30 -31 May Lauterbach

You know how it is when some politician says "Hullo Manchester" when in fact they are in Birmingham - well unless I write something pretty soon that will happen and you will be led astray. Let me re-read my last blog to find where it was left..... Oh yes, the bridges at Stralsund, a road and a rail bridge side by side which open together only four times a day so don't miss them. Himmelfhart Day is very big in Germany which was why scores of yachts were there waiting for an overdue train and circling for pole position as if it were a race start that mattered - red lights changed to red green then green and we were off in company with Cybele our French chums on a great 5 hour sail along buoyed channels still within the Rugen watery expanse and on to the next stop at Lauterbach - a tiny ex fishing village, now a holiday town with a modern marina attached and where sea bathing was first introduced to Germany - it had to be somewhere.

Rightly or wrongly I am beginning to get a flavour of how life was living in East Germany as it was - we took a cycle ride - not electric sadly - up to Putbus a town which dominated the area once, what a strange name. Here was the neo classical seat of Prince Putbus set in miles of forest, lakes and landscaped grounds where he hunted from his Schloss in magnificent style and where he also built the town with a pseudo Georgian Circus to imitate that in Bath. Now when I made the remark about East Germany, can you believe it, they decided around 1953 that his classical house was "ideologically inconsistent" so pulled it all down to their own level and that's the way it stayed - pause for thought.

Meanwhile, back at the marina, the closing celebrations of Ascension Day were being played out by returning charter yachts doing some very silly things trying to park and discovering that even shouting at each other and going as fast as possible usually gave the opposite result to that intended. Fortunately we seemed to be clear of the war zone.

Now, I know a man will go into ecstasy when I tell about the real steam trains which run from Lauterbach. He would want to know all sorts of technical things I had not noticed but with François and Valerie we took a day ticket and spent a whole day puffing around the island. I should say now that steam engines are the filthiest possible contributor to damaging the environment but they look like an iron miracle and according to a plaque proudly bolted to the side of ours, it was made in the "Karl Marx Lokomotivbau" - he probably rode on it too. It was not very comfortable and the wc which gave a surprise view of the passing ground gave hours of fascination to children who kept going for another look. The view from a railway carriage I think, is very special, being elevated and without need to concentrate on driving - gently rolling fields of green wheat studded with the bluest blue cornflowers, fields of cut hay "tedded" in rows to dry through the day, and as we chuffed up the incline there were more hares in grass fields than I have counted in the last 20 years. There was the clanging bell as crossroads were approached and the children waved to people waiting at the crossing - no road barriers, how do they manage without killing themselves or not having a notice to tell them to keep back?

We stopped at several spas, one where there was a classic car rally in full swing, mainly Mercedes but some Brit cars and only one Citroen! - the day ticket meant we hopped on and off - and then at Sellin - a very grand seaside spa, we stopped for tea and to show another pier to Valerie, she had always wanted to see one as they aren't allowed in France apparently. I found the spa town of Selling remarkable. The houses were very fine turn of the century architecture and absolutely enormous, many appearing to resemble wedding cakes or made of lace. The town perched on a cliff top allowed woodland to screen itself from the sea such that from the beach the view was not spoilt as so often it is. Taking the funicular railway down to the all desirable pier, I could not help thinking how ordered the beach chairs were, set out with precision - so typical of this country - is this good or bad or just what engineers do? Now again to the era of the Communist regime, a good number of these houses had "story boards" on the footpath telling the history of the property and the people who live there, each one having been "expropriated" by the regime in a plan to destroy the structure of large land holdings. Returning these properties to the owners is still taking place. This of course is only a reflection of the expropriation of 70% of all East German industry still in Soviet hands until Unification - gosh.

Cybele sailed off Northwards with "adieus" while Talisman headed further South East towards the edge of Germany …....