Saßnitz Things to Do

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A Hühnergott is a stone with a hole that was generated naturally and not artificially. I never heard this word before I came to Rügen. In Sassnitz at the promenade you could buy such stones, but you easily can find some on your own, there are so many at the coast below the chalk cliffs! You just need to continue the promenade and take the path until you reach the pebble beach with its flintstones and these hagstones. And you probably won't be alone, it was funny how much people were looking for special stones! Some probably also were looking for amber, but that's more difficult to find.

By the way, if you translate "Hühnergott" word by work this means "chicken god" which seems pretty weird. But this name comes from a Russian writer you wrote about a custom of the Crimean Tatars who put such stones with holes in the nest of chickens so that they lay more eggs. If this is really helping?

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In Sassnitz you also find a butterfly house where all kind of different butterflies fly around. It's not big but very nice to stroll around and search for butterflies or just sit down and watch them. We also could watch butterflies that were about to eclose, and there were several newly born butterflies that were hanging on a branch to dry. I only realized these butterflies when I saw someone from the staff hanging one there, you really need to have your eyes everywhere to spot all butterflies!
You are allowed to take photos, but without only without flash. There's also a nice café and of course a souvenir shop.

Open daily from April to October, 9:30 to 17:30 (to 16:30 in October)
Admission: 6,90 € adults, 4,50 € youth, 3,50 € children.

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The submarine museum is something really fascinating. It's a submarine that is open for visitors. It was used by the British navy and it was very interesting to walk through it. It looks pretty chaotic with all the devices and cables! It wasn't as narrow as I expected, but there were just tow other people besides us walking around.... I can't imagine how the crew of 68 people could live on board and the beds looked terrible small!
In each room you could find information plates where you could learn thinks like how they did to have enough air to breath etc. There also were sounds like the submarine was about to sink down, quite realistic - and a bit scary!

Open from 10:00 to 19:00 (until 16:00 off-season).
Admission: 5,50 € adults, 3 € children; 1 € if you want to take photos

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From the harbour a supsension bridges goes up to the spa hotel and the main street with its shops. It was built in 2006 and has lenght of about 278 meteres. It's definitly nothing for people that are afreid of heights, I didn't get far on this bridge! But it looks really interesting!

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At the harbour, you find the longest mole of Europe. It has a lenght of 1450 meters and was built from 1889 to 1912. At the mole you find the passenger ships and the ships that sell fish, and there's also space for sports boats. At the end of the mole then is a small lighthouse. It's nice to walk along the mole as it offers a good view on the harbour.

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When you go to the harbour of Sassnitz, you will notice that Sassnitz still is a fisher town. There are several fisher boats and boats from which they sell fish, and there's a fish shop & snack bar in one of the harbour buildings. Of course there's also a fish restaurant, called "Kutter 4". You also can go on a fishing boat trip, and there are several other passenger ships that offer tours along the chalk coast and other tours around the island.

At the harbour you also find the harbour museum, as well as a submarine that can be visited. There's a tourist information at the harbour, and several small shops. Northeast of the harbour is the promenade with a few restaurants and a restored seabridge. From that seabridge you have good view on the typical houses. Here's also the old town, and a bit further the promenade changes to a path and if this ends you can walk on along the coast just a few steps more and you will se the first chalk cliffs.

Websites of some companies that offer ship tours to the chalk coast:
www.kalinin-sassnitz.de
www.ms-alexander.de/
www.reederei-ostseetour.de/

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While the rest of Sassnitz is situated along the steep coast, the old town of Sassnitz lies in a kind of gorge. As this gorge offered a good opportunity to reach the beach it's no surprise that here the first fisher houses were built. They used to have reed roofs but today you rather see large villas there that were built in the late 19th century when Sassnitz already was a bathing resort. You best get a view on these typcial sea resort houses from the sea bridge, but it's also interesting to walk through the narrow streets and paths there.

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North of Sassnitz is the Jasmund National Park with a beautiful chalk coast. The most popular cliff is the 118 m high cliff called "Königsstuhl" (king's seat). There's a great hiking path from Sassnitz to this place above the chalk coast. It was pretty exhausting, with lots of up and down and many steps, but you got rewarded by all the fantastic views on the chalk cliffs. It took us about 3,5 hours to the Königsstuhl and the National Park Centre and it was absolutely worth the effort.

The Königsstuhl itself then was pretty boring after we had all the nice views during the walk! To go on the Königsstuhl cliff you need to enter the National Park Centre (admission), but there's another viewpoint called "Victoria Sicht" from where you can see the cliff. The Victoria view is a busy place and there are quickly queues to go on the small platform, but a few steps in direction Königsstuhl there's another less crowded place from where you have a good view - and which is the better place for acrophobic people like me!

From the Königsstuhl, a nice path goes to the car park Hagen which took us 40 minutes. There are also busses traveling between this car park and the Königsstuhl, and you are not allowed to drive up to the Königsstuhl. From the car park we then took a bus to Sassnitz - we had walked enough that day!