In June 2003, from the 5th to the 9th, Claus, Asger and I went on our annual MC tour. This time the destination were Gdansk, Poland.

Gdansk was easy to reach from Copenhagen, because there were a daily ferry departure. The Ferry was the Glorious Dana Anglia, which used to sail from Esbjerg to Harwich, England. Many people uses this ferry as a 24 hour cruise, where you can shop in Gdansk and go right back with the ferry again. This way you can also retrieve the cheapest tickets. But we didn't want to return from Gdansk, we wanted to drive to Germany and take the Rostock - Gedser ferry back to Denmark. This increased the prize a bit but what the heck it's vacation and things was cheap in Poland and it was a blooding long way if we needed to drive forth and back.

We got on board to a 1/4 filled ferry after we had shown our passports to be allowed to leave the "Schengen". Before that we had our motorcycle papers looked through meticulous, actually a comforting thought that vehiles can't leave unless papers match, so the risk of stolen vehicles being exported is minimized.

We found our cabin, it was okay, we could lock the door and keep our MC gear there in "safety". Got a quick wash in deodorant an went to grab a beer on the sundeck. It was so so with the sun, but the Carlsberg beer was okay, at least for Asger and I. 

Gdansk and Poland didn't really shown it's friendly face at the begining, we got of the ferry as the last of 30-50 cars and got to the Toll. Customs went even more slow than in the Cold War, they looked for 'Gods knows what'. The sun was in good shape that day, and we were steam cooked in our leader suits. We though that maybe the custom officers wanted to demonstrate that they where still in power, because it was an ending era, soon Poland will be in the "Schengen" and they will be laid off.

After 1½ hour we were all through and went downtown, except for a single contact made by a "gangster type", who wanted to know if I needed to exchange some danish kroners to zloty, Gdansk was a nice City, where I probaly will spend some more time later in my life. The problem when travelling on motorcycle is that you need to leave your gear, suit and helmet, somewhere safe while roaming the streets and thats allways problematic if you don't plan to accommondate your self.

Since it was the guys on tour we offcource wanted to see a real castle with dungeons and perifically defence walls, what would be more naturally to see Malbork a couple of hours drive south of Gdansk. This marvel is maybe Europes largest fortification. Malbork is one of Polands most popular turist attractions. Its construction dates back to 1270. In WWII it was heavily damaged, I don't know why the Russian did this, except from it was a Nazi headquater, but it didn't have any defensive value in 1945. But the polish people steady and with care restored it to it's previous glory. Malbork is magnificant and I would suggest everybody with a favorable juncture of circumstances that brings them in this area to visit the Castle.

We stayed one night in Malbork, we found a small pension just outside the city, we had some beer at night on the river boats, it was quite cosy there.

The next day we drove westward on highway 22. The roads were heavily loaded with trucks and cars, here was overtaking common and was often done in a hazardous way. I had to soften my suspension, otherwise I felt like being thrown off the whole time. The road was not particular suited for "race" suspensions.

We made a stop in Drawsko Pomorski, found a cheap hotel in the periphery, the owners kindly offered us to lock the motorcycles up in the fenced yard with a watch dog. We accepted happily and the next day paid the ward a tips for taking good care of our bikes. For the evening we found a descent joint and got some grub and beers.

We were heading for Peenemünde in Germany so it would be easiest for us to drive to Swinoujscie and cross the border there, BUT even though we were smiling at the picture below we were pissed because the border was only open to pedestrians. There was nobody to blame other than ourselfs, we haven't read the legend of our maps correctly. There was a long drive to Szczecin where the closest border were, so we decided to take pitstop in one of the small citys on the road. We found newly build place with heavy curtains and carved wood beds. The place was what I would call tastless.... But after some beers, who cared!

Our destination next day were as said Pennemünde, where we wanted to see the birthplace of rocket science. At Peenemünde Historisch-Technisches Informationszentrum it is possible to visit this historical place. 

Unfortunately the pictures we took of the V2 rocket were pretty bad so take a look at this site instead. The Museum was worth a visit, but the outdoor collection was somewhat neglected, which of course is a pity.

That evening we camped at Ludmin near Greifswald and next day we took the ferry from Rostock back to Denmark.