Having packed everything the previous day, I just had to get to the bus station. Since my last tour to Usedom I had turned into the full “Ortlieb” – Fan boy. This firm manufactures (amongst other items) bike bags from truck tarpaulin, which means they are incredibly durable and waterproof. On the last tour I had 2 bags on my rear luggage rack and that was basically it. In the meantime I had equipped my bike with a front rack, with two matching orange Ortlieb Front-Rollers, and an Easter Sale further brought me a handlebar bag and a big bag over the top of both Back-Roller bags, which clips in nicely and keeps everything secure.
It made for a quite massive looking bike, but the weight distribution is much better this way (not 25kg + heavy me on the back tire ;-)) and instead of having to fill two bags to the brim everytime it was nice to have a bit of spare space. Certainly made packing a quicker affair.
I took a long distance bus from Berlin to Hamburg. First time travelling one of those with a bike, but it worked flawlessly. The bus has a bike rack at the rear, and by shoving all my bike bags into one big blue IKEA sack I had no problem with the luggage regulations.
After 2,5 hrs I disembarked in Hamburg and took a train to the outskirts and had a nice relaxing 10km ride with a beautiful sunset before I arrived at a friend’s house in Altengamme. A hearty supper, nice talks and a walk along the Elbe dike finished off the day.