Wismar and Poel Island

In the morning, we took a walk through the historic center of Wismar. We started at the Old Market, a large square with magnificent townhouses, such as the oldest one in the city: the Alte Schweden.

On the square stands the Brunnenhaus Wasserkunst, a 16th-century well house that supplied the city with water for almost three centuries. Unfortunately, today the construction site surrounding it was very prominent.

We then continued from there to the church tower of St. Marien, which is the only remnant of a once powerful brick cathedral after the bombings of World War II and the demolition during the GDR era.

Today there is an exhibition and a 3D film about the medieval construction of the brick cathedrals of the city, which we visited later.

A few steps further, there was the next large brick church to admire: the enormous Georgenkirche, which is unusually large for a parish church.

In the next street, we came across another brick church, which belonged to the former Heilig Geist Hospital.

The beautifully landscaped backyard behind the church offers a nice spot for a break, but we didn't have time for that.

We continued to the Old Harbor because we wanted to take one of the excursion boats to Poel Island.

We crossed the Schweinsbrücke, a stone-lined watercourse in the old town, over the fresh Grube.

While doing so, we passed the next gigantic religious building, the Nikolaikirche. Its 37-meter-high nave is the third highest in Germany.

From there, it was not far to the Old Harbor, where the sightseeing and excursion boats were waiting for their guests.

However, to have more flexibility in terms of time, we ultimately decided to drive to Poel Island by car.

Since 1760, the island has been connected to the mainland by a causeway. We explored it on a hike.

In the process, we also passed through the main village of Kirchdorf, where we fueled up with fish sandwiches and "fish and chips" at the harbor.

Then we continued through fields until we reached the beach, where we walked back to the parking lot.

Afterwards, we drove for about half an hour with the motorhome that we rented for this trip to a quiet pitch right by the water.