What Would I Say Mania

I was really captivated by the whole What Would I Say Thing.  Here are my favorites...

Really, does anyone know why the Romantic period?

I would choose the three beasties.

This is actually really good advice.  I'm proud of my computer generated self.

But isn't that one of the central questions of life-whether one can Freiheit in Central Park?

All joking aside, this hits pretty close.

But things are always better...

Best summary of Shutdown 2013 I've heard yet.

Lastly, a philosophical conundrum.  Wasn't it cool, being you on Tuesday?

Rügen: My fourth day

Before talking about my last day on Rügen, I want to do a quick shout-out to my dad. There are a looooot of things I have to thank him for, but in particular, the camera that took all of these pictures! Shortly before I left America, I mentioned to him that it was one of the things I needed, and he just gave me his!  It's a great little camera. It's performed wonderfully and put up with a lot of abuse from me. (Such as being dropped on concrete while trying to photograph cows...)

My last day on Rügen was cloudy and stormy, but with the promise of just a hint of sun. I decided to spend it walking along the beach, flying my kite if possible, and looking for amber.  On Rügen in an autumn storm is one of the best chances I might ever have to find it.  Maybe I would walk along the beach as far as Prora, the next town to the north.

The morning light in Binz was incredibly dramatic.  At times, it looked almost as though it would turn sunny.  At other times, the rain pelted down so hard I went off the beach and into the treeline for protection.  Kite flying was out of the question.

Some diligent soul built quite a sand castle.

And as I walked along, I started to get glimpses of the most incredible blue sky.

After a while, I started to see a huge structure in the distance.  At first, I thought it was a group of buildings.  As I got closer, it was clear that it was built to affect the coastline in some way...but built quite a long time ago.

Here you can see a little of how the structure was crumbling.  I also thought the figure in this grafetti was strangely moving. 

As I walked next to the structure, I thought, "this has to be DDR or even earlier." This sign, which warns about pieces of the structure falling off, definitely confirmed that impression.

If it wasn't so dangerous, it would have been tempting to walk along the top and look out to sea.  I didn't try it.  If I had, there's probably a good chance I wouldn't be writing this now.

Not too long after the mystery structure came the most incredible part of the whole day: I found a piece of amber! After picking up dozens of maybe-ambers that weren't, I finally held the real thing, and the difference was unmistakable. 

And then the sky finally started to clear.

...Just as I was reaching a town.  

This must be Prora, I thought, four kilometers from Binz!

....It was Granitz, and I had walked 8.4 kilometers.  I looked for a bus, but the bus system on Rügen is....unique and different.  (As an aside, I also met the rudest busdriver I've ever experienced on Rügen.)  There was nothing to do but walk back.

It was lucky I did, because I got to see the Kolossus of Prora on the way.  The Kolossus is a relic from WWII and the Kraft durch Freude (Strength through Joy) program.  It was intended as a massive resort, one that would be within the reach of the average worker.  This one building has been left as a ruin, while the others of the complex are still in use.  They're unbelievably massive.

My last meal on Rügen: beer, potato salad, and a big hunk of smoked salmon!

From, of course, a traditional smokery just off the beach, run by the same family for the last four generations.

And that was my trip to Rügen: peaceful, rainy, and beautiful.

Rügen: My third day

On my third day in Rügen, I visited the King's Throne, a famous chalk cliff.  It's a World Heritage site, as is the first growth beech forest that surrounds it.  This is a picture taken from the King's Throne, not of the King's throne.  I felt so lucky to be on the island just when the fall colors were out.

This picture is also from-not-of the King's Throne.  As you can see, it started getting cloudy while I was there.

Caspar David Friedrich, possibly the most famous painter of the Romantic period, based this picture on the chalk cliffs of Rügen.  It's even thought to be a composite of two sites in particular.

This picture is for Geoff.

When I returned from my first short walk through the beech forest, this raven was sitting in front of the museum! He seemed to like being treated as a celebrity, because he let me take a lot of pictures.  Ravens are fairly common in this area, but I wasn't the only one who was impressed to see one so close up.

Like the rest of Rügen, these woods had a beautiful stillness to them.

Now, this is a picture of the King's Throne.  The chalk was wonderfully white when the sunlight hit it.  One of the legends about the formation's name is that in ancient times, the young men of the area would try to climb the slippery, crumbling chalk of the King's Throne.  The young man who survived and reached the top would become their king.  I wouldn't want to try it!

I went on a hike led by one of the local rangers, and ended up making friends with an older German gentleman who was also on the hike.  We went along this beach together.  He was the first person to warn me about the dangers of looking for amber on Üsedom.  Because rockets were manufactured on the island in WWII, it was heavily bombed with phosphorus.  Just like amber, phosphorus floats in water, is translucent brown, and has a plasticky feel.  However, unlike amber, phosphorus explodes when it dries out.  So if you collect amber on Üsedom, don't put anything you find in your pocket!

He also told me that he had been vacationing in the area for thirteen years and had always looked for amber, without ever finding a single piece.

I left a note in the museum guestbook.  It says, "You've had a visit from America. I come from Seattle, Washington, and although it's beautiful there, I can truthfully say you have something really special here!"

Rügen: My second day

On the second day of my trip, I woke up early for my hostel's continental (either appropriate or redundant, considering where I am) breakfast.  Once I left the hostel and was on my way, I was glad I had.  The morning had brought a beautiful stillness to the island.

Even the morning sun was gentle, but present.

And place that would normally be fairly crowded, even in the off season, were almost empty.

There were still people on the beach, enjoying the morning hush.

Out on the boardwalk, it seemed as though you could see a long way.

Sometimes, the clouds made things even more beautiful.  And they seemed to made the island feel very silent. 

After visiting the tourist office, I decided that I would hike to Sellin through the woods, and go on a crane tour in the afternoon.  The woods were incredibly colorful, and unlike the minihike I took on my first day, the trail took me through the thick of them.

I also visited the Schwarzer See.  A sign next to it explained that it is a very unusual body of water.  If I understood correctly, it's because it's between a mid-marsh and high marsh ecosystem, and has unusual plants.  However usual or unusual it was, it had some gorgeous fall color.

And at first, I had the lake to myself.

I wanted to keep going to Sellin, but I was pretty tempted by these seats by the shore of the lake.

Finally, the trail came closer to the coast.  The foreset goes almost down to the water, so I was still hiking between trees and over piles of crunchy leaves. Something funny happened a little while before I got to this lookout.  An older couple was hiking in front of me.  They were quite a bit older-I would guess they couldn't be younger than seventy.  Of course, I was quickly catching up to them.  But before they noticed I was there, I saw the woman grab her man's butt and start to kiss him!  It was pretty cute.

One of the downsides of a nearly private island is there aren't many people to take pictures of you.

Here, the trail wound down through the woods all the way to the water.

And soon after, I arrived in Sellin! They have a very impressive boardwalk. And at the end of it...

There's a chamber that submerges you in the Baltic Sea! I was actually disappointed in it.  Most of the time underwater was spent with the windows closed watching a film, which is not what I paid for.

The traditional architechture of Rügen can still be seen all over the island, and new houses are still being built with these roofs! They remind me of the traditional thatched roofs of Japan.

After a little time walking around Sellin, it was time to go on my crane tour.  Every year, tens of thousands of cranes stop their migration on Rügen for about eight weeks.  They're drawn by the shallow marshy areas, perfect for sleeping, and by the corn they can glean after harvast.  This is Breege harbour.  From here, my boat set out for one of the main sleeping places.

Here it is.  We had to stay at quite a distance, because cranes are incredibly shy.  One major sleeping place was abandoned just because a kiteboarder got a little too close to it.  But as long as the ship stayed at a distance, the cranes weren't afraid.  My little camera was too weak to get pictures of the cranes themselves, but thanks to a rented pair of binoculars, I had a wonderful veiw.  They came flying over the marsh towards us, sometimes in small groups, sometimes in hundreds.  Their calls were amazingly loud through the cold night, as if they were all around us.  They kept coming until nightfall, and if you adjusted your binoculars, you could see some of them standing at the water's edge.  Then they huddled in for the night, with wet feet, but safe from the predators of the field. If you're ever in northern Germany during the few autumn weeks the cranes migrate, I think it's worth any trouble to go see them.

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