I drove all the way to Rostock in my slippers. I'd hoped to spot a hypermarket en route but one didn't materialise. Some of you may be asking why we've brought our slippers on holiday but some European hotels, like houses, expect you to leave your shoes at the front door. Anyway, at least I've got something to drive in. The German motorways were plagued with roadworks and a much less pleasant experience than driving through The Netherlands. The only set of roadworks we encountered in The Netherlands was marked with smileys that initially wore a sad expression but got smilier the nearer we got to the end of the roadworks.
The drive to Rostock may have been a long one but it was fairly pleasant. I whacked the car into 6th gear and cruise control for most of the way and relaxed. We have a few thousand miles ahead of us so I've decided the driving being stress free is a major requirement. Our soundtrack is an iPod set to 'random play' and loaded with near 15,000 tracks from my collection. I'm also hoping to supplement the soundtrack by acquiring at least a few CDs along the way. Our opening track each day is going to be 'Rocket' by Goldfrapp because it's a great driving song and we like it. Our route to Rostock ought to have taken us through Leer according to the research I did before we left but didn't. Leer is the hometown of Enno Bunger a new German band who recently released their debut album. I saw them in concert in Köln (Cologne for foreigners) with my brother Steve in January and their marvelous performance boded well for the album. I was hoping to buy the album in the place it was created but it wasn't to be. To be perfectly honest I have no idea which way we drove but the sat nav took us East and then north to Rostock along autobahns the whole way. We are the mercy of the sat nav all the way and at no point did I have any sense of where we were.
For lunch we ate picnic food bought in the supermarket in Rotterdam. We had some flaky pastry type bread lined with cream cheese with slices of tasty cured beef. We also had garlic olives, cured sausage, spicy sweet peppers stuffed with cream cheese and an unimpressive tapenade which was left half eaten. We finished the meal with some disappointing sticky cinnamon buns that definitely looked better than they were. I hate it when cake doesn't taste as good as it looks. I'd like to say we stopped and picnicked in a sunny nook by the side of a lake but we ate on the move and pushed on to Rostock. Because of the time lost in roadworks we arrived around 6pm, an hour later than we intended.
Our hotel was in a large block of converted apartments that was very old-communist looking in design. It was in an austere part of town reminiscent of pictures I've seen of the old East Germany with rows of blocks of flats like boxes set out in strict military rows. Disappointingly the promised wifi in the room did not materialise so the posting of this blog is going to fall behind. On the plus side the room had cooking facilities and we shopped for our dinner in a cheap supermarket opposite the hotel in an attempt to balance out the expense of Rotterdam. We attracted some attention while shopping and noticed people pointing us out to each other with no attempt at being discrete. I heard one youth call us 'Engels' as he pointed us out to his mates. Rather curiously this is the Dutch word for 'English' and they were most definitely German boys. Kit said he heard someone commenting that one of us is fat which I can only assume was a reference to Kit in view of my own willowy frame. Funnily enough nobody noticed I was wearing a pair of old slippers with a hole in the right one where my big toe pops out.
It was already heading towards twilight as we headed into the city and our tram ride there took up 40 minutes of precious daylight.
The tram was cheap, clean and graffiti-free but strangely a couple of minutes late. I can't remember the last time I experienced German public transport that didn't arrive exactly on time. 
We were a little apprehensive approaching the city centre and wondered if Rostock would be another Rotterdam but it was delightful with plenty of beautiful buildings and a lovely, friendly and welcoming atmosphere. Rostock was extensively bombed in the second world war and the centre has clearly been sensitively restored to its former glory.
Kit and I immediately felt at home. This is Germany, the land we know and love. We were both immediately sorry that we didn't have more time here and that our hotel is so far away from the city centre. We resolved to return to Rostock at some point to have a good look around.There was a fun fair and an Easter market in the town centre which meant we were able to have our first street sausage of the trip. We love German fast food and sausages are generally ubiquitous in different styles, sizes and even shapes. The Thüringer Bratwurst is the most common but I recommend trying them all. An old German friend of mine, Andreas Stetter, once said to me in all seriousness, 'Eddie, why is it the English think we Germans eat a lot of sausages?' I tried to explain that Germans eat more sausages than the rest of Europe put together but he wouldn't have it.
Luckily the shops were still open and I had a chance to look for some shoes. I was wearing Kit's trainers, which are 2 sizes too small for me. Unfortunately, all the shoes I saw were way too expensive. The only decent ones were around 100 Euros a pair and that is a price I absolutely refuse to pay. I'm afraid I'll be driving in my slippers again tomorrow. Just before the shops closed we had a quick look in a CD shop and I bought the new album by German band Revolverheld. They are a band that has fallen under my radar previously but I recently learned they morphed out of a band I previously loved called 'Privat' so I'm hoping the CD will be great. Unfortunately there was no sign of the Enno Bunger album.
We walked part of the way back to the hotel so we could enjoy a little more of the city centre. It was still pleasantly warm and there were plenty of people around enjoying the late evening.
Back at the hotel we ate a late meal of bockwurst and potato salad before hitting the sack.
We'll play a song in the morning before we head off to our next destination, Gdansk. Despite what I wrote earlier, we hope to get up early tomorrow and make Gdansk with plenty of time to to see some of the city and to have a piece of the best apple pie in Europe.Paddington bear, featured at the beginning of the video, is our mascot for the trip. We thought the bear that gets lost to be apt for the job.
HOTEL INFO -
Gästehaus Rostock Lütten-Klein
Warnowallee 23
18107 Rostock
Tel - 0381 776970
Situated in a suburb away from and a decent 40 minute tram ride into the centre although trams were cheap and frequent. There were public parking spaces along the front of the hotel and a free public carpark opposite. We were a little anxious about the security of the car but nothing untoward occured. The member of staff who checked us in was a less than helpful and openly irritable. The building is like a big old army barracks and the rooms were on long corridors. Our room was at the very end of a corridor and the promised wifi did not work. We were so far away from the hub we assume we were out of range. Our room was a decent size with kitchen facilities and a dining table so we took advantage of the supermarket opposite to shop for our evening meal. There are some restaurants and other shops also nearby. There was a good bathroom with a bath and shower. The hotel offered a buffet breakfast for 5 Euros but we found the set up quite confusing, customer-unfriendly and bought breakfast at the local supermarket instead.
Cost - 50 Euros
Score - 6/10
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