Seehof to Wismar - July 22

We packed up our tent, left our luggage at the campground reception and caught the bus back into Schwerin. The bus was packed with out of town tourists and getting a ticket was a long and complicated exercise. Once everyone was finally seated a posse of three ticket inspectors swooped and managed to catch an old lady without the right ticket, and she was fined.
Tourist Info in Schwerin found a hotel in Wismar (32 km away on the coast) with a vacancy and we booked it.
With that organised we took in the sights of Schwerin.
Without doubt the schloss on the island next to the city centre is the most spectacular castle we have seen, and we have seen a few.
Surrounded by water and boasting numerous turrets and spires of various designs, it looks fairy-tale like.
The gardens were looking especially splendid because of the BUGA.
The town of Schwerin itself is a lovely place with many cobbled streets, mediaeval and renaissance buildings and a very large cathedral.
The brickwork in these northern German cities is outstanding.
Because we had to ride on to Wismar today, we weren't prepared to spend the €32 for the short time we would have had in the garden show - a bit of a shame.
After a bratworst lunch in the town square we caught the bus back out to Seehof, and with light rain falling we got changed, loaded the bikes, collected Tracey's lost watch (which had been handed in to reception!) and headed for Wismar.
The rain was only light and the bike track was beautiful, winding through forests, at times deep and dark, at times Sherwood-like.
The path was largely paved and under a leafy canopy (the mediaeval fish merchants planted trees to cover the roads to keep the catch cool).
Despite out previous two big days of riding, fears of saddle soreness were unfounded.
Our hotel at Wismar, the Bertramshof (€62/dbl with brekky) was pleasant and clean and about 2km from the town centre.
33km today.

22nd July Alt Garge to Hamburg
Rod's solo tour
Left Alt Garge early for the last leg into Hamburg on what I thought was going to be an easy day. I had gone only about five clicks when I lost another spoke which caused the back wheel to buckle quite badly but as luck would have it I again found a bike shop with a few ks. While the bike shop put in a new spoke and trued the wheel up it poured rain, every cloud has a silver lining. Back on the road about 10 o'clock and heading for Lauenberg. Really pretty old town with some significant Elbe River ship building industry on the outskirts. Met an Aussie motorcyclists who spotted my Australia riding top, he had ridden from Korea through Russia and was also ending his tour in Hamburg.
Had a cup of very average coffee and headed for Hamburg. I picked the wrong side of the river and ended up mud running for at least two hours, the bike was an absolute mess and I wasn't much better. Some of the forest tracks were pretty and where the branches met overhead it was reasonably dry.
Reached Hamburg covered in mud and took the first accommodation I came to, a pretty average equivalent of the Aussie Formula One chain.