Saturday 25 July 1998

Slideshow

My foot was to the metal going 140-160 km/hr. About 10 km out of Berlin the traffic slowed to a crawl. After another 10 km of 40-50 km/hr back to 140-160. This continued until we were on E55 heading to Rostock, a longer route but I thought faster. E55 was 140-160 km/hr until we neared Rostock. Arrived in Rostock at 2:40 p.m. we still had a chance to make the ferry. There traffic came to a complete halt on the right lane of the autobahn. I pulled to the left lane and was able to go about 4-5 km at a decent speed. Drove into Rostock, came back and turned onto E22. Pretty smart eh.

Not that it helped because traffic was at a standstill. After a few kilometers traffic picked up again and it was touch and go whether we would make the ferry. About 5 km. from Stralsund, from here on known as Stall "#F$%n#" sund on my map. We were STALLED (appropriate name), a complete stop, I mean PARKING LOT.

Pedestrians were zooming by us with a great big grin on their faces. No hope in hell of catching the ferry. Because of the difficulties I had getting a reservation on ferries from Rostock or Sassnitz to Trelleborg, was considering turning around and heading for Denmark where I knew we could get across to Sweden. We would have lost a day that way, so decided to continue on and see what would happen when, IF EVER, we arrived in Sassnitz.

After about an hour we finally made it to Stall "#F%n$" sund. Traffic everywhere. The locals were driving on the sidewalks. At one intersection we were the first car, tree or four times, with a green light but could not cross. Finally, after 2 hours 40 minutes, we made it through Stall "$F$%n#" sund.

Made it to Sassnitz at 8:30 p.m. The ferry terminal looked abandoned. Nobody in sight. Everything was locked. We were in a PANIC ready to abandon our toilet training. We heard some voices coming from the second story of the building. Finally we found a door that was open and went in. Two ferry workers emerged from a door on the second floor and were just leaving. I, with my broken German, told them that we had missed our sailing and asked what could be done. They said that there would be another ferry at 1:30. Asked to use the washroom and they said the terminal was closed. GREAT. With knees rubbing we managed to get back to the car and after, some positive reinforcement to each other, we made it to a restaurant a short distance back from the terminal. It was 8:45 p.m. and the restaurant closed at 9:00. We were the last customers allowed in. While having dinner several cars drove up but were turned away. There was a steady stream of cars on the road in front of the restaurant heading for the terminal.

After dinner we decided to investigate the terminal again and noticed that cars were going through the toll booth. We drove up and were told that another ferry was leaving for Trelleborg at 10:30 p.m.. I had misunderstood, the next ferry was not leaving at 1:30 a.m. but 1 ½ hours later. Gave the reservation number and passports and we were in. The ferry left at 10:30 p.m.. All the people who had missed the 5:45 were packed on to this ferry. And I mean packed. We were like "The Boat People". People were lying on the floors, and sitting anywhere they could park their fannies. We managed to get a table in the bar and had several drinks and coffees. Two German women, both with children who were exhausted, sitting next to us, exchanged some heated words over the seats. One claiming that the other hadn’t ordered anything from the bar and should get the hell out of there. Eventually things quieted down and peace prevailed.

Sunday 26 July 1998

The Swedish relatives were supposed to meet us in Trelleborg, but since we were so late, we didn’t expect them to be there. I went off to find a map of Sweden so we could find our way to Broby. The store on the ferry had a dozen maps of Germany, but were out of Swedish maps. When I arrived back at the table Rita told me that a man sitting across the aisle from us was just looking at a map. "Entschuldigung, haben sie eine Landkarte von Sweden" I said. "NEIN", meaning "F@#$@ off’, said the German, without even looking up. So I did.