A spring journey has begun - Part 2

As always it has been a while since my last post.. Well, the time is that very tricky thing. Whatever you do or not, there is always not enough of it.

Tonight, I decided to continue my post about our trip to the Baltic Sea that we made in the end of April. I won't write too much about all the sea resorts and places we visited, but will post a representative number of pictures to show what we have seen and admired. We were in Kühlungsborn - the very first sea resort that was found in Europe, Heiligendamm - a high class resort where G8 met in 2007, and a number of towns on the sea shore.  

The sea was breathtaking, the weather - perfect, and the wind was just as it should be - strong and salty. 

Rostock - the largest city on the coast of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. The city has lots of Hanseatic architecture that was successfully taken as an inspiration by the Eastern German architechts for their socialist pre-fab blocks that you can see on the picture. 

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View of the Baltic Sea in Kühlungsborn - the first sea resort ever in Europe. 

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Buildings on the central street in Kühlungsborn.

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A nice restaurant with tatched roof where I ate my beloved Matjes mit Äpfeln in Sahne-Joghurt Sauce. There is nothing better than freshly cooked (or marinated) fish served at the seashore. By the way, tatched roofs is a speciality of this region. 

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A hotel on the sea shore. 

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Numerous seagulls lined in one row.

And the same group from a different perspective:

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The colour of the sea was so bright and vivid.. This tincture of bluemarine can be found only at the seaside.

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Heiligendamm - another sea resort in this area, where G8 met in 2007. The place felt empty with the only huge hotel built in the form of a castle standing there. 

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There was nothing interesting  about that place except for a row of old abandoned villas, the destiny of which has not been settled after the WW II. As it was the case with many other property in Germany. 

The combination of these old ruined pieces with a shiny new building of the hotel was somehow weird and very much contrasted.

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But the sea was as beautiful as everywhere.

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Warnemünde - a seaport town. 

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A light tower and the sea in the daylight.

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Huge ships passing by..

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Seagulls watching the endless crowd of visitors.

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The beach there.  I am simply in love with the sea..

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These Strandkörbe are  just lovely.

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Fishermens' harbour.

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A street in Warnemünde with neatly arranged houses. Very German.

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Sunset... 

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View of the famous resort in Warnemünde, which you can see pictured on almost all tourist postards from there.

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The ships go so close to the beach. 

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Light tower and waves..

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Strandkörbe and a ship in the background - a very typical scenery for the sea shore. 

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The colour of the sunset sky was changing every second..

This scenery might well resemble the paintings of Claude Monet, a French impressionist famous for his plein-air landscape painting. 

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These unbelievably beautiful waves.. Watching the sunset at the sea has been one of the most unforgettable moments.    

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Goodbye, the sea. See you next time.

A spring journey has begun

The spring has finally come and people are enjoying the sun very much.. I bet they should, as winter time is so unbelievably dark and depressive in Berlin.

On top of enjoying those warm sunny days ourselves, last week we have made it to the sea to indulge into sunbathing right there - adding a brightful blumarine note to our feeling of spring joy and excitement. It took us only two hours and a half to drive from Berlin to the North-East of Germany, where we stayed a couple of days in the Ferienwohnung offered in one of the numerous neatly arranged villages nearby the Baltic sea. 

Scandinavian spirit in Germany

On our way, we made a stop in Güstrow - a small Hanseatic town that survived the 30-year war and a countless number of bishops and dukes, most of whom came from Sweden. The town has a beautiful castle in the Rennaissance style that was built by an Italian architector Franz Parr in the 16th century.

The castle has a water canal around it as required by rules

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The ornaments of the building are exquisite and designed with an exceptional taste. The castle combines a Scandinavian ambiance with a classical Italian Rennaissance allure - a mixture that creates the perfect composition and gives a remarkable style to its three-storey building, solid and elegant at once.

Castle from the inner yard

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An element of the entrance gates

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A small garden in the backyard

Each room in the castle has its own design - Medieval, Rennaisance, Roman. All the way through, I kept thinking what it would be like to live in a place like this and that, in fact, there were those blessed (or not?) from the humankind who did it in the past.  The castle keeps the finely drawn family trees of the dukes who possessed this precious creature and their kins.

Peter the Great and General Feldmarschal Menshikov visited Güstrow in their time, too.

 The house where Peter the Great stopped once

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We had no idea before and then just bumped into this memory plate

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Another memory plate saying that Menshikov was in the town, too

Güstrow was a member of the Hanseatic Union, which, combined with its proximity to Scandinavian countries (they are all there on the opposite sea shore) explains why the town has a genuine Scandinavian spirit, truly remarkable for its noble outlooks and colourful buildings. Given my longstanding passion for the Scandinavian culture, I was truly excited to see all this here, especially as it turned out to be almost around the corner from Berlin. 

Looks so similar to Copenhagen..

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Fine bone china in an antique shop, with the reflection of buildings accross the street in its large window

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Güstrow.. We just stopped there over knowing nothing about the town and were stunned with admiration. Again, during this short trip to the Baltic Sea area in the North-East of Germany I discovered many new and unexpected places. This remarkably rich diversity of landscapes and cultures makes travelling in this country a truly exciting journey.

To be continued...

Berlinale Photos

It has been a while since the festival was over, but I think it's nice to keep a small photo report for myself..

Berlinale Program

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People queuing for tickets in Podsdamer Platz Arkaden

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Berlinale Bear

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Cinestar Cinema at Podstdamer Platz

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Roof of the Sony Center at Podsdamer Platz

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Berlinale tickets

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In the cinema

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Shopping in Friedrichshain

Today, I did what I have been thinking about for a while already.

Instead of going to big shopping centers with regular democratic and not so democratic brands, I decided to pay a visit to the area with small designers' shops in Friedrichshain - one of the Berlin's well known districts for its fashion spots. 

And here is the result. My new winter boots from Danish "d . co". The winter is almost over, but it was the love from the first sight! Well.. accompanied by a nice pocket bag from another Danish brand. 

My passion for the clothing style of Scandinavian countries is simply irresistible. Today, this has been confirmed one more time.