The ferry terminal in Kiel was a passenger terminal amidst a very industrial container port. We shouldered our too-heavy bags and asked a van driver who was waiting for his paying client if the sprawling industrial road outside the terminal was the “street” we needed to take to get to a bus stop that would take us to the train station, a three minute walk from our lodging.
He seemed a little confused but confirmed it was. We started hoofing it .
Another ferry passenger, German, who was looking for the same bus stop joined us. Our phone navigation systems agreed on a route, and eventually we three got to the stop. At which point Doug and I confirmed we might not be able to pay for a bus ride, because we hadn’t pre-loaded the bus app. (Partly because of international phone number “issues”.)
Who should pull up to the stop but the van driver. His (paying) client was going to a hotel adjacent to the train station and was happy to offer us a free ride there. Yubbah-dubbah.
The train station was far enough away to make us fully appreciate the lift.
We checked in to our room and called it a night.
The next day, Kiel seemed underwhelming. Very spread out, and our limited on-the-spot-research wasn’t generating any particular places that seemed enticing. I liked that “our” neighborhood was a little tougher than some of the places we’d been staying– some combination of students and Middle-Eastern immigrants. Almost every single street had a 6′ wide red-brick bike lane, so…perhaps we could rent bikes?
Tromped to the only rental place. After a fair bit of our butchered twelve-word German and the shop-owner’s rough English we determined they had just the bikes, the rate was OK, and it wouldn’t work, because the next day was Sunday= store closed. More talk. She went and got her husband/ biz partner.
No, it was impossible. Ohhhhhh- we didn’t want electric bikes.
OK… they would rent us the bikes Sat afternoon to Sunday night, no deposit, and we could lock them up outside the store when we were done. HEEE-HAW!
We pedaled off into greater Kiel for the afternoon, and made bigger plans that night.
The next morning we packed sandwiches and headed north along the Kiel Fjord, to the Kiel Canal. My ignorance is a constant source of wonder–I had never heard of this canal. Still pondering a waterway that connects the North Sea and the Baltic Sea and a fresh water river….
This picture doesn’t do justice to how close the ships going up and down the canal were.
I’d found info from people who’d biked the length of the canal- there’s a ferry across….and it’sa bit cozier than the one from Lithuania.
And it’s popular on a sunny Sunday afternoon.
