Back in the west

We reluctantly left Rugen  last Friday - it may well prove to be the highlight of the trip, beautiful scenery, perfect weather, quiet campsite with its own little beach, what more could you want?  We have since made a short tour of several picture

sque towns - all of them formerly belonging to the Hanseatic league - a mediaeval trading association/cartel, so very wealthy. Kings Lynn was once a member too. We spent another night at Stralsund, which improved no end once we weren't expecting anything interesting and knew how to avoid the major building works.  A beer, followed by fish and chips overlooking the harbour, all in warm evening sunshine gave us quite a rosy glow.
Next up was Wismar, really beautiful with street upon street of restored and painted gabled houses.  Then Schwerin, with its amazing castle on the lake but otherwise a bit drab and, you've guessed it, major relaying of the tram system. But we later found one of our best 'stellplatz' for the night, a quiet little 10 pitch site overlooking the lake, just outside the town.  Finally we spent a day in Luneberg, again very pretty. To get there we had to cross the river Elbe, which is still running very high and with lots of flooding in the fields.
Now we are in the middle of nowhere on the Luneberg Heath - at a village called Muden/Ortze. We have had two days cycling - its a bit like a bigger and slightly more natural looking Thetford Forest.  Yesterday en route we found a small museum about the Berlin Airlift, at the former RAF base at Fassberg.  Today we saw some special Luneberg sheep - only sheep, but we were quite pleased to see them as there aren't that many. Also lots of red squirrels about - why are they so much more attractive than the grey sort?
And the weather? The temperature has dropped by about 12 degrees (so it is cold for the end of June!) but it is still OK with some sun.  Tomorrow we are moving on to Celle, only about 30 miles away, then some longer driving days to get to St Omer on Monday.

At Stralsund

Schwerin castle

Site with a lake view

An island in the sun

Here we are in very sunny Rugen,  a large island on the north coast of Germany.  After our busy days in Berlin, we decided to move north for some R&R.  We stopped over near Furstenberg/Havel on the way, which turned out to be very close to the memorial and museum on the site of the Ravensbruck concentration camp.  There are a lot of such sites in this area, which feels somewhat at odds with the main industry nowadays being tourism.  Well, we went to have a look, and it is as sobering as one might expect.  We were shocked that the site was so near to the town, clearly visible across the lake and not exactly hidden away.  Benefice book club members might remember that this is where Corrie ten Boom and her sister (who died here) were interned.
On a more positive note, we moved on to the island of Usedom, which had been recommended by some Dutch campers we met in Berlin.  Possibly looking for a campsite by the sea on a Friday afternoon in the only sunny bit of Germany wasn't the best idea, but they were all full - a shock as we have never had a problem before.  It turned out for the best though, as we were able to blag some fresh water from one site and park up on a beach carpark for the night, with the beach and the Baltic sea only about 100 yards away. Next day we moved on to a lovely seaside 'stellplatz', just behind the dunes. Bits of Usedom were very nice, somewhat reminiscent of the North Norfolk coast  with long sandy beaches backed by pine forests. But it was a bit more Great Yarmouth/Margate than Gorleston/Broadstairs though with very unusual deckchairs. We also visited the museum at Peenemunde, which was the research centre where development of the V2 rockets used to bomb London took place.
On route to Rugen, we stopped at Stralsund, according to our trusty guidebook the second most interesting Hanseatic town on the German coast.  Not sure we would bother with the third most interesting, but it is a pleasant place and a good source of smoked fish in bread rolls, a local fast food,  served from converted fishing boats in the harbour. We are also becoming experts in 'back stein gothic' or 'brick Gothic' architecture, many churches and public buildings in the area were built with very fancy decorative brick features.
We have ended up in a lovely wooded campsite on Rugen, in a very quiet undeveloped area of the island.  We have been walking, cycling and bird watching for a few days and enjoying really warm sunny weather.  We will be here till Friday and then move on again, with less than two weeks left we will point the van west and slowly start the journey towards Calais.

Smoked fish roll boat

Wild flowers on Rugen

Deckchairs and Baltic sea on Usedom

Ich bin ein Berliner

At least that's what I think President Kennedy said.  Apparently it really means I am a small bun, but German grammar makes fools of us all, and his meaning was clear.  Alles klar, as we say here.
We have had an excellent couple of days sightseeing in Berlin, a very interesting place indeed.  As well as all the iconic monuments like the Brandenburg gate, Checkpoint Charlie, the Reichstag (complete with Norman Foster dome) etc we visited an interactive museum about daily  life in East Germany - you could pretend to drive a Trabant, for example, and various remnants of the wall. Like many places we have visited, Berlin is undergoing major reconstruction, we wonder if it is all to do with stimulating the economy or just a drive for continuous improvement.
We are camping at a site technically in Berlin, but practically not - it involves a bus, tram and two trains to reach the city centre. But it is all interesting and travel is cheap - about £5 for a day travel card on any form of public transport.
The site has a lakeside bar - see pic below, where we watched a heron gobble an enormous fish.  Also had pied flycatcher fledge from nest box onto the van!

Weather has been perfect for over a week now, and forecast is good, so we are going to try the Baltic coast - seems very odd heading north to find the sun!

OK so we weren't exaggerating about the rain. We left our partly flooded campsite and continued north on the 'romantic road' to Wurzburg, luckily the campsite there was on top of a hill. Despite the diversions everywhere we didn't realise how bad it all was till we reached Bamberg and bought a paper. Only to discover that a lot of south and east Germany and the Czech republic was under water.  So it began to look foolhardy to continue to Prague - besides we didn't want to see it with the worst flooding for 100 - 400 years depending on who you talk to.
Therefore we decided to move considerably further north, to Berlin in fact, where there was an indication of sunshine, or at least less rain. Like most of our plans on this trip, this didn't quite work, but this time in a good way.  Driving up, we were stuck for a couple of hours in a huge traffic jam caused by, you guessed it, flooding on the motorway, so we stopped earlier than planned at a place called Ferch, just outside Potsdam.  The weather has been perfect, the camping is by a large and lovely lake and it is an easy bus ride to Potsdam. So we have been here for 5 nights, drying out, sightseeing, cycling round the lake and generally having a holiday!
Next stop, Berlin - almost certainly.

News from the ark!

We have hit a spot of extreme rain and beginning to feel like the Noah's. We are travelling north up the 'romantic road' from about Augsburg to Wurzburg visiting the 'impossibly beautiful' towns and villages in route.  They really are very lovely with mediaeval fairytale centres - all half timbered houses, tiny streets and yards, town walls and towers. Now at Rothenburg on der Tauber, perhaps the best preserved, but also the most touristy.
Much excitement about 11 last night after several hours of torrential rain as the site owners began to move caravans to higher ground and rescue people from tents! We are OK as on a hard standing, but got ready to evacuate as a siren went off in the village - nothing happened so don't know what that was.
Still raining today but we will continue with the plan - as our Dutch camping neighbours said the other day 'it is too late to think now of Spain!'