In the 1920s the quiet sandy beaches of Hiddensee island drew fame as a bohemian retreat from the mainland. Today it’s mainly families and retirees who flock here but it still has a far away feel. Private cars are forbidden here so the sound of horses’ hooves and bicycle brakes replace the hooting of horns and car engines. So as we watched our ferry pull away, we found a trailer with our hotel name on it, loaded up our bags and headed off to find Wiesneck Hotel.
A short walk through the port of Kloster pulling our trolley and we arrived at the hotel. The restaurant was about to close so we quickly ordered some soup and sat down on the patio. Then our problems started as the mosquitos descended in thousands and started to bite. We went inside and luckily got a table. Our bite count amounted to hundreds with Mark and I coming put the worst 😳. There were lines of people at the local shop next morning buying insect repellant.
Bikes are the main mode of transport here so once we had tended to our bites we hired some bikes for the day. The scenery was lovely as we pedalled towards the lighthouse. The heat was oppressive and the workout began in earnest as we headed up the hill to the lighthouse. The cycle path ended so it was more of an iron man challenge than a relaxing bike ride as we carried bikes over bushes and helped the kids along too!
We stopped for a drink on the port and had a nice dinner there too. At dusk we made sure we were indoors far away from all the mossies.
Next day we spent some time at the beach.
We cycled to Vittel, the next town along the coast. The weather turned bad and we had seen most of Hiddensee so we left a day early and headed back to the mainland.
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