Regina spent over 3 weeks on the island of Rügen, located on the Baltic Sea. She was there for therapy at a mother/child health resort. Frank had driven her up there and then taken the train back, now for her return, I took the (9 hour) train trip up, spending 2 nights there before driving her and the kids back home.

The weather was fantastic during my stay... it couldn't have been better. Temps were up to about 25° C with clear, dry conditions... perfect weather for finally enjoying the beach!

First some impressions of the train ride...

Thursday; arriving on the island and my first time in the Baltic Sea

Friday; visiting the sea resort Sellin and the Seebrücke

The architecture was beautiful and interesting.

 There were many houses in this style and more are being renovated. There were a few rundown places left over from the time the island was a part of East Germany.

We visited the Seebrücke, stopped for coffee and enjoyed the beach. Since we didn't have our beach things with us, we stayed only a short while but came back again in the afternoon.

I took a little walk along the coast before we left the beach and tried to photograph a few impressions on the way. To the right you see the elevator that brings us down to or up from the beach. That way we could avoid walking all those stairs!

Remnants of sad times now past... hopefully forever.

entrance to some kind of bunker?

the Seebrücke by night....

Saturday; time to drive home;

last stop at a playground while mommy packs the car

The trip home was relatively uneventful. The kids had a dvd recorder to watch and since Regina wasn't feeling too well, I did the driving. Since it was a holiday weekend, there was very little traffic and we didn't run into a single traffic jam!

As an intermission we stopped in Herzberg to visit Andreas and Gisa. Among the "guests" were their two daughters, Isabel with her boyfriend Jan and Corina, as well as my mother-in-law Melitta. So it ended up a nice family reunion.