Short German trips, Sun, 26 Dec 2021 | written by Simon
Jemma and Simon at a Sea in Europe, Germany

Jemma is taking me on a surprise adventure trip! It’s cold, but we’re brave and we have a new heater in the van, so let’s go back to Hansa.

We left early in the evening, aiming to drive while it’s dark, go to sleep and start the next day early to make the best of the short sunlight hours we have. Jemma only told me where we’re going after we got in the Baron – tonight we’re sleeping on the Poel Island, by a lovely little lighthouse in a tiny port city. Which turned out to be pretty frozen! It’s been -5 during the day for a few days now in Berlin, and here it’s been clearly cold enough for the Baltic to freeze a little. We had a walk around in the night, went up to the piers, saw the boats lodged in the ice, and loved the coloured lights of the lighthouse.

We parked by a playground of a small holiday resort that is closed for the winter. And now we really got to appreciate the recent updates to the Baron: heating, new mattress, and a new electricity rig. I spent quite some time getting those sorted and it is really paying off! We’ve been driving with a fairly minimal setup so far, but now we’re really getting pro. What a difference this would have made on our first trip in Italy!

We got up in the morning well rested and decided to go for a naked run around the playground! I even slid bare-butt down a slide! A bit cold, but the best thing is – not a minute after we got back in the van, a couple dog walkers went past, and then a whole bunch of other people just kept strolling by the van. Pretty damn good timing!

We went for a quick walk around the harbour again, freezing our asses off in the cold Baltic wind that makes -7 feel like it’s -20. Now it’s time to go to our next destination – another surprise I only learned about on the way.