Campsites,Germany # 6of14

One night was spent in a very unusual location, a campsite behind a farmer’s barn just outside Bad Doberan. In the nearby field there were two adults and several youngsters, all hard at work with a very old farm tractor, a large farm wagon, and a decrepit old hay baler. They delivered a load of hay to the barn, and were very happy to take our eight dollars for the campsite, complete with electricity. We were the only campers that night, but we felt safe, just behind their barn. There were dogs, cows, sheep, and children, but all were quiet at night.

Neubrandenburg’s campground was several miles from town, requiring five or six miles per hour on the worst cobble-stone road we have found in all our travels in Europe. Twice we questioned people in cars that were headed the other direction, to make sure we really were going to end up at a campsite. When we finally arrived, the campground was quite nice and very large, with a restaurant, dozens of TV satellite dishes, hundreds of small vacation homes and travel trailers, located on the shore of Tollensee, with Neubrandenburg in the distance across the lake. The swans loved Emmy’s stale bread.

During our first trip to Berlin we spent two nights in the Hotel Bogota. On our second visit to Berlin, we decided to stay in a campsite rather than a hotel, so we drove to a location still inside West Berlin, not far from Potsdam. The first campsite (no vacancy) was built right up against East Germany’s fortified “country-wall.” Another nearby campsite was also full, so we drove through Spandau, to the campsite in Kladow.

On our third visit to Berlin we stayed at Haus Sommerfeld, operated by the Berlin Mission, located in Siemens, near Flughafen Berlin-Tegel, the main Berlin Airport. Canals form a triangle, and the campground is in the eastern tip of that triangle. The campground was very quiet, with clean facilities. Other families arrived for a night or two, but it was obvious no young people were sent here, only older couples, or families with young children. We stayed five nights, almost a record number of nights in one place, for us.

We visited some people we had met in Stuttgart, at their home on the side of the hill above Kreuzlingen. Their son was going to the Bodensee to wind-surf, so we went along and found the excellent camp site, right on the shore.