Tag: Germany

Our last day on Rügen island turned out to be the best in terms of fun places to see. We directed our steps first to Binz – yet another lovely seaside resort – where we took a little train to Jagdschloss castle. Of course, beach and ice cream first 🙂

Jagdschloss was pretty interesting with all the antler, guns and, most of all, its openwork circular staircase that led to a tower that gave us the view on Rügen surroundings. Boy, I’m too heavy for this amount of stairs! And what Wojtek enjoyed the most was a fancy playground at the courtyard of the castle. Well, everyone had a treat.
Afterwards we came back to Binz for more beach, more ice cream and some lunch.

Our last part of the day was dedicated to Naturerbe Zentrum which is a national heritage here on Rügen. I guess it was one of the best attractions we saw here. We took the little train again, but there was no need to do that (better would be to take our car).Anyway, this centre is built in a forest and it’s an educational path (suitable for handicapped people – how cool is that?) that teaches you about various aspects of forest life. But that’s not the end… With not even one step to cover you find yourself at a remarkable altitude of 40m over the ground where, above the tree tops, you can really see the whole island. Amazing for adults and for children! See yourself.

That final circular tower was a real treat. It was built around a tree (that was one awesome idea) and I could feel like I’m in Avatar world a bit – tree centric. This maybe a little joke but there sure is some truth in it. I mean, I really felt the power of nature in this place and I felt like it was respected.

Rügen, we’ll be back! 

The next day was supposed to be the prettiest of all journey. It sure was charming but if the prettiest? Jasmund National Park is the smallest national park in Germany and is well known for its Kreidekusten – chalk cliffs that go as far as 10 km outside Sassnitz. So of course, power of nature is always interesting to me. However, in my current state I wouldn’t be able to walk along the cliffs so we chose to have a ship cruise instead. But first, we headed to the port that was like 200m away from our place.

Being on a ship instead of walking down the cliffs had both advantages and disadvantages. With a baby (or two for a fact as our friends were travelling with a 10-month old) it was sure easier. Also, we could see the cliffs from a perspective of the sea which was something different. However, I felt like I was not close enough. I think I would prefer a stroll but that was out of question for me. What a pity.

The ship went as far as the Königsstuhl (King’s Chair) cliff which seems to be the most known (I don’t know why, it’s not prettier than the others). It’s possible to get on a top of it from the ground but we didn’t do it as that also required some amount of walking. But we had a good view from the sea.

Our next attraction was more of a sight for the guys – we visited HMS Otus – submarine that now serves as a museum. Boy it was tight in there!

Afterwards we continued our walk up the panoramic bridge that showed us the whole port area. Sassnitz itself was nothing special (or at least we didn’t see anything special where we walked), however I really liked the little stone beach that we visited at the end of the day.

On our second day of the stay we decided to take it really slow on Rügen island. We headed down to this small town of Göhren which is basically one of the summer resorts along the shore and we directed our steps straight to the beach where we spent a couple of hours. We were also waiting for our friends to join us so we didn’t want to have too much of an action-packed day. And it was perfect. I mean, who would have guessed that I would ever like staying on a beach and doing nothing? I guess kids change a lot in our lives. Oh yes, I forgot, on our way to Göhren we stopped by in some town to have a look at Roland – the steam locomotive that is Rügen’s attraction. I think I’ve never seen one running in my entire life!

When our friends joined us we went to have something to eat, got back to the beach, stayed a bit on a playground and decided to change the area and move to Sellin, another summer resort, only a bigger one this time. It’s well known for its 400-metre jetty and a very photogenic Bruckenhouse situated right on it. I have to say it was breathtaking. Again, we didn’t do anything special. A walk down the jetty, trabant parade, ice-cream, and resting on the sand – that was our afternoon in Sellin.

And a bonus photo: sunset view from our appartment in Sassnitz.

Each year thousands of people from Poland go out for the long May weekend and – somehow last minute – we decided to be among them this year. It’s definitely last chance for me to have a proper rest, soon I won’t be able to travel. So we chose Rügen, a German island very close to us (like 2.5h drive). It’s well known as a cyclist paradise – it sure is true. Although we didn’t move by this means of transport, we cannot deny it.

We started in a small village of Schaprode where we took a water taxi to Hiddensee island. This 17-km strip of land is just the place to be on a bike, as there are no cars there and multitude of cycling paths. We visited the village of Kloster that is well known for its lighthouse and to have been the place of living of Gerhart Hauptmann (German Nobel prize winner). The weather seemed gloomy but it actually was warm.

Kloster was just lovely. Full of cyclist, sophisticated greenery, nature paths etc. I’m not particularly mobile at the moment but we decided to go off the beaten track to see the lighthouse and I really enjoyed this walk in the middle of countryside and nature.

The views were not bad either. They could have been even better if the sky had been blue but I don’t complain.

The Dornsbuch lighthouse was built in 1888 and is 27,5m tall. Radek went up while I stayed with the little one on a bench breathing in this spring breeze. I would love to stay longer on the island but we had to head forward to reach our apartment on time to check in. I’m pretty sure I’ll be back here some day on a bike.