 
Next up, Laboe, near Kiel to explore one of the very few remaining Type VIIC U-boats. Found a great hotel called Admiral Scheer, right on the sea front and each room with a sea view (and a great view of U-995)



There was a wedding reception just winding up in the hotel as I checked in and from my window I was tickled to see the bride and groom having some novel wedding pix taken - on paddle-boards :p



Paddling off into the sunset and a new life together. How romantic :rob



The hotel is also beside the German Naval Memorial to all seamen of every nation who lost their lives in both World Wars. I thought it was an impressive monument. Hitler thought it 'the most awful piece of kitch' and never re-visited it. Let's agree to differ on that :D



There's a lift up to the top of the monument, amazing views from up there

 
A tenner gets you admission to the Memorial and also U-995 so I had a look inside the sub. Lost count of the number of times I banged my head, you'd need to be about 4 foot 10 to live on board this thing for four weeks at a time



Business end. Up to 20 guys lived and worked in here. Must've been a bit rank after a few days ):



Nice sunset over Kiel Bay

 
Next stop, Bremerhaven, more U-boats :blast

Plotted a route from Kiel which took me through Hamburg but there were reports of major road works and traffic jams, so looked at an alternative which involved a ferry crossing of the River Elbe from Gluckstat to Wischhafen. This was going to cut out 65 miles so a bit of a no-brainer. Massive traffic queue for the ferry when I arrived but a German guy on a FJR signalled for me to follow him and we did a bit of filtering and a few detours and arrived at the head of the queue :D

Five euros for a twenty minute crossing plus many miles saved. Sound

 
Nippy Normans supply Touratech, Wunderlich, Desert Fox and many other makes of accessories.
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