Historical and Technical Museum Peenemünde - Baltic Sea in Winter

The original plan for a nice morning in Peenemünde was to visit the world's biggest U-Boot at the harbor, the weather - however - made us opt for a more reasonable combination of out- and indoor.

The Historical Technical  Museum is located on the ground of an Army Test Site which, between 1936 and 1945, was one of the most modern of its kind.

In those years, the Nazi regime was building and using the most advanced weapons to obtain supremacy over its enemies, but the victims were not only the populations hit by the bombs and rockets! The rapid construction of this site and of weapons had been made possible by a cruel exploitation of war prisoners and concentration camp inmates.

Rockets were mass-produced in Peenemünde and were called "Vergeltungswaffe 2" (Vengeance Weapon 2*) by the Nazi propagandists.

 *(V 1 was the flying bomb)

Very soon the snow made the outdoors pretty uncomfortable, so we found shelter in the old power plant, where original parts of rockets, scale models of the site, posters by the Nazi propaganda and old magazines are on display.

Future's Fantasies (not too far from today's reality)

Woman in the Moon (1929) by Fritz Lang is a science fiction movie which presented for the first time the possibility of space-ship travels to a broad audience.

We reached Peenemünde by train, using the Usedomer Bäder Bahn from Zinnowitz (on the right hand side of the map, south-east of Peenemünde).

The Historical and Technical Museum
A very comprehensive website about Slave Labor in the Space Age:  Dora and the V-2 

Note: I am not a fan of War Museums. It was very interesting, but in a very sad way.

Usedomer Bäder Bahn - Local Train in Usedom

A little present for the children - UBB

I like taking pics from the train...

Not having a car, we reached Usedom by train. 

From Berlin, the regional train reaches the town of Züssow (in the Land Mecklemburg Vorpommern) where you can hop the local Usedomer Bäder Bahn, which connects the seaside municipalities of the island Usedom as far as Swinemünde (Poland).

Baltic Sea's Charm

I still have a vivid memory of my friend Erika's expression when, some winters ago, I told her I was about to spend some days in Zinnowitz, a town on the German island of Usedom, on the Baltic Sea.

Unconcerned about below freezing temperatures .

Zinnowitz, February 2012

She stared at me with incredulous eyes and said something like: "You have been living in Germany way too long: don't you miss cute bathing-suits, ice-creams, beach volley tournaments, old men playing bocce in embarrassing outfits nor the sunshine ANYMORE?",

which could be translated with: "Are you out of your mind?"

To tell you the truth, I was very skeptical about a winter vacation by the sea - without all the above mentioned - as well. 

For many reasons it turned out to be a very positive experience, so this year we decided to spend the Winterferien (winter vacation) in Zinnowitz. For the second time.

What we didn't expect was that all Europe would be suffering the effects of the late cold snap just during those days.
For many people it has been a real catastrophe.

Zinnowitz on a map