The town of Schwerin is
located in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern,
East Germany,
the former DDR. In fact, it is the capital city of that province. Many people
in that part of Germany
speak Russian.
Schwerin is a
city of nearly 100,000 inhabitants, a city with beautiful, old buildings, a
castle, and old churches. Unfortunately, when the Communists owned that part of
Germany,
they neglected the land and the buildings and many of them are in a sad state.
Communism does not inspire people to work and does not promote
entrepreneurship. Things deteriorate and don’t get fixed and that is evident in
all the places we visited. Of course, after Germany was reunited again, people
with vision moved in and began repairing and building, but it takes years to
get things back to normal.
There are many lakes in the area. Most of them are somehow
connected and the water flows eventually into the Baltic
Sea. We booked a tour with a ship around one of the larger lakes.
The shore of the lake is dotted with small cottages, many on stilts.
The public transport in Schwerin is the Electric Street car system. Very
efficient and fast. It was interesting to see the cars maneuvering the narrow
streets with all those Street cars.
We left Hamburg
by train. According to our train ticket it was going to take one hour and forty
minutes to get to Schwerin.
My friend said he would wait for us by the Hauptbahnhof and I was looking
forward to seeing him again after 55 years. We were supposed to be in Schwerin at 11:51 AM, but
it didn’t happen that way.
They announce every stop over the speakers and they also
have monitors everywhere. If you pay attention it is easy to know when you
arrive at your destination. We had comfortable seats on the train, but we were
anxious and a bit nervous. We are not used to traveling in a train. They
finally announced we’d be arriving in Schwerin
in 6 minutes. A couple of stops later I heard the announcer say ‘Schwerin’ and we left the
train and stepped onto the boardwalk.
Somehow it didn’t look right. It was supposed to be the
Hauptbahnhof, but we saw no buildings, just a small shelter with a bench. All
around us were trees and grass. Then we looked at the sign and it read: Süd
Schwerin (South Schwerin). I said to my wife,
“This doesn’t look like the Hauptbahnhof.” By the time we realized we had left
the train too soon it pulled away, leaving us in ‘No-man’s-land’ and in a
panic.
There were a couple of young men who had also gotten off one
of the wagons. We approached them and told them of our plight. One of them
checked his cellphone and told us there would be another train coming at 12:37.
Fifty minutes of waiting. Fifty minutes of sweating and great anxiety. We
wondered what my friend was thinking when we didn’t get off the train in Schwerin.
The train finally arrived and we boarded it. It still took
ten minutes to get to the Hauptbahnhof, because this train stopped at every
small station. Schwerin Hauptbahnhof is not large, but it is in the center of
the city. Our hotel was just across the street and we were happy to have
arrived. Of course, my friend had left, but he told the front desk he would be
back later.
Fifty-five years is a lifetime and long enough for people to
grow apart. Sometimes so much that the connection you had when you were young
has been severed. My friend and I had been in contact again by emails and by
phone for about a year. We found each other again through the internet. When I
told him that I was planning to visit Germany, he said, “But you must
visit me.” Because of him, we changed our travel plans and we were glad we did.
Otherwise we would never have seen Schwerin
and all the other places we visited.
Obviously, be both had changed. Time does that to people. We
were old now, but it seemed the years had done nothing to make us feel like
strangers. In fact, we found we still had the same crazy ideas we had so long
ago. We spent time with him and he showed us the sights in Schwerin. On our last full day in Schwerin we drove to the city of Wismar
by the Baltic Sea. Another wonderful city to
visit. They have a harbour and we ate in one of the harbour restaurants. Of
course, we had a fish-dish and it tasted great.
There was one day we spent alone, doing some shopping and
just walking around the little city. When we sat on one of the benches by the
‘Pfaffensee’, an old lady asked it was okay to join us on the bench. We had a
great conversation with her for nearly an hour. We found out directly from one
of the locals how Germans feel about all those refugees and other foreigners
flocking to Germany.
The Germans are not happy about it. They don’t like that their government pays
so much money to the foreigners. People who have never worked in Germany, never
paid taxes and didn’t contribute to the pension funds get more money than the
Germans. Most of these refugees have many children and they get child support. No wonder they think Germany is a paradise.
Sounds pretty much the way it is in Canada. It will get worse when our new government brings in all the aging relatives of the refugees coming into Canada.
I strayed again. Back to our holiday. We stayed at the InterCity hotel in Schwerin and we were quite satisfied with our
choice. Accommodations were good, breakfast was excellent and the selection was
great. Many different kinds of bread and buns, cold cuts, cheeses, including
Camembert, scrambled eggs, and more. Couldn’t ask for better. Loved those buns
and the solid bread. None of that sponge bread so common in America.
We bought our train tickets from Schwerin
to our next destination Binz on the island Rügen three days before we left Schwerin. We also bought
our tickets from Binz to Berlin
at the same time. I don’t quite understand how the transportation system works in Germany.
Apparently, it is a good idea to buy tickets way ahead of time, because then
you get better offers, whatever that means. The closer you leave buying tickets
to your day of departure the more they cost. We paid 128 Euros (192,00 Canadian
Dollars) for both of us for both sets of tickets. The tickets from Binz to
Berlin we could have bought for 30 Euros less, but then we would have had to
change trains in Strahlsund with only 8 minutes between arrival and departure
of the next train. So we decided to pay the extra money and have peace of mind.
No changing of trains.
We spent 5 days in Schwerin
before we boarded our train to Binz. We had a large compartment to ourselves
and plenty of room for our luggage, something we had worried about at home.
Traveling with two large suitcases and hand luggage can become difficult when
taking public transportation and we had no idea what to expect. Our fears were
unfounded.
Once we sat in our seats we relaxed and enjoyed the sights.
Traveling by train is more relaxing than driving a car.
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