Sunshine! Since I had a few days to kill before the ferry home I had made a reservation at a nice and cheap hotel for 3 nights. So today was an easy day through the countryside. I slept late and started biking late.

Nature and buildings looks very like home here, this could have been a typical Swedish house.

When I arrive in Gadebusch the Zum Schwedenkönig is closed, but since there is an ice cream shop and a park bench outside I forgive them. I wait until the restaurant opens and I can get my room. It’s small but very nice.

I take a long siesta and then go out for supermarket shopping and dinner.

Sunshine! I spend the day writing blogs, walking around, eating, sleeping.

As this is Pfingsten and a long weekend is coming up I start to fear that some of the 80 585 712 Germans and possibly some Scandinavians will go to the nice area around Lübeck and Travemünde, I make a reservation at a Motel near the ferry just to be on the safe side.

Nothing much gets done this day. It is really starting to feel like the end of a long journey now.

I bike the short distance to Travemünde. On the way in to Lübeck I recognize several places that I biked past with Jokin & Ainoa back in August (http://tomascarlsson.info/blog/nesw/2013/08/20/day-56-63-stockholm-bremen.html). I ride through Lübeck and in to the countryside towards Travemünde where my Motel is.

The weather was really nice and warm.

The Motel I booked was a bit worn down and not at all great, but at least it was on the ground floor so I could park the bike indoors.

Sunshine! I have a very short ride to the ferry. Once I get to the harbor I have to check-in at the Hafenhaus, I get my boarding card and a key card to open the unmanned gate to the harbor area.

They say I can board the ship at 14:00 so I wait a while before I ride through the harbor, it’s a dangerous place with lots of vehicles moving around.

Once I get to the ferry I ride to the front of the queue and the loaders let me board before all the cars. Once on the ship the staff tells me I have to wait for a long time before I can get my cabin, in their best Soviet style customer service.

I sit around and wait, the ship is slowly filling up with truck drivers, it seems that they start to drink the second they turn off their engines. Some are really drunk when check-in opens at 15:30. The Stena Flavia was really dirty and worn down, not the way I remember it from the last time but perhaps they haven’t cleaned it in 9 months. I spend the 23 hours on the ship sleeping, eating, walking around, watching the severely drunk truck drivers.

I wake up early, I go for a walk around deck before 6 in the morning. The truckers are still going strong, some have cuts and bruises, maybe they fought or fell over. I spend a very long day at sea, when we finally arrive in Ventspils I hurry off, ride through the customs really quickly and bike to the ticket office. I get in line and very soon I get my tickets, I rush outside and ride back through customs again. I find the ferry and get in front of the line and board really quickly. 45 minutes, cabin to cabin, must be a record of some sorts.

I sleep well on the Scottish Viking, it’s much cleaner and less worn than the other ferry. When I wake up we are close to Sweden. I spend the last bit of my journey on deck seeing Sweden getting closer and closer. I get off the ferry and ride really fast to the train station and board the train for the last bit home.

It feels very strange that it is over now.

…​End of this journey…​