the baltic sea chronicles: day 6. the sea & boltenhagen.

a coast journey sounded very promising, i always wanted to see the cliffs of the baltic sea. i even tried to do a bicycle tour to the steep coasts of timmendorfer strand / niendorf, but alas, i gave up, it was too far away and i had to be back at a certain time. the journey on the sea was beyond exciting, we had the best weather ( huge clouds, sun, rainbows ). our end destination was boltenhagen, a resort in schleswig-holstein's neighbour state mecklenburg-vorpommern. we were vacationing here before, when i was a baby, shortly after the fall of the wall. it was strange to be here and hear the stories of my parents about these old times. my dad told a story about walking to the steep coasts with my brother one time - before the fall - the borders of the federal german republic were right after the cliff lines that turned into a small bay. they walked for a little while, my brother wanted to go back though. so they returned. what would've happened if they would've walked on? there was a military station up on the hills and i'm sure they followed every step my dad took. what would've happened if he'd cross the borders? would he and my brother still be with us today? i thought about this for quite a long time.

in the morning i was bicycling over to sierksdorf. there is an amusement park over there. we haven't visited it yet.

back to haffkrug for catching our boat.

the beach of haffkrug.

getting onboard.

and off we went.

the harbour of niendorf.

high cliffs.

through my sunglasses.

sail away!

the boat we were journeying with. the sea lion.

a proper sailing vessel!

the cliffs of boltenhagen... this was the location my dad and my brother went for their walk back in german democratic republic times. and from which they returned safely.

the beach of boltenhagen. i remember photos of my baby self, sitting in the sand and sorting out algaes.

spa hotel.

the spa garden stage.

another view onto the steep coasts. just around the corner were the borders between GDR & FRG.

a little storm on the sea.

and a rainbow as a reward.

Comments

november: kickelhahn, himmelblau & weimar cemetery.

i had a week off in november and visited my parents ( as i often do on my vacations ). on a sunday morning we headed to the thuringian forest to climb onto the peak of the kickelhahn mountain. the kickelhahn mountain is the landmark mountain of the city of ilmenau . johann wolfgang von goethe , the famous writer & philosopher, often visited ilmenau and also climbed the kickelhahn. oftentimes he stopped at a little hut in the woods to relax for a while and on one of these stops he wrote one of his most known poems. our little adventure didn't last the whole day, though, as we had a little date with the weimar cemetery to look after the grave of my grandparents and then to visit my cousin and his family. tiny peek onto the kickelhahn tower. thuringian woods - deep dark green. at the goethe hut. this plate shows the german version of the poem goethe wrote here. inside the hut. and here's the english translation. i love this poem so much, as ...

in the forests.

it's that time of the year again.

july '20: lake petersdorf discoveries and a plea against genocide.

the green wild meadows of malchow's sandfeld. in the west of malchow there is a big chunk of forest that spans towards plauer see, a widely 'uncultivated' area these days, but it hasn't always been this way. in my last post i mentioned the nazi munition factory that had been built in these woods, away from prying eyes of their enemies and where they also built an external subcamp for the concentration camp ravensbrück. exactly these woods we explored on a pretty sunny day, betraying the darkness that happened around these parts. isn't it weird that there are places in this world that were built or used by dark forces and horrible regimes and you vist them 80 years later and they are the most peaceful places you can imagine? sometimes my brain can't cope with the contrast of knowing what was in the past and what the present looks and feels like. it definitely leaves me with a strange impression often, kind of like a little sting in my heart and brain that is not ...

ghost of nature.

Search This Blog