Adventures in Mecklenburg

See the photo album!Time was short unfortunately. With a only a week in Germany, there wasn't a lot of time to get lost. I like to think I was able to hold my own though. With Meck-Pom being the location of the wedding, I took advantage of the exotic locale and hit up some nearby attractions.Tutorenstadt RostockFischkoepfe. Everywhere.I missed my chance to visit Rostock back in 2005 when I was a tutor in Dresden. A fellow tutor, Jason, regaled me with tales of the former East German coastal down, leaving little doubt as to whether I would visit, only when. Wenn nicht jetzt, wann denn?The walk from the train station to the town passed through a charming section of refurbished villas and the all-too-common East German trappings of just a touch too much silence.Emerging from the suburb's roofline was a five-story concrete block with barred windows. Curiosity called. One of the doors was open. I peeked in, snuck up the stairs, and suddenly found myself standing in the main hall of a former Stasi prison. Some of the cells held small exhibits. Others had been untouched for the past 20 years. These walls witnessed terrible amounts of suffering.I left the silent halls and returned to the sunshine, following the medieval wall defenses that still stood watch for the city. Rising ahead was the main gate, the main thoroughfare, and a mass of people enjoying the summer afternoon. With such a crowd snaking past the baroque facades of the Kroepelinerstr, I could have been fooled into thinking it was a parade. The street led to the Marienkirche, which anchored a vibrant market place.Following a walk through the other side of town and the student district (again, so lively!), I hurried up to the coastal fishing village of Warnemuende. Tourists clogged the thoroughfare, so I gave them the slip and wandered down a few side streets. I turned a corner, and boom! There it was. White sand. Blue water. The Baltic Sea. Beer me.You don't travel all that way just to look at the Baltic Sea. You experience the Baltic Sea, no matter how cold it is. I stripped down and got on my swimsuit. Slowly I waded through the viking water. With each step, the frigid water claimed a little more of my body. I debated going all the way under. A large wave calmly approached. I watched it rise in front of me, then calmly submitted to it as it pulled me under before cresting. The gentle power carried a sense of baptism. I was released. Brisk water has an uncanny ability to enliven the soul.RatteyHilmar and Sonja married in the village of Rattey, which may or may not show up on your map. We stayed in the village of Golm, which was probably double the size of Rattey, yet still may not show up on your map.The wedding party was scattered throughout these villages, generally separated by two to five kilometers, each marked with a steeple that may have been 700-1000 years old. The roads connecting them were sometimes paved, sometimes cobbled. They twisted through rolling green hills and small ponds.Idyllic. That's the best way to describe the area. Like something out of a painting. It was a good place to be in love.NeubrandenburgThe Vier Tore Stadt lived up to its name. Four gates. Not much after that.The old city wall, amazingly, still completely encircled the town, defying wars, communists, and development. The cobblestone street alongside the wall curves past beautiful gothic gates and small houses and cafes built into the stone.The inner city contained little more than refurbished communist boxes surrounding a plattenbau "Tower of Kultur." I escaped the somewhat depressing scene and did what most of the other inhabitants did; went to the lake! The landscape was beautifully reminiscent of Wisconsin. The nude sunbathers quickly ended any further analogies, but you get the idea.See the photo album!