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Published: September 23rd 2013
54 degrees North: part 0.3: The island of Rügen. Rügen is a fabulous island, with undulating its rolling hills suddenly ending in spectacular cliffs over the Baltic Sea. Sandy beaches run for miles, and close by are atmospheric lagoons (
Bodden) , woods and little villages with thatched cottages. This is the land that first inspired Germany’s greatest romantic painter, Casper David Friedrich.
If you catch the dialect there are Scandinavian* influences, and the place names and churches are frequently Slav* in origin. We had about six days to explore what we could and to relax – it was not enough time.
We stayed in an apartment called Witte Hus in a hamlet called Polchow (*see what I mean!), by the Jasmunder Bodden. There is a garden there and we soon noticed were in time for the apples, pear and blackberries. We got a warm welcome, and part of that was being told pick up the fruit that had fallen. But Rügen’s most famous fruit is the unassuming little orange berries known in England as sea-buckthorn, here as Sanddorn. Rich in vitamins and minerals, the juice is very tasty and finds its way into liqueurs, honeys, jams,
tea the lot. On one stall in Göhren, it was marketed as Rügens’ kiwi fruit. I later learned in a book (bought at Bergen auf Rügen railway station so DB can get it right with the stations!) that there are a lot a health properties associated with Sanddorn for cold cures, blood purification, anti-radiation.) I even had time to test the cold cure properties, as, in the spirit of scientific endeavour, I caught a nasty little cold part way into our stay. I think it helped!
Many people explore the island by bicycle – that option was not open to us because of Kasia’s wrist, and many of the footpaths are used by people ambling along on their bikes. The alternative is the bus – which has a pretty good network and is reasonably cheap compared to the UK. Most folk clutter the roads instead with their cars, and it was sad to see the verges double parked with cars close to the beach, this clutter corresponding to the detritus motorists tend to leave, such as the “discrete” hankies in the woods, usually on a footpath. Anyway, we had to work a bit harder as Polchow was
Sanddorn, sea buckthorn
beloved fruit of this islandnot that well served by the bus, with only some going down 1km from the main road into Polchow itself. On a cloudy day we did a tour round, passing through Sassnitz and a stop off in Binz. Binz is architecturally attractive with the white “colonial” style (think New Orleans type of balconies), and there was frozen yoghurt on sale in the street (very nice with the fruit, costs extra though!) and boogie-woogie bering played live on the promenade stage. But for all that, it was busy with folk strolling around, and we didn’t get into the vibe really. So we got the next bus down the island south to Göhren and walked down the hill to the seafront and the little narrow gauge steam railway known as the “Rasender Roland” “racing Roland”, which at 30 km/h, is pushing it a bit. The train chugged off into the woods, and an oldish guy on an electric bike comically decided to race the Racing Roland, and got as far as the level crossing. We dropped off a large cargo of elderly tourists at Binz and then the train turned into the quiet countryside towards Putbus. At this point we hopped onto
Königstuhl
The famous white cliffs, captured by Casper Freiderich another train, a little private service with very reasonable fares, for the 9 minute zip across the fields to Bergen auf Rügen. The driver sold me the ticket, and acted as guard and driver, all in one! Finally we got the last bus which took us into Polchow.
The next day was sunny and perfect for walking around the Königstuhl, the 120m high cliffs which were the setting for one of Caspar Friederich’s more famous paintings. However, it is also a tourist honeyspot, so there was a visitor centre (€7.50 entrance fee) and coach parties also in attendance, plus the dreaded schoolgroups. We made a beeline out, and headed for the "Victoriasicht " with a nice (free) view across to the cliffs and sea below, though you had to queue due to the National Park’s diligence in fencing off the cliff and giving people a tiny wooden pedestal to have a look from. Our walk to Sassnitz started here, and we undulated up and down in the woods, following the cliff tops along the coast. Spectacular cliff views appeared every so often, with the pale blue Baltic as a backdrop. The sheerness of the cliffs was underlined with the
Rasender Roland
crossing the rural landscape of Rügen way the trees on the cliff edges were being undercut and signs warning you not to tread further.
Sassnitz looked really quite enticing with a potential for Kaffee und Küchen, but I was starting to feel a bit ill, so decided that we should hop on the number 18 bus parked conveniently at the exit of the path, and change at the bus station back to Polchow.
Our next outing was a walk along the Jasmunder Bodden north to the village of Glowe – a Polish sounding name if ever there was. I kept pronouncing it Głowe (in English something like
Gwover, (maybe a Yorkshire "to go over"!)) by force of sheer habit. But then pronunciation hereabouts is not obvious: the lady at Bergen bus station ticket office had kindly helped me with Polchow – pronounced as Polch-oe!
In full sun we passed lot of holiday chalets, and as Polchow’s holiday houses ended, a nature reserve started – flanked by a huge 2 km square field on one side (just ploughed up) and holiday dwellings to the south – it is obvious why the protection orders went in. We passed bushes of sea
buckthorn before meeting a tarmac cycle way and this was flanked on both sides by apples, pears and blackberries. True to form (Kasia has form at Newby Hall gardens) we went in the bushes and had a poke around to see what was harvestable. Most pears were a bit mushy but we found a couple of decent specimens that contributed later to a fruit salad, yoghurt and muesli experience. Crossing a wetland, the path then wound its way into the seaside village of Glowe. We had a disappointing (one of the very few) lunch at a baker’s and then set out to the Baltic. After testing the waters we decided it would be good for a dip, and at 19°C, it was a good deal warmer than the North Sea off Scarborough! My little swim was followed by Kasia who grimly told me she had come across several jellyfish. Seeing as we were both unstung, I thought I could either be unsettled or decide that we’d had a reasonable deal. The latter seemed reasonable. We caught a bus back, and in the evening I wandered out with the camera to see what the sunset over the Jasmunder Bodden might offer.
Your dear author
with retro t-shirt The next day we were in Glowe again, walking there from the long sand spit called Shaabe which stretches to the north west, and forms part of a long crescent shaped bay with a sandy beach several miles in length. Despite the sun, there was very strong headwind, foretelling a deep depression hitting western Europe. This made walking on the sand slow, so we made some of the walk through the pine woods, planted in the 1800s to fix the marshy land between Jasmund and the next bit of island, Wittow. Looking for an inexpensive lunch we settled on a fish butty and a beer. You could see the contrast in clientele in the two types of food outlets. On the one hand the smart designer place offering €7 salads (many of our lunches at Witte Hus were salads) with a definite middle class air. Then on the other, the wooden stalls, where we got our fish butty, had a larger concentration of cigarettes, larger waistlines and small dogs.
It was all too soon time to go back home; on our last morning we took the bus from Polchow but we had an hour in Bergen
Baltic colours
Pink stain from seaweed, contrasting with the white chalk for a breakfast before our long distance train to Osnabrück. The town was eerily quiet apart from the traffic. A few people came into the bakery but very few seemed to be walking.
The 5½ hours to Osnabrück were mostly quiet. No countless schoolgroups full of “Pokemons” with massive cases such as those which plagued our trip out on semi-fast trains via Lubeck. Why did they all travel on September 2
nd? I’ve asked around – bit of a mystery.
No Type 1 Battle Axe (German class) grandmothers; nor any Type 2 Battle Axe (German class but could easily pass for Polish) grandmothers, experts at occupying and blocking three seats with loads of people standing. But we did get a Type 3 Battle Axe (German class) grandmother whose stony-faced silent outrage was palpable when we took our reserved seats opposite hers. I think she was aghast at the sight of two rucksack carrying individuals walking the length of the then empty train to take the table opposite. And, for an hour, we did get a mini-hen party of ladies who were convinced our reserved seats were theirs, until we persuaded them otherwise. (I was particularly furious that
the electronic display of our reservation disappeared at that moment!).
We found our way into Osnabrück dropped off our stuff at our hotel, and after finding a miserable part of the town centre, found the much nicer old town and visited an Arabian restaurant, always a good bet if veggie food looks hard to come by. After dinner, we wandered by the ancient buildings and churches before retiring.
Our last day was travelling Osnabrück to Rotterdam, deliberately done so to reduce the travelling time. The weather was steadily foul, but we got a window of dry weather in Rotterdam, enough time to have a poke about. We didn’t have enough time for the guide book’s walking tour but we saw some of the old harbour and older style streets, stopping at a very friendly café. We got a soaking waiting for the late coach to the ferry, and the motorways around Rotterdam were clogged, delaying us further. Despite the howling wind and rain, plenty of locals still cycled; good to see the Dutch-style cycle priority roundabouts in action. We had a good sized evening meal, but being wary of the weather we did not eat too much. I
thought a double G&T in the bar might stave off the impact of the Force 8 gale (at least for me) but as we hit open water of the North Sea the ship certainly started rolling about. This was not noticeable until I stood up, and so we retreated to the cabin – being horizontal helps a lot! Fortunately you get plenty of time up the calm waters of the Humber Estuary to enjoy breakfast the next morning! We were a bit delayed by gales and passport control, but managed to catch our booked train back to Leeds and then home.
So, the trip along 54 degrees North through Germany did not happen as I had originally planned. Rügen was the end destination, lying a little north of the 54th parallel; the journey nearer the line was obscured both ways by rain. Rügen is very German - I did not speak or hear any English (apart from to Kasia) until we were in the Netherlands. It was also good to stop off and visit Christof in Bargetehide, to get some local insight about local affairs, and practice my Polish there too!
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