Category: Northern Europe – Aug-Oct 2024

In the Fall of 2024 we visit Norway, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Germany and the Netherlands.

Poznań, Poland to Hanover, Germany

Today was a big travel day. We left our hotel and walked to the Poznań train station about 8 am. In the picture below Duke is in line to try to use the last of our Polish currency on breakfast.

Ordering breakfast at the Poznań train station
Breakfast

For the first leg of our journey we had train tickets to go from Poznan to Berlin. The train journey was scheduled to be about three and a half hours. After we got on the train we learned that they had a bus bridge from the Poland/Germany border to Berlin.

We still arrived in Berlin right on time. The traffic in Berlin was really bad and I wish I understood German so I could have understood what our bus driver was yelling at the other drivers. At one point point he said ***** Berliners *****. Which I understood to be a comment on Berlin drivers. The whole bus laughed.

On the train before we changed to the bus

The Berlin train station was pretty amazing. There were at least 5 floors with buses and trains and shops and restaurants. We had about an hour wait and then we were on the train to Hanover.

While we waited Duke went to ask about our tickets to Amsterdam for Monday. We have first class tickets but no seat assignments. The customer service agents told Duke yes that’s right. It seems strange that they can sell us tickets but NO seats. Hopefully we won’t be standing!We shall see what happens Monday!

Berlin train station

In Hanover we walked to our hotel. We saw a loud pro Palestine demonstration and several beautiful buildings. For dinner we walked to a nearby restaurant called Bavarian Hannover. We had beer and Bratz.

Our beer
My bratz
The New Town Hall in Hanover

Wilkendorf, Germany to Poznań, Poland

Today we drove back into Poland, to Poznań to return our rental car. The rental was for 10 days and we were scheduled to meet the car pick up person at the train station tomorrow. Our hope was to turn it in today so we wouldn’t have to pay for parking tonight. We got to Poznan about 2:30 and called the rental car company. They said someone could meet us at 8 tonight to pick up the car. So we parked, checked in and went exploring.

Poznań Old Market Square
More of the Old Market Square
Poznań Town Hall

Finally about 8:30 the guy showed up, We gave him the car and went to a Pizza place for dinner.

Our pizza
This is what we ordered.

After our pizza we walked around the Old Market Square again.

Tomorrow we will take the train to Hanover.

The old Market Square tonight

Wilkendorf day 2

Today we walked halfway around the Lake in nearby Strausberg. The lake has an electrically driven cable ferry that we took back to our starting point. There is an overhead power line across the lake. The cable powers the ferry. The distance between the electrical towers is 370 meters.

Walking around Lake Straussee
The electrical cable ferry

After our three mile walk we had coffee and cake at a nearby bakery.

Duke picking his pastry at Hennig der Steinofenbäcker
Coffee and pastries

For dinner we went to a nearby restaurant called Restaurant Doppeldecker across the street from the local airfield. The reviews mentioned an airplane parked across from the restaurant. We thought the name was referring to a double decker aircraft. But after seeing the plane and the pictures on the wall we realized Doppeldecker meant Biplane in English!

Restaurant Doppeldecker

Our meal was excellent.

Duke’s mixed grill
My pork tenderloin with roasted brie on top.

I’ve been sad that I’m always too full for desert so tonight we sacrificed and had brownies for desert.

Brownies

Güstrow to Wilkendorf

This morning after breakfast we went for a walk. The weather was windy and cool but very pleasant.

Lake Inselsee
This bridge swings out of the way to let boats through

We have been surprised how few people speak English in the places we have been the last few nights. Google translate is awesome. You just take a picture of the German you want to translate and it instantly gives you the translation in English.

This sign was on a tree outside our hotel this morning.
Here is the translation

After our walk we drove southeast to a small town not too far from Berlin. Oktoberfest is going on in Berlin right now so rooms there were scarce and expensive.

For dinner we drove to a nearby town, Strausberg and had dinner in a restaurant built in an old train station. So far in Germany all our meals have been in tourist areas. Tonight Gasthof Strausberg Nord where we ate felt very authentic and local. The first page of the menu was all horse meat. It’s interesting how our cultural prejudices make us react to foods. We ordered one of the horse meat dishes and a fish called Zander. They were both delicious.

The horse meat dishes. Note the source comment at the bottom
Horse
Zander

Another cultural thing is serving lard as a spread for bread. It is also very good.

We had to look up the lard bread spread
Bread and lard spread
The restaurant where we ate

Ostseebad Sellin to Güstrow

Today we left the Baltic coast and drove inland.

Breakfasts at Hotel Bernstein were great. Almost all our breakfast buffets have had pickled herring and salmon. The fish section on this morning’s buffet was especially good. I liked the look of the fish wrapped around a pickle but I didn’t try it. I did have some of the sour cream pickled herring.

The fish options on the breakfast buffet.

After breakfast we went for a walk along the cliffs in the opposite direction from town.

Duke and I on our hike
The view back towards the hotel and the pier

We stopped for groceries about an hour into our drive. Soon after that it started to rain and it has rained the rest of the day.

On our drive

Hotel am Inselsee where we are tonight is on a lake. Hopefully the weather will cooperate in the morning and we can check it out. Our room has the bedroom upstairs!

Our room at Hotel am Inselsee

We ate dinner at the hotel.

Duke pork had red cabbage and cherries and dumplings
My wild boar schnitzel