Ostsee camping trip

A group of friends and I went up north to the beach resort near Ostsee. Its on the Baltic sea so not a super warm Mediterranean type place but still good. Its a little colder (still tolerable) but the beach is huge and very shallow. Its a long curving coast with a few little towns along the way. The full coast spans the German-Polish border and is quite built up in areas. We stayed away from that and followed Linsey's directions to a wild area with long grass and forest behind us on the beach to setup camp.

We took two cars and drove up from Berlin. Along the way were hundreds of wind turbine farms and a few solar farms.

We arrived late in the afternoon and setup camp before it got too dark.

After scrounging for fallen branches, we got the fire started. Some more impressed with the sky than the fire construction:)

Not bad for a bunch of city slickers.

Liam had the bright idea to put tea candles in sand pits and cups to light the camp area.

Idyllic little vacation hamlet nearby. VERY clean place. Every stick and twig was manicured into place on the roofs.

Survivors of the night and the attack of the 50 foot mosquitoes.

  The far western end of the peninsula used to be some sort of military base with an air strip, u-boat base and perhaps a launch site for buzz bombs. Now its fenced off and a nature preserve, much better idea.

  Over all a great night and a relaxing time star gazing and fire watching. After the morning dip and breaky we packed up and walked about 2 kilometres down the beach to the small town and had lunch at a rather posh Italian place. Linsey and I tried our luck ordering iced coffee... seems to be a foreign concept here. We got a cup of espresso and a glass with ice cubes. Not what we had in mind mate.

Until next time.
AJ

Day trip to Leipzig

  I went on a day trip to Leipzig with a group of photograph buff's recently. We got there about 12 and wandered around, found a good example of Art Nouveau architecture with a very obvious Japanese influence:

 

Nearby is a gallery mall from about 1900 called Specks Hof

Unfortunately I didn't have much time to check this out and it looks like most of the classic details have been removed. This ceiling section was an exception.

Nikolaikirke with great columns.

The most impressive site is the memorial to Napoleon's defeat at Leipzig, Volkerschlachtdenkmal. It is huge...

I walked from the old city centre and you definitely see it from a long way off.

See the people?

Rather humbling sense of scale and loss when you think of all who died to make this necessary.

With all this stone it feels like the Mines of Moria and here's Gimli.

Walking into the interior crypt of this massive monument felt a bit like a set from an Indiana Jones film or perhaps Dune.

No matter where you go in Europe, somethings always being cleaned.

I expected Salah to poke his head out and quip about the tomb full of "asp's"

If you are only slightly claustrophobic, DON'T climb the spiral staircase.

Great doors in this place.

Almost at the top

  Once at the very top you can't see any of the monument just a great view of the city, a nearby castle and Nuclear power station belching out steam. I forgot to stretch out and hang the camera over the edge to see if I could see these great figures from the top down. Next time.

Andy