Trip to Szczecin, via Berlin

I took another trip to Poland, this time on the German border in the city of Szczecin, or the German name of Stettin. It appeared quite different than other cities in Poland I have visited, but interesting. There was much German influence in the City. I flew to Berlin Schonefelde Airport, took a train journey on the S Bahn to Berlin Zentraler Omnibusbahnhof, thankfully shortened to ZOB and took a coach from there to Poland, some 150 kilometres.

I found my Noclegi, Polish for accommodation, but sounds more like a protest march. I didn’t realise until I arrived that it was a hostel. It was in a former life a grand hotel converted. It was in fact far better than some supposed hotels I have stayed in in the past, and I was pleased with my stay there. After a good night’s sleep and an early start, I continued my love hate relationship with the Polish public transport ticketing system. Having thought I had finally mastered how the system works, Szczecin Transport threw me in confusion again. The first thing I learned was the ticket machines are not touch screen, only work with mobile phones, and not in English. My first day, Sunday, no kiosks were open to buy tickets, drivers don’t take money as you enter a bus until after 6 pm, so I decided to discover some of the parks by foot. Luckily they were not too far away, I started out about 8 am and found in the tall trees, chaffinches, greenfinch, fieldfare, blackbirds, starlings, house sparrows, treecreepers and many nuthatch, gs woodpeckers, great and blue tit. Always a pleasure to see one of my favourites, hawfinches and it wasn’t even 9 am.

Fieldfare taking a bath

I stumbled across a nature reserve and although you could hear the buzz from the city, it was still pleasant and peaceful. I saw many more treecreepers, also goldcrest, middle spotted woodpeckers, jays, siskin, marsh tit, long tailed tit. Later it turned out to be a good raptor day, because as well as common buzzard I came across at least 6 rough legged buzzards, goshawk and red kite. Common cranes also are delightful to see, and to hear their calls. I eventually found my way to a place called Arkonska, and it seemed half the population of Szczecin was enjoying the afternoon sunshine. Having been on my feet all day I made my way back, but was moving as slow as a Liverpool full back.

The next day I bought my tram tickets from a nearby kiosk, I had anticipated the assistant at the kiosk couldn’t speak English so I wrote down “two one hour tram tickets” on a scrap of paper. Either she couldn’t understand my writing or I had clicked on Portuguese instead of Polish on my google translator. Eventually I managed to purchase the right tickets. I got on the No. 1 tram heading for Glebokie and Polish ticket inspectors were already looking at everyone’s tickets. It was after all Monday morning rush hour and the trams and roads were very busy. I made it to the tram terminus and entered the park and it was delightful. Immediately seeing the usual woodland birds, there was not a lot on the very still lake. A few mallard, great crested grebes and two goldeneyes, looking up there were a few migrating greylags flying in their v formation. I came across a grassy area, seeing skylark and yellowhammer and tree sparrow. I heard then managed to locate a green woodpecker.

Male tree sparrow

Further into the forest the trees taller with many pines. Crested tits and willow tits were spotted. I then heard and saw two black woodpeckers, what fantastic birds they are. Many ravens were displaying and then I saw a lifer, a black kite, more rough legged buzzards, common buzzards and sparrowhawks. I made my way back to the no. 1 tram, pleased with my day’s efforts.

I tried the opposite direction, south east of Szczecin, taking the 87 bus and then the 61 to Park Lesny Zdroje, which took just short of an hour. My bus ticket only gave me an hour, and I was in the limit, just. I made my way to the park, which meant walking under the underpass of a motorway, and was very noisy and I couldn’t wait to get into the more peaceful forest. Many trees had been felled and it was not as productive as I might have hoped. I did see some good birds though, with Hawfinch, bullfinch, black and green and great spotted woodpeckers, as well as the usual woodland birds. There were seven species of tit in the forest. There were many buzzards calling here. More common cranes here too.

Making my way back towards the bus stop I decided to walk over the bridge and look at the Odra river, which runs through Szczecin. Not much at all, I could see some cormorants, heron, tufted ducks, teals and mute swans. I underestimated the distance to the next bus stop and two buses passed had me cursing like a Polish truck driver. I found the bus stop and flagged the bus driver to stop, and fortunately he did.

Ortolan bunting

My last day in Szczecin I decided to go to Glebokie again, and I took the No.1 tram. As the forest was so big I could take a different route. As per usual I arranged with the staff at the hostel to leave my luggage to pick up later, for my coach at 3.45 pm. I saw the birds I had seen a couple of days earlier, but saw a lesser spotted woodpecker, another of my favourites. This bird seems to me to have character, the way they move and very active. I came across some open farmland and saw skylarks and yellowhammers and with them were Ortolan buntings. There were many of them feeding on the ground.

I made my way back to the tram terminus and saw two mistle thrush, surprised that they were the first I had seen. I arrived at the coach stop and arrived in Berlin ZOB on time and went to Grunnberger Allee, one stop before the airport, for an overnight stay. I had an early walk around a small lake called Schonefelde Seen, not too many birds about, highlight being treecreepers and great crested grebe.

I took the hotel shuttle bus and everything seemed to be running smoothly and I dropped off my luggage at the Check in desk. I was just about to go through the security area when I realised I had a bottle of water, which I couldn’t take through. I took the lid off and went to drink some when oops, I dropped the bottle and water went all over the boarding card and passport, which were in my other hand. Claudia the cleaner moped up after me, recovering and throwing the now half empty offending bottle away, I waited in the long queue fretting that the ink would run on the boarding card. The bar code was scanned, and it took the security guard a few goes for it to be accepted. Going through the scanners it sounded like tubula bells was playing because as walking through I was beeped, and was searched. My coat failed because of a chip in my bank card, my hand luggage failed because of the batteries in the camera. I had to empty everything in the bag, and my pockets of my coat. Germany was not letting me go from their country without some discomfort. My embarrassment was like being an English cricketer in the world cup. I made it back to Manchester airport glad that there were no hold ups.