The Alleenstraße

In the autumn of 1990, just weeks after the German re-unificiation, a letter to the ADAC club magazine sparked a campaign to save the “Alleen” – the roads in the former GDR which are flanked on both sides by rows of trees.

The result not only protected those roads from tree-felling and overuse by heavy goods vehicles, but the network was expanded across the country, including the western part of Germany, and now stretches for 2,900km from the northern point of Rügen at Putgarten near Kap Arkona, all the way down to Lake Constance on the Swiss border.

The road itself has signs along the route with “Deutsche Alleenstraße” in white text on a brown background, and free PDF maps can be downloaded from the alleenstrasse.com Website.

This is part of the road near Kluis on Rügen:

Deutsche Alleenstraße - near Kluis on Rügen

A hole in the A20 motorway

Travelling to the island of Rügen took a little longer than usual this year as part of the A20 motorway near Tribsees starting sinking into the marshland underneath at the end of last year, with the road now impassable and traffic being diverted through nearby villages.

The damaged part of the motorway has now been cleared and work has begun on a temporary bridge to close the gap:

A hole in the A20 at Tribsees (Foto: S.Tappenden)
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Walking on Hiddensee

My first visit to the island of Hiddensee had been an organised visit with a strict timetable of things to see within the few hours that I had on the island.  Wishing to see more, I returned to the island later the same year with my daughter for a more relaxed view of things.

Since motorised vehicles are not allowed on Hiddensee, we parked at the large car park at Schaprode and walked down to the harbour.  Parking at the harbour itself is only allowed for very short periods.  For those not wanting to walk so far, there is also a shuttle transfer from the car park down to the quayside.

We had decided to take the same crossings as I had done previously and took the ferry to Neuendorf.  In Neuendorf there are several ways for visitors to see the island.  One of the most popular is by bicycle, but in the middle of the summer holidays the chances of hiring a bicycle on the spot are very slim and this really needs to be planned in advance.  There is also an island bus and the horse-drawn wagons.  But we wanted to walk, and our aim was to get to Kloster at the northern end of the island to take the ferry back from there in the evening.
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