Germany 2000
A millennium family holiday was arranged for September at the Baltic resort of Travemünde. We were seven people in total with Anne-Marie and myself setting out first, by car, as the advance party. Carl and girlfriend Jo along with Jason, Emily and baby James all flew to Lübeck three days later. Two self-catering flats, situated 10 minutes walk from the beach, became our comfortable homes for the week. Hopes were high that sand-castle-building weather would favour us on James’s first visit to Germany. Well, we managed to find one such day during the week and everyone made the most of it - not least little James.
This was a restful break during which, among other activities like reading our Harry Potter books, we happily enjoyed watching some of the big passenger ships entering and leaving Travemünde harbour - made a couple of shopping excursions to the attractive, historical "Hansestadt" of Lübeck - or took the lift to the 34th floor of the Maritim hotel for afternoon tea and magnificent views.
Most German beaches have baskets to relax in which can be rented on an hourly, daily or weekly basis. These can best be described as the Rolls Royce - sorry - Mercedes equivalent of twin deckchairs.
At the end of the week it was time for the younger family members to return home to the necessities of work etc. while we two old codgers drove off to explore new delights in the Holstein region, situated to the north of Travemünde.
Eventually we came to a small town called Ploen where we found the "Old Ferry House" - nowadays a small hotel - situated, naturally at the lakeside, and here we stayed for three nights. Our room looked directly onto the lake with the added attraction of a small harbour of sailing boats located directly below our window.
Over the next three days we took in a couple of two hour boat trips on the lakes and visited a nearby village of Bosau with its thatched roofs and medieval church. During this time we also drove further north to Rendsburg to see the Kiel Canal. A day of unbroken sunshine made this an even more memorable day. To begin with we arrived at the canal on the opposite side to the town. At this point an enormously high railway bridge spans the canal and slung underneath this is a suspension ferry, transporting both people and up to six cars at a time across the canal - above the water. On the Rendsburg side of the canal we could see a restaurant/café with an open terrace facing the canal, and here was where we spent the next four hours watching the many and varied ships coming and going. Of added interest was a purpose built booth on the café-terrace from where bigger ships were welcomed by the playing, as they passed by, of the appropriate anthem of the country in which the ship was registered. Café customers also heard details about each vessel being announced as it approached. There were many different kinds of ships to be seen that day including a 14.000 tonne Russian tanker; we were even treated to the sight of a German U-boat gliding past.
Then it was time to make our way to the home of Klaus and Frauke, friends of Anne-Marie for many years who, not for the first time, had kindly invited us to spend our final two nights at their lovely house on the outskirts of Lübeck. Soon after our arrival there was a visit from their son Claes-Jörn with his wife Stephani and their young son Robin. (They are all kind enough to say my German is good - even if that’s not quite how I’d describe it..) So, after some pleasant excursions with our friends, it was time for us bid our farewells and head for the boat home. I still wonder why Klaus declined my perfectly reasonable offer to exchange his VW Passat for mine. Could it be because mine’s a paltry five years older than his..?
Our sincere thanks go to all who made our ‘Germany 2000’ visit a memorable-millennium one.
And here are some pictures:
- with comments which James may have expressed, had he been slightly older.
Click on a thumb-nail to view the full sized image. Go here for the Fotopic version of the gallery.
This was my introduction to the beach and those non-shopping baskets, then on to some excavating and sand-castle demolition work, followed by a brief sedentary interlude before exploring in greater depth how this sand stuff works.
Then it was up to the top floor of this tall hotel to look down at all those tiny beach-baskets.
I didn't need much rocking to get to sleep that night - but I got some just the same.
Not sure if I should have eaten two pizzas. 
And then there were two.
Some impressions from Holstein and Lübeck:
