Usedom Things to Do

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The seaside resort of Ahlbeck developped as rapidly as Heringsdorf althought it started of some 20+ years later. The place is full of those magnificent villas from imperial times aswell.
Main icon of Ahlbeck is the wooden pavillion on the sea bridge though, which originates from the 1930ties.
From Ahlbeck you can cross the border to Poland. The checkpoint is open to pedestrians and cyclists only.

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The seaside resort of Bansin is the youngest of the three "Kaiserbäder" (Ahlbeck, Heringsdorf, Bansin), founded only in 1896. To the South to resort, on Lake Gothen lies the village of Bansin which existed already in the middle age.
The resort has beautiful villas and beaches aswell.

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Peenemünde was a quiet little fishing village until 1936 when the Nazis started to built the most modern research & testing facility for rockets (Heeresversuchsanstalt) at that time. In 1942 the world's first long distance rocket Aggregat 4 (better known as V2 for Vergeltungswaffe/weapon of vengeance) was successfully launched here. In 1943 Peenemünde was bombed by the Allies and the production of the V2 was moved to Mittelbau Dora/Nordhausen in the Harz mountains. The development and production of the V2 claimed 20.000 lives, more than the use of the weapon itself. After the war Peenemünde still was used by the military until 1995.
There's a great museum inside the old powerstation about the history of rocket research aswell as a memorial towards all the people who were murdered through them.

Apart from that there are some left-overs from the army of the GDR (planes, helicopters and a ship) and a Soviet submarine to visit.

Nowadays about 300 people do live in Peenemünde again, but the place still has the feel of a Ghost town to it, as most buildings are empty and decaying.

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The sea bridge of Ahlbeck, with its red roof, four green towers and a 280m landing stage, is the main landmark of the island and the only bridge of its kind on the Baltic Sea coast of Germany.
Therein a super restaurant, with a nice view over the Baltic Sea.

The beach is fantastic, with white and long sand beaches. The 42 km long, white, stone free sandy beach of the island is unequalled. Depending upon the wave lengths, the beach can be up to 70m broad. All beaches are supervised by life savers.
Swimming, sailing or surfing....
You can also rent beach chairs and relaxe... so wonderful.

Near Stettiner Haff, this bridge was the gate (train) between Haff and Peenestrom. Built 1875 it was this time the modern train bridge above sea. Destroyed in WWII, April 1945, by German troups because of the coming Russian Army .
Its now a technical historical building.

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Did you? I didn't, I actually hated it, mostly because it was so boring to sit and watch the teacher talk about experiments.In this museum, the Phänomenta, I got to DO many of the experiments myself and liked it a lot! The whole museum is hands-on, try everything.

Do you remember learning about the law of the lever? In the Phänomenta there is a car , a Trabi, waiting to be lifted by a lever. I did it , holding down the lever and taking a picture with my other hand. (Okay, the picture turned out pretty dark.)

Sound waves? That's something I thought very interesting: There was a burning candle on a small table, 1.50 meters away from a bass drum. When I hit the other side of the bass drum, the sound waves extinguished the light of the candle.

You could try and throw magnets towards a pendulum, getting it to change its course. I tried, several teenage kids tried, but it took the proverbial little old lady to succeed.

The only experiment which was allowed under supervision of the staff only was the one of zero gravity. They call it training of astronauts and people were lining up for it. In a sort of swinging chair the would -be astronaut was strapped and then the chair started turning really fast. Those who did it loved it.

If you come here with children you should bring lots of time!

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This museum is called the Historisch-Technisches Museum.It is is the largest one in Peenemünde and shows a very well-presented exhibition about the rockets and WWII.

Space engineering eventually developed out of the technology from here, but the main emphasis of the museum is WWII history. The long, dark barracks in which the forced labourers had to stay are part of the museum; however, they are not open to the public.

A large part of the museum is outdoors, be prepared when think you go and see the museum on a rainy day.

I was very impressed by the giftshop of the museum. It doesn't have the usual tourist souvenirs, but also a very good selection of books about war history , some even in English. This is a giftshop which pays attention to the sober theme of the exhibition.

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Peenemünde was the site of factories in which long-distant rockets were built and launched during WWII.

Today the town hosts several museums, the largest being the one about the rocket factories. The whole centre of the small town is supposed to be like a museum, at least this is the explanation the city council gives for not repairing the many broken buildings. They say these grey and sadly looking buildings with the shattered windows are a real part of the past and should be kept that way. While I can follow this reasoning in the case of the barracks for the forced labourers during the war, I cannot understand why nothing is done to repair - or even tear down - the shattered houses apart from the museum.

In the town centre there are four museums, the rocket one called the Historisch-Technisches Museum, the Phänomenta, a museum for physical experiments , a submarine museum which includes a Russian submarine in the harbour and a toy museum. I only had a peek into the toy museum. It is very small, just starting out apparently, so maybe it pays to come back in a year or two. I asked about a catalogue, but so far they haven't published one.