The white Cliffs of Rügen

Rügen is the biggest German island, and a popular tourist destination for domestic as well as international travellers (a.k.a. busloads of Asians...). From endless sandy beaches to white chalk cliffs, from ocean to lagoons, from bubbly seaside resorts to sleepy fishing villages, the island has a lot to offer.

Our first stop was Binz, a popular seaside resort. We walked along the beach and strolled through this lovely town with its intriguing resort architecture of the 19th and early 20th century.

A few clicks further North we were delivered a harsh contrast to the playful resort architecture and received another lesson in history. We entered Prora, a product of Nazi-German megalomania, built in the mid 30's to provide an affordable and organised leisure time for up to twenty-thousand holidaymakers, a.k.a Kraft durch Freude (Strength through joy).

A colossal architectural disaster with eight identical buildings over a stretch of 4.5km, a mere 150m away from a beautiful beach. Well built obviously and seemingly indestructible, it is not that it hadn't been tried before to blow up, and tear down this concrete cluster of ugliness.

Today some of the complexes are being renovated and reactivated, two buildings house a youth hostel, and an art center, but the builders couldn't change the shape. It will remain a sore spot in the midst of a beautiful landscape.

The by far best part of Rügen are the cliffs in the North East of the island. They aren't easily accessible, and hence a splendid destination for those seeking solitude. We parked our car in Lohme, a sleepy fisher town.

First we followed a steep and slippery trail downhills through the beech forest, mildly alarmed by the signs warning that it is a challenging trail. The signs were right. And the challenge didn't end at the beach. A small pebble beach provided just enough distance between the ocean and the cliff. On a windy day the beach would likely become impassable but the sea was calm today. And it wasn't easy either, as the traveler will need to balance over countless slippery rocks.

The hike might occasionally get interrupted by combing the beach and building pebble towers. Finally one arrives at the blindingly white chalk cliffs, and stands breathless (not only caused by the hike, but in awe), taking in the scenery and as many pictures as possible.

The white Cliffs of Rügen

The exercise however didn't end here. After an excessive photo session one still needs to climb up the cliff. A mere 412 steps of a slippery wooden staircase which has been there forever (and is being maintained and renewed regularly).

Given that we are not the fittest people under the sun, we felt that we actually did quite well during the ascent, and we can proudly report that we even overtook folks younger than we. On top it was only two miles back over a forest trail, a relaxed walk back to our parking spot in Lohme. And overall we'd say that despite the difficult terrain the hike was well worth the effort.

We travelled 170km today, and hiked about 12km.

Rügen Island - Source: Wikipedia

Dreams of Traveling the World (a.k.a. Scooterbob on the Road)

The moto-blogosphere is mourning Bob(skoot) Leong, rider, blogger, and photographer. Bob loved to travel and meet new people while criss-crossing North America. He had barely started his journey into retirement when a heart attack threw Bob out of this life while on vacation.

As a community we felt the need to commemorate the life of Bob in a special way, and David (Scootcommute), a scooterist from Montreal came up with a fine idea.

Picture courtesy of David

On one of his visits in Vancouver David received a gift from Bob, it was a wooden scooter. For more on the back story click here. This is when Scooterbob's travels began. It came to Montreal and then, similar to a baton, it was handed over to Michael, when he was in town.

Michael (Conchscooter) lives in Florida, and the presence of the wooden scooter should come as a surprise to Bob who had plans to travel to Key West in 2015. Alas, while this dream of Bob's will never come to pass, Scooterbob's journey is just about to begin.

We will be sending the small wooden scooter on its way, blogger by blogger, to whomever is willing to participate. This way we will honour Bob's life and dreams.

ScooterBob Travel Guidelines for Europe

• Click here and complete the ScooterBob e-mail request by providing your name, address, blog URL, any timing or other constraints you may have, and the estimated length of time you think ScooterBob will be traveling with you.
• You'll get a confirmation once you're on ScooterBob's destination list.
• You'll also get a confirmation once ScooterBob is on his way to you, with a tracking number.
• When ScooterBob arrives, click here to let us know he arrived safely.
• ScooterBob's next destination depends on you, and on us.  We have a list of bloggers who want to travel withScooterBob.  Suggest to us where you think ScooterBobshould go next.  If we think the next destination should be somewhere else because of timing constraints or other factors, we'll suggest that other destination to you, and add your requested destination to the list.  The list with names and addresses is kept by us, ScooterBob's keepers, and is not made public.
• When you send ScooterBob on his way to the next destination, click here to let us know its headed to its next guide.
• Document your travels with ScooterBob by posting on your blog.  Be as creative as good taste and personal safety allow, also include a Selfie if you like.
• Once your blog post is done, let us know by clicking here.

Places Scooterbob has been so far:
Scooterbob hits the Road, Jack! (Montreal, Canada)
Scooterbob at the Southernmost Point (Key West, Florida)

Other Bloggers from Europe, New Zealand, Canada and the US have already signed up to host Scooterbob. Scooterbob will be going places where Bobskoot never got to travel. And we are sure that this would have made Bob happy.

The tentative itinerary so far... (picture courtesy of David)

Ruins, Rockets and Vikings

The day started out rainy and grey but we didn't mind, because ruins and historic buildings are at its best when the weather isn't. We visited the abbey ruins of Eldena close to Greifswald. The ruins became somewhat famous through the artwork of Caspar David Friedrich, a romantic painter of the 19th century.

The Abbey in the Oakwood (Wikipedia)

Our next stop would be a very dark chapter of German history: The Peenemünde Army Research Center. A fishermen's town was erased, its people removed, and a military zone and test site with restricted access established in 1937, built by slave labourers, inmates of a concentration camp and prisoners of war.

This location pretty much became the birthplace of rocket science and spaceflight. It was here, where the first guided missiles were developed to be used for maximum mass destruction. The majority of the rockets were aimed at London killing thousands of people.

Ironically its inventor, Wernher von Braun and select members of his team continued to work for the US government without ever being punished for their deeds, on contrary, von Braun received a medal for his accomplishments in the NASA space program.

Today the whole area is being kept as a museum and a reminder that these events must not ever happen again. The museum currently also hosts a special exhibitions about Operation Crossbow.

V2 cruise missile

Top Secret

After this nightmarish experience we needed to find something lighter, and visited a few more of the ever so present ocean resorts, also in quest for a cake and coffee.

Zinnowitz

The sea bridge of Ahlbeck

And since we were so close to the Polish border we thought, let's have a look at the other side. The last time we visited Poland was long before it belonged to the European Union. There were borders, and barriers and passports being controlled. Today... no customs control, you just drive through. Hello, Poland! There and back. From Nazi Germany and WWII to a world without frontiers in a united Europe. We have come a long way.

Today's trip into history wouldn't be complete without the early settlers of this area: Vikings. A mile away from Menzlin lies an old Viking camp. The site was close to the river Peene, and supposedly an important trading post in its time (the 9th century). The actual name of the site remains unknown but remnants of bridges and stone ships (grave yards), and other archeological findings had been discovered proving its regular use. 

Given that the day started dull and grey, it was rich of educational experience. We certainly learned a lot today about ancient and recent history.

Viking grave site

Today's trip was 260km.