After a day of travelling, I have safely arrived in Schwerin – the capital and second largest city of the Federal State of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. My hotel room for the weekend is the Hotel “Am Fliederberg”.
I started early – getting up at about 5 to drive the short distance to Gatwick from the hotel I stayed in last night. I had breakfast at the Airport: Apparently Nando’s does breakfast (NB: It is only available in the Gatwick branch), and since my usual Gatwick breakfast stops – Costa and McDonald’s – aren’t there any more (Costa being refurbished), a 6am Nando’s: poached egg and spicy beans on toast – started my day.
It wasn’t a long flight: Just 90 minutes after leaving Gatwick, I was disembarking the plane in Hamburg. Just enough time to catch up on sleep – I slept most of the way over. After collecting my luggage I took the S-Bahn in to Hamburg’s Hauptbahnhof (Central Station).
I then had a 2 hour wait before my train on to Schwerin. Lunch was a sandwich and a drink bought from Edeka (a German supermarket chain) – I was rather impressed by the orange juicing machine in the supermarket. Take an orange, put in in the machine, take a bottle and put it under the tap, then press the button. DIY freshly squeezed orange juice! Tesco take note!
I filled the rest of the time by wandering in to the bookshop, finding a newspaper and sitting in the reading area – with a view over the station concourse and – more importantly – of the departure boards so I could see which platform my train would depart from.
The train journey from Hamburg to Schwerin – a journey of about 110km – took about 90 minutes. I was trying my hardest not to fall alseep, but failed miserably. On arrival in Schwerin, I then had the task of trying to find the hotel: Quite a distance (2km) from the city centre. Actually, it is a long, straight road – so was very easy to find!
It was nearly 5pm by the time I arrived to after finding my room a short rest was needed. I plugged the radio in and tuned to the regional radio station, NDR 1 Radio MV, and lay down for a bit.
By 7 I decided it was time to go out. I walked all the way back in towards the City Centre and found a Christmas Market – nothing bought today, I’ll explore properly tomorrow – and a bank where I could get to a cashpoint. With money, I can now use the tram (the stop is almost opposite the hotel).
I then went to one of the restaurants near my hotel. The Restaurant am Löwenplatz appealed. I had a carrot & ginger soup for starter – followed by pork wrapped in bacon, served in a mushroom sauce, with chips. Very tasty – and very filling!
Back in the hotel room now. I’ve watched the news…I’ve recovered from dinner. I’m going to bed now.
Gute Nacht.
FH.
