Weekend in Stralsund

Stralsund is a small city on the north (& only) coast of Germany – see first photo below for a map. It is there that I spent last weekend.

 

One of the first tourist attractions to which I was attracted was the ‘Gorch Fock’ which is a ship that was built in 1933 and was originally used as a school ship for the German Navy. It is now a museum ship in Stralsund with what I think is a rather unfortunate name – especially when you see it written in the style used on the ship itself (second photo below)! – but I can assure you it is definitely an ‘O’!

 

The city of Stralsund is still in the process of recovery after a visit from a President Bush who apparently ordered them (amongst other things) to block off all the drains in the city  – presumably to protect himself from rodents with sniper rifles! The gothic 13th century town hall (from which Bush managed to form a few sentences into what can loosely be called a speech) is one of the main city sights and was certainly photo-worthy – see the photos section for this and more pics of Stralsund.

 

Of course, visiting any city would not be complete for me without seeing it from above – so I went up the tower of the largest church in the city called The Marienkirche (Saint Mary’s Church). To get an idea of the terrific views, take a look at the third photo below – a panorama picture of Stralsund!

 

Just off the coast from Stralsund in the Baltic Sea is Germany’s largest island (Rügen Island) which I think has a climate similar to that of the Antarctic! It was very cold and windy there as you will see in the photos section but that didn’t spoil my enjoyment of being there. Nor did it spoil my enjoyment of the hot chocolate in the warm cafe after only five minutes standing on the beach turning into an icicle!

 

Before leaving Stralsund I also managed to sample some of the local delicacies which seemed to be strangely familiar! (see fourth photo below). That’s right – good ol’ fish ‘n’ chips!  A tradition from England! It was nice to see a bit of home in a foreign place and it was even served in an English newspaper although it was a bit strange that the fish was cut up into lots of little pieces but it tasted great! In case you are wondering, I also sampled some real local food called Fischbrötchen which is simply some fish (sometimes smoked) inside a bread roll. This was also very tasty but since seeing ‘Fish & Ships’ I’ve now been dreaming of other traditions aus England… maybe someone could send me a pub lunch via airmail? A fry-up? Maybe an actual pint of beer?