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 Mireille and I |
We live in a small village of about 550
people, located 20 km from our local industrial home city here in
western Sweden. Now that we no longer have kids in the public school
system, unfortunately our connection with many of the local
residents has become, at best, rather surface. We were happy to be included again this year to an 'annual village bus trip' to Germany, organized by some good friends. Four days (three hotel nights) in Rostock (on the Baltic) together with 40 or so folks who here at home live near us — but whom we otherwise rarely get the chance to share friendship. Our hope was that, as on previous trips, we could return home with a few little pearls of 'life value' extracted from different social exchanges these days. |
 The folks that made it happen: Kent with his wonderful bus, and Henrik and Carina who did the planing |
 Our hotel for 3 nights |
 The central market square in Rostock |
3 good days in Rostock (approx 250 000 residents) --- a prominent
city in the East German sphere until the reunification of Germany
1990. Now a major shipping port on the Baltic .. A 300 km day trip through the surrounding agriculture country on day 2 was impressive to me.. especially large scale strawberry production -- and the enormous solar energy farms and wind power farms along the way. Stopped to see a couple of brewerys and at the Prora complex where Hitler had built a 4.5 km long, 6 story high retreat facility for his supporters. (apparently it didn't get finished in time to be used). Otherwise our time was filled with "city" , "hotel" and "bus" mingling with lots of sharing of smiles, laughter and wit . Many thanks to amazing Henrik, Carina and Kent for arranging a special outing like this for us. It seems to have brought out the finest and best versions of us all and makes me apreciate and admire the community and the culture that we live in. |
 Evening mingle in the hotel lobby |
 Mireille and I found a coffee shop just outside our hotel |
 Checking out the product |
 A brewery we visited 100km east of Rostock |
 The Prora complex built by Hitler for his support base .. but never used. 6 stories high .. 4.5 km long retreat facility |
 A little walk along this Prora street |
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