Eastern Germany

On Monday, June 7, a group of nine piled into two cars and headed east from Nottuln to the remote and sparsely populated eastern Germany.
Sam and I rode with Hubert, Magdelena and Anna’s college friend Steph while Anna, Felix, Anna’s mother Mary Ann and Anna’s other college friend Deanna rode in the second car.
Our destination was the tiny village of Zinzow.
Zinzow is the home of Hubert’s relatives, who turned a castle into a hotel and distillery, and is also near Hubert’s more than 1,000 acres of farmland.
Zinzow is roughly two hours north of Berlin by train and about an hour south of the Baltic Sea.
The trip was about six hours by car, but we got to see a lot of the northern German countryside and ride on the autobahn, where there are no speed limits.
One of the more interesting aspects of the autobahn is that in eastern Germany there are “land bridges” across the highway that link farm fields. The bridges aren’t for farm equipment, but for deer.
The Germans planted trees on the bridges and put food out so the deer would feel comfortable crossing.
Hubert and Magdelena said the bridges have worked great and the number of cars hitting deer has dropped dramatically.
You can definitely see where old West Germany ended and where East Germany started.
There are still remnants of communist-era buildings in eastern Germany. It’s almost impossible to imagine a time when people weren’t allowed to move from one side of the country to the other.
The place we stayed in at Zinzow is called a castle, but it really resembles a great estate with its square shape and four stories.
We stayed on the fourth floor in a suite that could have doubled as a ski lodge. Sam and I shared a room while Steph and Deanna each had their own room. We also had a full kitchen and a living room.
On Tuesday, we set off for another small village nearby for a three and a half hour canoe trip.
Even though it’s June, the water was too cold for swimming. We still had a great time and enjoyed a lazy day on the slow moving river.
The next day we drove an hour north to Usedom, a large island bordering Poland on the Baltic Sea.
Usedom is called the “king’s island” because it’s where Kaiser Wilhelm and other people of that ilk came to vacation.
It truly is a resort area with long, sandy beaches and numerous waterfront shops. Usedom resembled Gulf Shores, Ala., or Pensacola, Fla.
You don’t typically think of sandy beaches in Germany, but we had a wonderful time walking along the sea.
There was no swimming that day either as the Baltic Sea was quite cold.
Sam and I already want to go back to Usedom again someday.