From Rostock we headed further east along the coast – a longish stretch with no harbours – until we came to the large island of Rugen and its archipelago. We sailed down the side of the Hiddensee island and entered the maze of shallow waterways or bodden. This is a vast area that has been compared to the English Norfolk Broads. Much of it is very shallow (we noted big areas just 50cm deep) while some is navigable through dredged channels. Other extensive parts have a depth of around 3-5m and are good for sailing in sheltered water – and there is a lot of sailing here.
We came to Stralsund. This is another Hanseatic city on an island. It is a delight and we really enjoyed exploring it over two days. It is less ‘dolled up’ than Lübeck, still has many medieval buildings and has a good feel about it.
These include the classic Hansa merchant’s house with a large hall on the ground floor, which was the office or kantor and storage space in the floors above. They originally had a lift shaft running all the way up for moving goods up or down. In later years a mezzanine floor was added to the hall and family accommodation often extended to the rear.
We ate in a restaurant in one of these halls – see the photo below. Some years ago a near-derelict house was discovered in its almost original state. It has now been stabilised but otherwise kept as it was and is a museum, which we visited. It still has the original lift system with its wheel in working order. It was strange to be in rooms almost 700 years old and to imagine all that must have passed in them.
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- Merchant House
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- Kantor – now restaurant
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- 700 year old lift – still working
On 2nd July we sailed from Stralsund further through the Strelasund and out into the Greifswalder Bodden – a large area of shallow water about 10nm across sheltered by the island of Rugen. We had a good passage to the village of Seedorf, which lies on a river in the north east corner of the bodden. The river is lined with reed banks and the village has many pretty thatched houses – indeed this could be compared with the Norfolk Broads although the house style is very different from Norfolk and Denmark. We cycled 14km along a lovely cycle way, much of it through woods and fields, to the town of Putbus and visited the Schloss Park. We then took a narrow gauge steam railway to Jagdschloss Granitz, a hunting base built 1838-1846 by Prince Putbus. It is a magnificent schloss with a central tower affording views over the surrounding countryside. In its day staying there was much favoured by the great, including royalty.
Tony found the railways on Rugen interesting. The mainline Bundesbahn has connecting passenger and freight services to the main land over the lifting bridge at Stralsund. The narrow gauge steam railway shares the mainline for two sections and both run on dual gauge track and share the signalling system.
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- Jagdschloss Granitz
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- Staircase in tower
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- Dual gauge railway on Rügen
On 4th July we sailed back across the Greifswalder Bodden and 2½nm up the River Wyck to our fifth Hanseatic city Greifswald. Greifswald did not fair well under the communist DDR – many of the old buildings were neglected or demolished. Restoration work that was done was rather perfunctory with rendering over the gothic brick work. More recent works on the cathedral and parish church are at an early stage. So for the visitor, Greifswald does not have the same glorious buildings of Lübeck, the grandeur of Rostock or the fascination of Stralsund.
What it does have is its university, founded in 1456 and which dominates the city and occupies most of the large buildings. 20% of the population are students and one in three jobs are university related. The university is big in biotechnology and high-energy fusion research.
After Greifswald we entered the Peene Strom, a narrow channel separating the island of Usedom from the mainland and are now at a marina at Kröslin. Here we were re-united with our FeatherStream propellor that has been repaired back in Wareham and shipped back out to us. Last night we were lifted out and Tony refitted the prop and this morning we have been re-launched. We are much looking forward to having its benefits again.
That’s out news to date
Ynskje & Tony