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In Which I Go Out Of My Way
November 22, 2006 by Mike
Stralsund, Germany
Route: Swinoujscie - Szczecin - Pasewalk - Stralsund
Oh to have had access to the Internet and read Alexander from Leeds' comment before I set off.
(Hello Sandy - what a pleasure to hear from you. I look forward to seeing you out on the road when the weather picks up. Spain, perhaps?)
He's right. The border at Swinoujscie is indeed closed to motor vehicles. Unfortunately, the first I knew about it was when I rolled up there to be greeted by a whole bunch of sour-faced, anally-retentive, humourless, officious, jackanape border guards. I bet they all have small penises, and that includes the female border guards.
Not only were they not going to let me through, they weren't going to explain why I had to right 120km south to Szczecin in order to get into the next door country. (I could see Germany, just the other side of the barrier. It has roads there too, you know, that I could have ridden the bike on. They're quite advanced.)
I'm sure someone will point to the million-and-one places I should have heard about this closed border.. as well as the comment on my own bloody site!.. but I hadn't. My map of Poland gives no indication. Neither does the map of Germany I bought yesterday.
It might seem strange given that I'm already 11,000 miles into the trip, but the extra 150-odd miles I've had to ride today have really cheesed me off. (I'd put it stronger than that if I knew my Ma wasn't reading this.) I'm worried about the tyres. It's been a cold day. There was fog as I headed south to Szczecin. I was closer to Berlin than I was to the coast. I was not a happy bunny.
(Phil in Berlin: if it wasn't for the tyres I'd have come to town and tried to find you. I reckon most Berliners must know you by now? "Wo wohnt der Englische Bolshevik von Bradford?" Or I could have walked the streets listening for a Smokie song wafting out of your window?)
OK, so the fog lifted pretty much as I crossed the border, the countryside was dramatically different (and beautiful) from where I've been and the Autobahn delivered me -- zippitty-quick -- to Stralsund in one piece. But it's the principle, dammit. And the fact that, as far as I can see without bothering to actually do any research, this closed border nonsense is probably Poland being a bit sensitive about the fact that Swinoujscie should really be in Germany -- geographically, historically, economically, culturally -- and so they try to over-emphasise the fact that it isn't.
I could be as wrong as I usually am, but I came away from Poland with a bad taste in my mouth: both borders have shocked me with their complete crapness. Not something the rest of the country, and certainly not the people, deserves.
--
But I'm a glass half full kinda guy. I admit I'd never heard of Stralsund until I managed to track down a Triumph dealer here. Turns out to be a UNESCO World Heritage site. The Old Town sits on a small island. Many of the houses, churches and monasteries, the town hall and the street plan have survived since Stralsund's glory days as one of the great Hansa towns in the early Middle Ages. Those that didn't survive WWII have been sympathetically rebuilt. Angela Merckel comes from these parts and brought Dubya for a visit in the summer. It survived.
But the best thing about Stralsund must be Motorrad Total. I might have known: Triumph dealers wot I've met have all been good people so far.
Sonja and Thomas greeted me with a hot cup of coffee, interest in the trip, knowledge of the bike and a readiness to get straight to work on it. I'm getting new tyres front and rear, a new inner tube on the back, new spokes to replace the broken one and a couple either side that will have ben weakened, a fuse for the back light, an oil and filter change... *and* a full, scheduled service. It will feel.. I hope.. like riding a new bike again.
Thomas
They even got me a good deal on a little hotel in the middle of the Old Town. And not just that - Thomas then fetched his car and drove me over to the hotel. What service I'm getting with this service!
This has come at just the right time for me: I'm tired. And besides, I need some new contact lenses. It's going to take a day or two to order them, so I needed to stop somewhere for a couple of days anyway.
And, clearly, it comes at just the right time for the bike, which hasn't been looked at by a pro since I crossed the Norway-Sweden border. More than 4000 hard miles. The eastern states of the Baltic have been a strain at times. The weather took its toll - cold and snow and ice and rain and more cold. So too did the roads, the mud and sand and potholes; and the culture of bad driving; the long miles. It's been tiring.
(Tiring - but what a blast. I'm not complaining. Just so you know.)
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By Linda the Spy | November 27, 2006 3:14 PM
Gosh, I didn't know about the border in Swinoujscie...
I would have told you, I swear :)
I'm not a bike-rider though. There's my excuse...
And I always thought that borders are a bad idea in general. Imagine living in Szczecin and dealing with those 'happy in their own special way' officers every time you want to go shopping in Germany...
Glad you're ok. :)