June 26th - July 6th 2014, Weimar, Ruegen (Baltic Sea), Dirk's Birthday ...
As Thomas' good friend from university times, Dirk, celebrated his 50th birthday North of Berlin, we thought we use the long way up there for a little holiday with the W111 ...
(1) City of Weimar
So on day 1 we drove approx. 350kms to the city of Weimar (Weimar Republic!). The Dorint hotel there made an exception and reserved a parking space for us in the garage ;-)) ... VIP parking, not a bad start ...
Same afternoon we made a guided city tour of Weimar, really interesting. Both Germany's most important poets, Goethe and Schiller, lived there ... here a photo of the mayor's office AND the famous Thueringen Bratwurst ;-))
After two hours of walking, we deserved a hop juice ... weather was alright there ...(2) Ruegen (Baltic Sea)
Next day we drove approx. 550kms up to the North East Corner of Germany to the Island of Ruegen. Former East Germany and a famous holiday resort already back then ... here the view from our hotel room in the city of Binz ...
Weather was a bit mixed throughout the week ... but we always had the bar to have some pre-dinner drinks ... and to watch the soccer matches!
First day we walked along the beach ... long lines of those beach chairs ...
Here the two of us at the Binz pier ... wearing our new "super-extreme-sports-function-jackets" ... really, completely wind proof, worked greatly when driving in the convertible ...
Sunday it was raining, so we took the train to the city of Stralsund, an old trading city at the Baltic Sea. We had an interesting tour (here the Mayor's office) using an umbrella ...
... so we deserved a coffee afterwards!
Monday we took the W111 and toured 200kms around the island ... here the famous "chalk rocks" of Ruegen ... took us a 3km walk there (so we weren't driving all the time ;-)
Also pretty typical of the North of Germany are those tree avenues ... sometimes it's like driving through a tunnel ...
We also ended up on such a "road" ... actually an official road ... some of the solidarity tax for the East obviously got lost ;-)))
One day we visited the Nazi holiday camp site "Prora", where in 1939 the Nazis wanted to build holiday houses for 20.000 people (at the same time!). 9 buildings with a total length of 4.5 kms (!) ... no one ever made holiday there (the war came), but it's very impressive (in a negative way) ...
Last day we took a steam train to Goehren and walked back 6km to Sellin ... nice walk along the beach ... with a lot of flies, so we trained the Great Aussie Salute a lot!
Drinks after the walk, well deserved ... it was a good week up there!(3) Dirk's 50th Birthday
On the way back we stopped in Fuerstenberg, approx. 100kms North of Berlin, where Thomas' friend Dirk celebrated his 50th birthday. Here the night before, Thomas pretending to help Dirk with the barbie ;-)))
Saturday we took another tour with the W111 ... lonely little roads again ...
Also close by is the memorial site of a women's concentration camp, Ravensbrueck. We intended to visit for an hour, but it was so interesting, that we got stuck for about three hours!
That was the little hotel we stayed at ... built 1904/05 as the home of a sawmill owner, taken over by the Russians after the war as a command centre. They left 1992, the building was empty for 18 years. Someone bought it, restored it and opened in 2012 ...
Here Dirk and his wife Carola ... enjoying a great party!
Dirk had to do a speech ... here giving clear instructions regarding the barbecue ... a whole little wild hog was being grilled!We enjoyed the celebration a lot and were happy to see Carola and Dirk again!