Ken needs therapy

John’s been saying this for decades, today Ken agreed. More of that later.

I think we’ve mentioned this before, on an activity holiday, there is nothing quite as welcome as two nights in the same hotel (obviously a room with a kettle would be better). Our luggage doesn’t need to be at Reception by 9am, we can linger over breakfast and activity is optional.

After a leisurely breakfast of fruit, cold meats, cheese and locally smoked fish, we chose activity. A 35 km amble around old fishing villages, through pine woods visiting spa towns along the Monchgut peninsula. Well, that’s what the blurb told us.

We’d barely left the hotel before we were on a narrow sandy, grass track that was heavy going. After 1km the first steep climb of the day appeared, at least we had fresh legs for pushing the bikes up it! Once we’d conquered this, it was fairly flat cycling through pretty thatched villages down to Thiessow and on to Klein Zicker stopping for refreshments at a rustic fish shack overlooking the bay. Cycling onwards, the church at Gross Zicker dates back to 1360 with its unusual wooden tower.

The route retraced our steps along the coast through welcome shady pine woods, it’s been a hot day. Kim and Jacky stopped at one point, we’d cycled about 6km alongside a beach but not seen it once. The beaches are beautifully sandy, the sea calm and blue. We had our first glimpse of the chalk cliffs the island is famous for……oh, and our first nudists. Kim at age 15 remains deeply scarred by an experience involving her parents, in France, Diane insists she’s being over dramatic. Anyway, Ken announced that he had never seen a nudist beach in his life and headed up over the sand dune. He was warned and, on his own admission, now requires therapy.

All along the coast, campsites and stylish cabins are located amongst the trees. However, dotted in amongst them are derelict huts dating back to the old GDR. Tourism pretty much ceased in 1953 when hotels, taxis and service companies were nationalised. Owners of private hotels were convicted of economic crimes, their property confiscated and sent to prison. By 1963, there were over 50,000 places available for East Germans and their children, mainly alongside beaches.

Another flat stretch of coast was cycled before arriving at the outskirts of Sellin where a hideous climb awaited us. Our instructions said ‘you may wish to dismount’. Ha! Dismounting was the only realistic option. Halfway up, we took the opportunity to rest and let the tourist train past while trying to work out if it carried bikes.

Lulled into a false sense of security, we sailed down the other side into Sellin. We were soon met with cobbled roads, which are lovely if you’re not on a bike, and a long slow ascent up to the top of the cliffs where the town is perched. Sellin is an elegant spa town, famous for its ornate wooden pier and pavilion. As we admired the magnificent structure from the cliff top we looked at each other and agreed that what we needed was an ice cream, not a steep walk down to an old pier.

Retracing our steps back down the cobbled streets was slow and painful. Luckily our last 5km were on lovely flat asphalted cycle paths.

Apologies for lack of photos. When it’s really hot and your phone is navigating the way, the view has to be really, really special to stop, detach a phone and get off a bike. In fact, we hope you’re suitably grateful that any photos appear.

Tomorrow we cycle up to Lohme so an early start for us and it looks like rain may keep us company all the way.