We had a free day scheduled for today, apart from a tour of Stralsund led by our very own guide, Nicholas, who not  only had read the guide book he’d also brought it with him so that he was bullet proof! We set off at 10:00 and saw some of the older buildings and the remains of many more. Apparently Stralsund was never a military target during the second world war but it became an accidental victim. A flight of US bombers failed to spot the V2 rocket manufacturing and launching site at Peenemünde due to poor visibility. On the way home they had to dump their bombs (couldn’t land with them) and they spotted unfortunate Stralsund and dropped them there. I’ve no idea of the human casualties but there was a fair bit of destruction of this Hanseatic city. Another misfortune to befall Stralsund was that it was in the GDR and not west Germany, so very little or nothing was done to rebuild during this period in history and it is only in more recent times that the bomb sites have been cleared and tidied up, to become new building sites, parks and so on.

By around 11:15 we had arrives at St Mary’s church, one of two fine churches in Stralsund. Nick said that we had 15 minutes, if we wanted it, to climb the 390 steps and 90 metres of the bell tower, which of course we did, together with Mike & Dileas Tuner (Tyra), Jacky Scott (Condor) , Brenda Butcher (Busy Bee) and Bob Hazell (Pipistrelle). The trouble with spending time on boats is that apart from the 3 or 4 steps to get into the cockpit from the interior, one doesn’t come across steps and its’ amazing how quickly one’s muscles atrophy. Having said that, even if we were fighting fit as it were, we would still find 390 steps to be hard going! The initial several hundred consist of a spiral staircase made of stone but the last 90 or so comprise a series of steep wooden steps, ladders really, that lead past the 3 bells and up to the viewing gallery at the top. As it was so clear today the views were wonderful and we all felt that it had been worth the effort. The only downside to our little adventure was that it took considerably longer than 15 minutes and fearless leader had departed with his diminished group to continue the tour. They were not to be found so the three of us decided upon a cup of coffee and a visit to Edeka on the way back to the boat.

Whilst we were walking with the group, I fell in with James Littlewood, owner of the other power boat on the rally, a 13m Polaris Enduro 1300GL called Paddington V. We’d met James before at CA house, when we attended an inland waterway seminar day a couple of years ago and then he’d kindly invited us to come out with him at any time on Paddington to see what we thought. Now we’d never taken up that offer but here we had an excellent opportunity to look around and we agreed that we could do so after lunch and at14:15 we were with our hosts James & Carol on board Paddington. It was an eye-opener, she was so very comfortable inside! It was like being in someone’s lounge, with windows everywhere so it was beautifully light. The aft cabin was extremely spacious and the cabin in the bows, whilst not as large, was certainly a good size for guests. All in all we were most impressed and are very grateful to the Littlewoods for giving us their time and for answering so many questions. Indeed, we have decided that it is about time that we seriously consider this sort of vessel as our next boat – we really do want to expand our horizons and the inland waterways of Europe sound ideal to us – Brexit permitting, that is…

We spent the next couple of hours sunbathing and reading, it had been a splendid day so far and indeed remained so. At 18:00 Andy & Pauline Smith (Odile) came over for drinks and later we had a vegetable curry, of the usual excellent standard.