On hyttetur and safari in northern Germany

How do you take on holiday with a two-year, if not the orcs crowded airports and Danish homes to overpriced?

For us, was the answer on the other side of the border only an hour's drive from Rostock.

Here you will find namely the area around Krakow am See, which is scenically located in Germany's most sparsely populated federal state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.

Here we used - two adults and two-year-old Hjalte - five days, with ample entertainment for all of us. The nights were spent in a cabin in the holiday park Van der Valk Resort Linstow, which is located ten minutes from the idyllic Krakow am See and the associated lakes. Daytime was spent on everything from mini golf and water park for walks along the water and visit to a wildlife park.

Even on a longer walk in the area, we should not relate to other than ourselves and the German nature.

Although the holiday park is on the German Autobahn, we should not go many yards before we were surrounded by fields, forests, lakes, and total tranquility. At the same time there was in the holiday park with ample opportunity to amuse themselves with children's playground, playground, water park and bowling alley.

the Weather in northern Germany is just as changeable as in Denmark, but if you think the weather invites to it, there is also the opportunity to throw herself into the waves in several lakes.

Both Linstow and Krakow is a popular tourist destination, but during our stay we did not all sorts of languages. The majority of the visitors coming from other parts of Germany, so you should not expect, that you can get a menu in English, where you must eat.

We had to dust off our skoletysk of and resort to a lookup in a mobile dictionary in the restaurants, in order to clarify that the separate menu we had been given was with a lot of dishes with asparagus (Spargel). The local may not necessarily speak English, but everyone we encountered was sympathetic and would like to stretch much, that we could understand each other.

Our experience was also that it was significantly more fun for both the taste buds and for the wallet to seek out the local eateries rather than eating on the holiday park we stayed at.

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On the northern safari

About a 20-minute drive north of Krakow am See is the slightly larger town of Güstrow, which in many ways resembles a typical Danish provincial town.

But in the outskirts of the city, is one of the area's major draws, namely the Wildpark ETC., which is an impressive experience for both children and adults.

Here is not talking about tigers and elephants packed into small cages, to the delight of the visitors, but there is, on the contrary, made a virtue out of so far as possible, to give the animals space to move around in areas that resemble their natural habitat.

It also meant that the visit included a long walk, where it was convenient to have a stroller around.

the Park features the largest ‘natural aquarium’, which means that the aquarium is outdoors, but large parts of the park's main building lies beneath the earth. Therefore, we could look directly into the many fascinating fish - to the great amazement of both two-year and 30-year-old.

It's not exotic fish, but it is nonetheless an impressive sight to look directly into the bottom of the lake.

The hike in the park takes place in some areas on paved trails, while other sites came out in the more rugged terrain, where one moves into the forest.

More places should we even move in behind a door to get behind the fences of some of the wild animals. We could, however, console ourselves with the fact that both bears and wolves are behind additional fencing.

When the patience of and to release up for the smallest, offers the park also several playgrounds for children of all ages, where you can take a break from the animals - though one should not be surprised if a goat or a hen around among the swings and slides.

the poultry houses and playgrounds in the discretion of the association.

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cost

one Must with the ferry, it's good to be in good time and to have the opportunity to travel on the odd times, if you want to save money on færgebilletten.

We paid 1884 crowns for a return trip between Gedser and Rostock for a single car, but the price can be clipped right down to around 700 dollars, if you travel outside of high season and at odd times. Driving from Jutland, do you of course not at all worry about færgetider and prices, but here, it may also be advantageous to avoid the worst trængselstider.

Our five-nights in a quarter cabin with a bathroom, a bedroom, a small kitchen and a living room cost 3000 crowns. Included in the price followed the unlimited access to the waterpark.

At the Van der Valk there is a possibility to accommodate both the small family (like ours) and the quite large, since there are cabins in all sizes. Finally, it is also possible to find other types of accommodation in Krakow or other nearby towns and cities for varying prices depending on location.

It is possible to choose half board or full board on top, but there is a part to save by themselves for meals.

the View from our bedroom on several of the other apartments, which all have own car park.

in General, price levels for many things a little lower in Germany than in Denmark, so both your shopping trip and your visit can be done for a little less than at home - especially if you avoid the worst tourist traps. Especially on the cute cases you will be able to notice a marked difference.

Wildpark -, ETC., which we visited, costs 39 euros for an adult and € 22 for children aged between three and 16 years.

The water park in the Van der Valk can be visited, even if you are not staying on the holiday park. Here, it costs 11 euros for an adult and eight euros for children between four and 12 years, if you do not stay in the center.

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advice Run in the car! Even though it is popular to lean on pollution-free and collective traffic, are the distances too great and the alternatives for getting to that the time may pay off not to be able to run from place to place in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. However, it is possible in several locations to rent bikes for short trips, or if you want to try his skills in the forest terrain of. Keep you from the small merchants in the feriecentrene. The committee is usually limited, and one runs the risk of quickly to pay double of the price in a supermarket. It can better respond to run to a town and do his shopping there. In addition, it is almost an experience in itself to act in a German supermarket, which is provided with many other variants of groceries, than we are accustomed to a few kilometres to the north. Sea cash on you. Even though the almost will be met with hovedrysten, if you get the banknotes up pocket in Denmark, credit cards and mobile payments have not yet been predominant in Germany. We encountered both at the restaurants and a bakery associated with a supermarket that only accepted cash.