It's 30 years after the german re-unification as we mind a bizarre plan: We're trekking along the Iron Curtain, the former deadly borderline between the East and the West of Germany! There is a hiking way named „Grenzwanderweg“ or „Green Ribbon“. You can hike here along the path on which the east german border guards monitored the „Iron Curtain“ between the socialist world and the west.
The first episode of our hike you can read here.This is the second one and here are third, four,five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, 11, 12 and 13.
This will be number 14 - the next to last chapter.
After we have reached the city of Schönberg on our way to the Baltic Sea we see a town dying. This place, once the area where Western Germany gived the eastern government millions and millions of hard D-Mark to be allowed to burry his waste, is now an area of emptyness.
Schönberg has one Inn and it is closed. It has one cinema, and this is closed too since ages. The only place where you can get something to eat is a friendly turkish Döner grill. A pair originally from vietnam has invented this rare opportunity to eat after the sun is down over the city.
Where to find fresh water?
But the last kilometres to the sea let us take it easy. Our problem right before we reach the shore is the water. When we will walk along the former Kolonnenweg who once streched at the Baltic Sea from the west to the east we would not able to find fresh water for two complete days. Behind Dassow, a small village made of a handful of houses, only one snack bar named "Seestern" is on our way. And no springs, toilets or other places with a faucet.
This means we have to carry all we need in our backpacks who are 20 kilograms heavy when we normally load two litres of water for the day. Now we walk on with six and a half for each of us. It's a special feeling, a little bit like an ant under a giant chip of oak or something else. After ten minutes we need the first break. The sun is out again, the temperature is rising. The weight forces us to drink more as we think before. A vicious circle.
In a vicious circle
But to see the sea is worth all the pain. So don't think about it. Come wander with me, the one and olny Brian fallon sings. And the way we now have to go is oned oft the nicest for all this miles. The Harkenbäkniederung and all the Salzhaff area are the opposite to the rest of the german shore of the Baltic Sea. Where everywhere else are a lot of hotels, industrial beaches and a lot of business are rules the scene here are none of this. There is the path along the sea, on the left hand side a small strip of wood and on the right hand side are fields. And more fields. And a lot of more fields.
Annoying bikes
The tourists at this area are all on bikes underway. Very annoying for hikers, because they come from behind and in front. But we are really happy about a cyclist: Heinz, our hiking encounter from the Elbe, suddenly appears, quite by random with his bike and a howling at his radio handlebar. We take a sip together and tell each other about our experiences. His are even stranger than ours because he has lost his camera in a garbage can in Travemünde, which he then had to dump and rummage through. Strange guy.
Only a few kilometres from our start we are being amezed about a giant cross made of wood right on the path: "No Future without Memory " tells a sign near by the cross who is given for the victims of one of the greatest disasters of the history of the seafaring.
At the end of the Second World War along the bay “Lübecker Bucht“ the two ships „Cap Arcona“ and „ThieIbek“ tried to get to Lübeck, but in the night of May 3rd, 1945 both sunk after an attack by british bombers. 7.000 prisoners of concentrations camps died and their bodys were washed up to the beaches of the „Lübecker Bucht“ in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Schleswig-Holstein the whole summer.
A tragedy without traces
A tragedy that has left no traces without the wooden cross and the same way does the former Iron Curtain here. The Kolonnenweg we followed since Salzwedel at the north side of the mountain Harz was the same way we walked now, but only on a few and short areas you still can see the typical bisquits of concrete were the border way was made from.
We're looking for a nice place on the beach this evening to pitch our tent right on the waterfront. It's a very empty place, our neighbours are only birds and some late guests who are looking for amber and ridlled stones. The waves are rushing silent and the sun is going down in the west, where the skyline of Timmendorfer Strand is blinking. It's a dream we are cheering with our special cocktail made of special ingredients.
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A few more pictures for you: