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!"