“You will make it next time“ told me my father fifty years ago to assuage my soul. We were vacationing at the Baltic Sea, but I was not able to go to a one day trip to the isle of Rügen since I had fallen ill. The „next time“ took exactly fifty years.
So today we took our bikes into the train from Stralsund to North-East of Rügen, explored the area there pedalling and returned in the evening by train to Stralsund again.

“5 000 permanent inhabitants and up to 20000 guests in the season” tells me a local man in Binz, a picturesque sea resort.
“A what were the giant dilapidated blocks of buildings on the way here?”
“The largest building project of the Nazis”
Eight extremely long buildings designed as a recreational centre for additional 20 000 soldiers. Erected directly alongside the white “Prora” beach leading to Binz. The whole project was never completely finished, later partially demolished, and even later used by the East German army. Now still mostly abandoned and some of the blocks renovated. Let’s see what the future brings.

In any case, my dad was right. I made it to Rügen eventually and as a side effect reach the most northern point of this biking journey