Waiting for the ferry to Germany we bumped into two Swedish cyclists. They didn’t have too much to say, other than to mention that the part of Germany we were about to start cycling through might have a little less English than we’d become accustomed to (with the Icelanders and Danes being unbelievably fluent). Apparently, as Mecklenberg was part of East Germany, almost everyone learnt Russian in school as their second language rather than English. We noted the advice, but it wasn’t until our second night camping that we really started to hit home that they may have been on to something.

We pulled into the campsite after a rather pleasant, but longer day, cycling so we were a little tired. The reception was closed, but a campsite resident pointed us towards an intercom button that you can press to talk to someone in charge. “Guten tag, sprechen sie Englisch?” (Hello, do you speak English?) we said – hoping for a “ya” response. “A little” was the reply, and unfortunately it was very little. While we can often manage with hand signals and facial expressions, talking to someone over the phone with a language barrier is near impossible. After a few unsuccessful, clumsy minutes attempting conversation over the intercom, the lady on the other end gave up, and a short while later turned up at the campsite in her car. Face to face, the conversation was much easier, and we were on our way setting up in a beautiful grassy plot right next to a lake.

The next day we had a choice of two campsites for the evening, and randomly picked one to try first. The campsite was down a long forested driveway, and when we arrived we were greeted not by a reception building, but by a large wooden welcome board with a bunch of phone numbers written on it. Eeek! After the issues over the intercom from the previous night we weren’t particularly eager to try that again so soon, so off to campsite number two we went.

This one was in closer to town, and had a reception building (good start), which was closed and had a phone number written on the door (arrgghh!). Usually at this point we would just set up and wait for someone to come and ask us to pay, however in this case the toilets and showers were locked, and so finding someone who had a key was slightly more important. After walking around in circles for half an hour trying to see if there was anyway we could avoid talking to someone on the phone, we were left with no other options and Matt bravely dialled the number. The man who answered on the other end had even less English than the women at the previous campsite, and also had a flair for using WAY too many words (why can’t people just answer yes or no?). Five painful minutes later, we gave up, and decided to set the tent and make do without the toilet key. So much for our early night.

We set up our tent next to a German couple who had arrived at the campsite by kayak, who just happened to speak some English. They told us that they had called the same guy and he had told them he was in getting his car fixed, and would come by later but couldn’t say when (gee – why on earth couldn’t we understand that?).

The rest of the trip to Berlin was thankfully easier (the toilet blocks weren’t locked, and we didn’t have to use the phone again… for now).