"Since years, my wife, children (who were 16 and 8 years old at the time) and I have regularly spent our summer holidays in the Bay of Lübeck, in the Baltic Sea spa of Dahme; we were also there between 14 June and 5 July 1990. The open border and impending German Monetary Union made it possible for my wife and I to go alone on an exploratory trip to Weimar. We were curious about everything and of course a little nervous about crossing the border, which was supposed to have disappeared by then. And it was only upon our return that we dared take a handful of good (the majority weren't great) pictures of the border.
When we got back we arranged with our children to go over again and make a lovely summer daytrip out of it, not least because of this moment's historical significance. We arranged to go on 3 July 1990 by which time German Monetary Union had already happened. Despite setting off early, the day began with an interminable traffic jam in Lübeck-Schlutup. We were stuck behind umpteen two-stroke engine Trabant cars with their characteristic smelly petrol-oil mixture. In Wismar, we visited the town centre, the town hall with the huge market square and fountain (Wasserkunst).
We then went onto Rostock-Warnemünde with a stop for lunch in Teepot, a state-controlled restaurant (Konsumgaststätte) in Warnemünde with table allocation! Somehow old-fashioned, and yet also modern at the same time.
By early afternoon we were in the pedestrian precinct in Rostock. We went to a cafe which was clean and the food delicious. It was raining a little but that didn't in anyway dampen the mood.
And then our journey went on towards Schwerin. We were even able to go on a little boat trip on the lake around the Schwerin Castle – between 5.10 pm and 6.10 pm to be precise. It was marked on the scanned receipt (incidentally, we still lived in Essen at the time). We went for a little stroll through town centre of Schwerin. And then it was off back to our holiday accommodation. We finally arrived back feeling pretty exhausted thirteen hours after leaving. The excursion left lasting impressions and continued to have an effect on us for a long time to come. It was an EXPERIENCE for all of us."
Ullrich Schocke
