We planned to spend Friday night in Ückermunde, a town we have already visited twice, but only as a dinner stop on the way home from other trips to the Baltic. Somewhere on the drive we started seeing a beautiful sunset and I kept asking my boy to stop so I could take pictures, but for ten or fifteen minutes there wasn't a good place to stop. We eventually just pulled onto the side of the road and I ignored all of the cars driving by to take my photos.
We arrived after dark in Ückermunde and I forgot to take pictures on our walk through town. There was a festival on all weekend, but we decided the "concert" wasn't worth the entry fee and we just went back to our hotel. The town is so small we could hear it fom our room anyway.
The first time we stopped in Ückermunde for dinner we actually ate at the restaurant in the hotel, so we decided to finally stay there this time. But, somehow we booked (or they put us in) the Ferienwohnung (vacation house) instead of the hotel proper. We had a kitchen, two bedrooms and a living room and all for the price of a double room. It was an average hotel with furniture similar to 75% of the hotels we stay at, but it also had these crazy light switches. I'm convinced they are old school East German light switches.
I love fields of hay bales and we passed many massive fields on our route.
This viking pointed to a McDonald's, where I bought (and returned) a McFlurry that wasn't mixed at all. The three people working at the restaurant claimed pouring a scoop of Smarties on top of ice cream equaled a McFlurry. Uh, no.
We started up at Peenemünde, which we visited the last time we went to Usedom, in March. My boy wanted to visit the submarine, which was closed last time. I had to pay an extra euro to be allowed to take photos inside!
Who let a woman on the crew?
How did they keep track of what these all did? I would be so afraid of turning the wrong wheel.
We passed the deserted gas factory again. I wanted to go inside, but I'm a bit too much of a woos for that. I have my tetanus shot and all, but one corner of the building had completely fallen, and there are no floors in the photo below, so I stayed safely outside the fence.
Next, we had to hunt down the beach, because I was going to swim this time, no matter what. But, there was one problem - it was after lunch, the day was gorgeous and there was no place to park. Parking on the side of the road was off-limits and we didn't want to get a ticket. The large parking lot had no lines, so a lot of cars took up more space than they really needed. We tried quite a few places and actually got out of the car once before we realized the other cars all had coloured and numbered parking tickets that allowed them to park there.
But, we finally found a place to park after at least an hour searching. The beach was sandy and not that busy (notice that the sky is a litte more grey...) and we found a place to park our blanket. And then we went into the water. Now, the water was a little murky, but that might have been a good thing because it hid all of the seaweed. There was a lot. I know, I hate seaweed. But this wasn't the full plant type, more like random strings, so I made mysel bear it. And while I didn't get my head wet, I was wearing a swimsuit and got parts of it wet, so, I'm counting that as swimming in the Baltic. It's my to-do list, I can make my own rules!
An example of the seaweed. We found this stuck to the velcro on my boy's shorts. The water was FULL of this. And as I was taking this photo it started to rain. So, we packed up and went back to the car. I think we were on the beach for less than 20 minutes, but at least we got in the water.
Next, we went to the hotel to check in so we could also change out of our swimsuits again. We choose a hotel on the Polish side of the border, in Swinoujscie, because I had hotel points and it was free. Such a good choice! The hotel was lovely and we plan to stay there again.
After we checked in, we headed out in search of a restaurant. I found points on the map that looked interesting and we drove out to them.
On Sunday we headed down to Szczecin to do some shopping. And that's when we discovered that there isn't actually a bridge on the Polish side to connect the island to the mainland. We had to take a ferry! And surprisingly, it was free. I stayed in the car to crochet, but my boy got out to take some photos. The cars were quite snugly packed and I don't think I could have gotten out if I had tried. This was also the first ferry/boat I've been on this summer that actually made me feel nauseous.
I wish I had taken more photos on Sunday, because it was a pretty drive. We stopped to buy honey on the side of the road and stopped in two towns to do some shopping. Next time we go, we plan to take the ferry that goes from Szczecin to Swinoujscie.
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