On one of our recent flying trips Vagn and I had a stopover in Barth, Germany. We didn’t have the time to see the town, and later, when the right day came, we headed for Bath. Over Denmark, there were lovely small cumulus clouds:
We were unprepared for the sightseeing of Barth, but we pre-ordered our bikes in the airport, and looked forward to spend a sunny summer day in a new place. Barth is situated in a Bodden lagoon, so we expected at least a nature paradise.
Somewhere in the southern Zealand we saw a huge cloud formation on the horizon. We decided to fly by its side:
It is always so spectacular to fly by the clouds:
We were fighting a bit for who should steer and who should take pictures:
The Western-Pomeranian Boddenlandschaft National Park, situated in the far north-east of Germany is the largest nature reserve on the Baltic coast:
We were puzzled by its striped forest:
Soon we were on left downwind for landing in Barth airport:
View to the town of Barth on final:
Any airport with respect for themselves have an engine on display. The one on the photo below was a helicopter engine from a Mil Mi-8:
We took our bikes and got on the road. The air traffic controller from EDBH recommended a restaurant in the harbour, called Vinetablick, so we went directly to the harbour where we were surprised by many pretty wooden sculptures by Tobias Bark, an artist from Barth:
The harbour was relatively small, but very cosy:
Vagn, dreaming of his steak in Vinetablick:
I always prefer fish, especially when by the sea, and look what a delicious meal I got (Dorschfilet):
According to some theories, Barth is the site of the sunken town of golden Vineta, the Atlantis of the North. There are several Vineta myths, all of them having in common an excessive, voluptuous or blasphemous way of life of the Vinetans who were then punished by a flood which took the city to the bottom of the Baltic. The legend has it, the city or parts thereof reappear on certain days or can be seen from a boat.
After lunch, we went for a sightseeing tour:
Barth grew around a castle of the Prince of Rügen, built around 1200. In 1225 an Earl of Barth was mentioned in the historic records, and in 1232 the town itself. In the late 13th century Barth received city rights. Wars, epidemics, fires and storm surges caused severe damages in the 16th and 17th centuries.
We stopped by a memorial to the Soviet soldiers (photo below), that was originally designed in 1945 by the German engineer Hans Woytowisz, a resident of Barth. In 1968, it was replaced by a newer one, designed by the sculptor Reinhardt Schmidt. 20 graves are around the memorial, most of them men and women that were 20-25 years old…
During World War II Barth was the site of a German prison of war camp, Stalag Luft I, for captured Allied airmen. The presence of the prison camp is said to have shielded the town from Allied bombing.
The city of Barth could once be reached via four gates, of which only the Dammtor is still widely visible today as a landmark. It was built in the middle of the 14th century, is 35 meters high and has a 4 m wide passage (far centre):
After a couple of hours we thought of an ice cream break, and returned to the harbour where we discovered more of those wooden sculptures by Tobias Bark. There were different faces on each and every pillar, and it seemed that the artist was inspired by the shape of wood when creating them. It was quite special:
The ice cream and coffee break with the harbour view was well-deserved after biking on the cobblestone streets of Barth.
On the right side of the cafe there was a gallery Meers-Rausch. It was a really nice place, not the usual tourist souvenir crap, but beautiful peaces of art mostly created from the natural materials. The owner herself was there, braiding something interesting from the local grass.
It was about time to go back to the airport. We biked by different fields, and sometimes stopped to better appreciated the beauty of them:
There wasn’t much happening at the airport that day:
We liked Barth very much, and on our way home talked about going there again one day, or maybe for a weekend, so that we could explore more of its surrounding areas.
