Ian cooked up a delicious dinner of Rostwurst sausage, a local specialty.  They are white pork, but turn red-brown when cooked and have a slightly tangy flavour.  We discovered a very convenient shopping mall with a large Citti supermarket – it has an entire shelf of GF stuff, and the best range of fruit and veg we’ve come across.  Even better, it has a Macca’s with a hotspot right next door, so we sneak in and sit in the corner, update our online stuff, then escape without spending a cent.

This morning the weather looked quite promising after yesterday’s grey skies and drizzle (we had to break out our long pants for the first time).  So it was off to Rugen Island, which lies about 3 kms away from the mainland.  It is reached by the rather impressive Rugenbrucke, built in 2007.

Rugen is Germany’s largest island, and is a popular holiday destination for German families. In fact up till WW2, it was Germany’s most famous holiday resort.  After the war, the German Democratic Republic (GDR) nationalised all hotels.  Many Rugen hotel owners were convicted of engaging in economic crime, or of being western agents, and imprisoned.  Not surprisingly, tourism came to an abrupt halt.  In the following decades, the island became one of East Germany’s main tourist areas under the direction of the GDR (you VILL enjoy your holiday, or else!)  After 1990, the concrete blocks of “resort” accommodation have been renovated or replaced, and tourism is thriving.

We had vague plans for the day, which potentially involved steam trains and coastal walks.  We crossed the bridge and turned east.  After navigating very narrow roads and passing through several small villages, each with its own church spire, our first stop was Putbus.  This is the oldest resort on the island, founded in 1810.  It was built in Classicist style and is known as “the white town” and “the rose town”.

We found a (rare) free parking spot for 2 hours, and set out on foot.  Although the Schloss (Palace) is gone, an expansive park still exists, as do some of the buildings such as the Orangery and the royal stables. There is also an ornamental lake, and some spectacular, large spreading trees.  There is even an enclosure for deer.

Within the town is the Circus, on which all local roads converge at a tall obelisk.  Surrounded by gracious Classical buildings, it is the last existing Circus in Germany.  After admiring all of this unexpected splendour, we arrived back at the car – to find our windscreen adorned with a parking ticket.  Apparently we had parked across a driveway.  A helpful resident told us we’d been fined the princely sum of 10 euros, and that we could pay it at the town hall just a few metres away.

Relieved that the fine wasn’t going to ruin the holiday budget, we headed off to perform our civic duty.  It was just after midday, and the lone parking officer spoke very limited English.  He managed to communicate that we should come back at 1pm, when someone could collect our money.  He then set off on his official lap of the parking area and inspected all the vehicles thoroughly.  It was like watching Officer Penhale from “Doc Martin”.

At 1pm we found a helpful lady who took our 10 euros and wrote a receipt.  Our first brush with German officialdom was over in about 5 minutes, and we were on our way.  The afternoon’s destination was Jasmund National Park, famous for its beech forests and chalk cliffs.  The roads were still very narrow, and a lot busier, so it was a testing drive.  Finally we pulled up in a large car park at a trailhead.  From here we could walk 3 kms each way to see the cliffs.

Jasmund NP is the smallest in Germany.  The beech forests are World Heritage listed.  Our walk followed a wide, well established trail through the beech, which reminded us of orienteering in Turkey.  In fact it would make a nice orienteering forest, with many subtle contour features and a dense network of narrow and confusing tracks.  The forest itself was clear underfoot without the thick vegetation we’ve seen elsewhere, though being a national park we weren’t meant to leave the designated trails.  I enjoyed the walk.  The cliffs themselves were pretty without being spectacular (compared to say the south east coast of England, which is much more open and dramatic).  From the lookout at Victoria’s Seat, we could see the highest cliff, the Kings Chair, or Konigstuhle.

We talked about taking a ride on the island’s steam train, but decided it would make for a very late return.  We drove to Binz, one of the famous seaside resort towns on the east coast of Rugen.  It was very crowded and definitely not meant for driving, so we didn’t linger, instead setting the satnav for Home.  We decided Rugen would be a great place to ride a bike or get around by train, but it wasn’t car friendly.

For the last three days we’ve been trying to find somewhere suitably dramatic to park the BMW and photograph it. But the only parking we’ve found so far is supermarket car parks – not quite the effect we’re looking for.

Permission to drool … (and don’t tell our mothers but it does 175 kph on the autobahn before it feels like a plane about to take off).