Wilkendorf, Germany to Poznań, Poland

Today we drove back into Poland, to Poznań to return our rental car. The rental was for 10 days and we were scheduled to meet the car pick up person at the train station tomorrow. Our hope was to turn it in today so we wouldn’t have to pay for parking tonight. We got to Poznan about 2:30 and called the rental car company. They said someone could meet us at 8 tonight to pick up the car. So we parked, checked in and went exploring.

Poznań Old Market Square
More of the Old Market Square
Poznań Town Hall

Finally about 8:30 the guy showed up, We gave him the car and went to a Pizza place for dinner.

Our pizza
This is what we ordered.

After our pizza we walked around the Old Market Square again.

Tomorrow we will take the train to Hanover.

The old Market Square tonight

Wilkendorf day 2

Today we walked halfway around the Lake in nearby Strausberg. The lake has an electrically driven cable ferry that we took back to our starting point. There is an overhead power line across the lake. The cable powers the ferry. The distance between the electrical towers is 370 meters.

Walking around Lake Straussee
The electrical cable ferry

After our three mile walk we had coffee and cake at a nearby bakery.

Duke picking his pastry at Hennig der Steinofenbäcker
Coffee and pastries

For dinner we went to a nearby restaurant called Restaurant Doppeldecker across the street from the local airfield. The reviews mentioned an airplane parked across from the restaurant. We thought the name was referring to a double decker aircraft. But after seeing the plane and the pictures on the wall we realized Doppeldecker meant Biplane in English!

Restaurant Doppeldecker

Our meal was excellent.

Duke’s mixed grill
My pork tenderloin with roasted brie on top.

I’ve been sad that I’m always too full for desert so tonight we sacrificed and had brownies for desert.

Brownies

Güstrow to Wilkendorf

This morning after breakfast we went for a walk. The weather was windy and cool but very pleasant.

Lake Inselsee
This bridge swings out of the way to let boats through

We have been surprised how few people speak English in the places we have been the last few nights. Google translate is awesome. You just take a picture of the German you want to translate and it instantly gives you the translation in English.

This sign was on a tree outside our hotel this morning.
Here is the translation

After our walk we drove southeast to a small town not too far from Berlin. Oktoberfest is going on in Berlin right now so rooms there were scarce and expensive.

For dinner we drove to a nearby town, Strausberg and had dinner in a restaurant built in an old train station. So far in Germany all our meals have been in tourist areas. Tonight Gasthof Strausberg Nord where we ate felt very authentic and local. The first page of the menu was all horse meat. It’s interesting how our cultural prejudices make us react to foods. We ordered one of the horse meat dishes and a fish called Zander. They were both delicious.

The horse meat dishes. Note the source comment at the bottom
Horse
Zander

Another cultural thing is serving lard as a spread for bread. It is also very good.

We had to look up the lard bread spread
Bread and lard spread
The restaurant where we ate

Ostseebad Sellin to Güstrow

Today we left the Baltic coast and drove inland.

Breakfasts at Hotel Bernstein were great. Almost all our breakfast buffets have had pickled herring and salmon. The fish section on this morning’s buffet was especially good. I liked the look of the fish wrapped around a pickle but I didn’t try it. I did have some of the sour cream pickled herring.

The fish options on the breakfast buffet.

After breakfast we went for a walk along the cliffs in the opposite direction from town.

Duke and I on our hike
The view back towards the hotel and the pier

We stopped for groceries about an hour into our drive. Soon after that it started to rain and it has rained the rest of the day.

On our drive

Hotel am Inselsee where we are tonight is on a lake. Hopefully the weather will cooperate in the morning and we can check it out. Our room has the bedroom upstairs!

Our room at Hotel am Inselsee

We ate dinner at the hotel.

Duke pork had red cabbage and cherries and dumplings
My wild boar schnitzel

Ostseebad Sellin day 2

We were very lucky to have another beautiful day on the Baltic coast today. It’s kind of fun to look at the weather where we have been recently. Three weeks ago we were in Kiruna, Sweden. Today it is snowing there.

Apple weather report for current weather in Kiruna

And four weeks ago we were sailing up the Norwegian coast. We belong to Facebook groups for the two companies that do that route. they have been having very bad weather the past week. Here is a Facebook post about it.

Facebook post about storms.

The two breakfasts buffets we have had in Germany have both had very good bread and they offer a basket for your bread. Very nice!

Bread and bread baskets

Today we did a lovely hike along the coast of the Nordperd Cape which is the easternmost point on the island of Rügen where we are staying. It was only about a 4 mile drive to get to where we started.

On our hike
The cliffs are chalky and we saw warnings to stay back from the cliff edge
The views were magnificent

For dinner we walked down to the main street that ends in the pier and randomly picked a restaurant. We ended up at Gran Café Italia and had an excellent meal.

My pork
Duke’s rump steak