Ostsee Can You See

Worst pun title yet, I know, but I'm sick (shocking) and somewhat still in marathon recovery mode so it's the best I could do. Here's a cute picture of Annika from our trip to make it better.

A little over a month ago, Neil had a break in his language school, and our next language school session had yet to begin, so we decided to take a little trip to a more out-of-the-way German locale on the Ostsee (the Baltic Sea to most of you). We journeyed to Heringsdorf on the island of Usedom, a small island in the northeast of Germany which is partially shared with Poland. It is a holiday hotspot for the Germans and also home to the longest commercially operated pier in continental Europe (508m), so basically we couldn't lose.

One thing you always hear about is how awesome it is to drive in Germany. The autobahn and lack of speed limits are awfully enticing and sound good on paper. As we found out on our journey to pick up the car, the autobahn is not all is it cracked up to be. Fortunately, this trip relied very little on major roads and more on small country roads between towns. This all sounds lovely except that quaint rural driving amounts to a lot of stopping and going as you enter and leave new towns. This would be fine except that the monster only enjoys car rides at 80k/h or faster. It's like Speed with less excitement and a lot more screaming. I will say that the scenery was beautiful and we did manage to luck into missing the opening of the drawbridge onto the island and the traffic that goes with it, so the trip was not a total disaster.

Once we arrived in Heringsdorf, we decided that we needed to check out this pier we'd heard so much about and also eat dinner. Coincidentally, there is a restaurant out on the end of the pier, so we were able to kill two birds with one 508-meter walk. The nice thing about a vacation town is that most restaurants are fairly kid-friendly and have outdoor seating. We were able to snag a table with a nice view of the sun setting and an entertaining waiter and enjoy a meal and a drink without disrupting the meals and drinks of anyone else. This is no small feat in the Senkowski house, and we thoroughly enjoyed it.

Mouth full of bruschetta.

Our hotel lies just across the water from the pepper mill.

Happy to be out of a high chair/stroller/car.

Freedom!

One of the things I enjoy about traveling is running in new places. I often get hassled by those with whom I am traveling that I should take a break and enjoy myself. My argument is always that running is how I enjoy myself. It is also a fantastic way to get to know a new area. So of course when I found out that the Polish border was just over a 5K run from our hotel, I simply could not resist. I was not particularly in the mood to carry my passport with me, so I decided that I would just go to the border and turn around. There was an amazing run/bike path along the water, and at 0500 it was almost completely empty, save for a few people biking to work giving me strange looks. As it turns out, borders are not so secure here in the EU, and I was able to run right up and in to Poland. I really must say that a run into another country is a great way to start a day.

Pretty self-explanatory. The monument was a nice surprise.

Poland on the left. Germany on the right.

Another nice thing about an early morning run is that I often come up with some pretty great ideas. I also often forget a lot of them before I get home, but that is neither here nor there. As I made the return run back to the hotel, I thought it might be fun to rent some bikes and ride to Poland later in the day with the monster. I had seen a number of bike rental places, and I hoped we could rent one of those kid cargo trailer thingys. Since she never really naps well in hotel rooms or at home in her crib, I thought we might be able to time a ride with a snooze for her and perhaps get lunch/a drink at one of the trailside cafes. After a little bit of morning beaching, Neil called a the bike rental place, and we reserved two bikes and a trailer thingy and headed off to Poland again. Annika entertained herself, us, and some other trailgoers with a rousing rendition of Goodnight Moon before she passed out. We rode a bit further into Poland than I had run and upon reaching the end of the bike path, turned around to head back to Germany. It began to look a bit like rain so we pulled off at a miniature golf course/Imbiß spot. There's nothing like a beer, some wurst, some potato pancakes, and fries after a bike ride to Poland. Am I right?

I think she was around the part about
the bowl full of mush.

Pumped about being in Poland.

Trying to escape before we get back to Germany.

Eating wurst...obvs.

A bike ride to Poland and a walk to the end of a long pier are tough to top, so we decided to take a day trip to Greifswald, an old town relatively unscathed by WWII bombings and with an indoor playground place Neil had found. When what should have been an hour's drive turned into a bit over 2 hours, and the indoor play place was not open for another 2 hours, we headed to our favorite German hamburger restaurant, McDonald's. Determined that the trip involve something new and exciting for Annika, we decided she was ready for her first Happy Meal. Ordering said Happy Meal was slightly more complicated than I had anticipated and not because I had to do it in German. It used to be you just ordered hamburger, cheeseburger, or McNuggets, and that was that. With the dawn of healthy options, there is a lot more deciding to be done. Fries/apple slices/salad, milk/chocolate milk/juice/organic milk/soy milk, and my choice of literally 14 books was almost too much to handle, but I did it. She ate some of the food and tried to destroy the 3D glasses that came with her book (seriously, whatever happened to a plastic toy from the latest Disney movie?), and we headed into old town to see some cobblestone streets which are always good for testing Annika's balance, an old church (one of only a few not totally destroyed by allied bombing), and a toy store where we got some color-changing rubber duckies. Altogether, it was another relatively successful day. That night, I had some wurst for dinner that looked like a snail. It was pretty tasty.

McEating.

Church in Greifswald.

Snail wurst. Lecker.

Our last day on the island of Usedom was pretty low-key. We did some walking around, ate another delicious meal, and took what may be the best family picture we've been able to capture yet on the beach (with the pier in the background, of course). We made our way back home to Berlin and prepared to start language class the next week.

That was pretty much the last we would see of summer. It is now October, and we are settling in to cool, rainy weather which I fear will be staying with us until next Spring. On the up side, I am enrolled in a 4 hour/day, 4 day/week class where I feel like I might actually be able to make some progress with my German. Also on the up side, with more time spent inside, I may be able to get caught up with posts including but not limited to the following:

• The Midwest Senkowskis in Berlin (and Dresden)
• The Berlin Marathon and the death of another iPhone
• My slightly racist but otherwise super liberal and hilarious German teacher
• Kinderspielplatz shenanigans

Bis zum nächsten mal Freunde!