Hello friends and visitors,
as earlyier announced, i just returned from a trip to the area of Gollnow, where i spent a few days.
I tried to find some of the roots of my ancestors, but additionally get some pictures and impressions of the the villages in this region
Originally, i planned to visit all the 27 villages, named on my hompepage, but unfortunately didn't made it to all, i was in 21, even i extended the trip by one day, i was short of time. It took me some more time to find the houses and places where my parents and grandparents lived before the war, and talking/asking the people there was not easy either, because i don't speak polish.
The villages i was not able to visit are: Buddendorf, Diedrichsdorf, Jakobsdorf, Kriewitz, Marsdorf and Puddenzig. I will try them on my next journey.

One remark: I'm always thankful for any thoughts to this homepage, additional informations or corrections. If someone has informations or pictures (historic ones too) of these villages to share, i would like to add them here (by name the source, if wanted). Feel free to write in my guestbook or send me an e-mail: stefan@vorfahreninfo.de
I create this homepage only as my hobby and don't have any commercial intentions. I only want to give some help to other researchers.

The shape of the villages today
The shape of the villages was very different. Because i'm born 1968, i don't know them from before the war and cannot really compare, but it's obvious, that many farms and houses are not in a good shape anymore. But this seems only natural for some reasons: First, we can see a movement from the smaller villages to the bigger towns (especially the young people) , like Gollnow or Stettin, similar to west-germany or other countries. This development can easily be seen by the population-figures which are in many villages only half of what it was before WW2, sometimes less, with the bigger town Gollnow doubled it's population in the same period. Second, we have to take in mind, that many of the polish people were settled in these former german villages by the russians after WW2, and felt "unsecure" about the future pespective of this. And last, very often the new polish inhabitants didn't have the money to repair their buildings in this poor region.
I found some wonderful, romantic villages like Harmsdorf or Amalienhof, which looked in a good shape, but some nearly in ruins, like Fürstenflagge, or some with ugly looking new big houses, like Karlshof.
I took some pictures in every village i visited and wrote a short comment about my impressions under "villages" on my homepage.

What's new on this Homepage ?
- I added some pictures to the villages Gollnow, Hackenwalde and Harmsdorf
- Some new travel-tips on this site
- Links to online-churchbooks-scans for Gollnow, Hackenwalde, Kattenhof and Basenthin/Harmsdorf

Tips for trips in this region
How to travel ?:
To get there is no big problem. You may reach Stettin from Berlin within 2 hours by train very comfortably (with stop in Angermünde), than either with the bus or an polish train to Gollnow in about an hour http://www.bahn.de/pv/view/index.shtml
Flying by plane is possible too, the new airport of Stettin is very close to Gollnow, but from Frankfurt/Germany there is no direct flight, the polish LOT-Airlines flies with a stop in Warschau, costs 300 EUR two-way. Takes 5-6 hours.
Or easily by car. From Berlin to Gollnow are 178 km, that should be possible within 2 hours.
The controls and formalities at the border are in fact non-existing anymore. Better have a passport with you, but usually not necessary for crossing the border. Polen joined the European Union (EU) at 01.05.2004.
Where to stay ?:
A good hotel to stay is Villa Park, Link here:  Villa Park
It's close to the Wolliner Tor and cost aprox. 60U$ per night for a double bedroom incl. breakfast 

A good point to start ist the new tourist-centre right in the Wolliner Tor

Maps:
Necessary for navigation in this region is this map: (because it has printed the old german names and the new polish names of the villages):
POLEN - Westpommern 1:200.000, with index of the villages, Höfer Verlag, Nr. PL 001
Price: 12,90 EUR (16,50 U$). Order at amazon, look for: Höfer, Straßenkarten, Polen, Westpommern 
An example of this map is the picture here: Orte
In the small villages i found the detailed, historic maps (1:25.000) very helpful (so-called "Meßtischblätter) They show the situation of years 1888-1912. You can see an example here: http://www.vorfahreninfo.de/Orte/Hackenwalde.gif
Those are online available now in high resolution:
http://igrek.amzp.pl/mapindex.php?cat=TK25

For us the interesting ones are:
2354 Münchendorf für Amalienhof, Hackenwalde (Teil), Kattenhof, Münchendorf, Schützendorf,
2455 Speck für Barfussdorf (Teil), Buddendorf, Diedrichsdorf, Gollnow (Teil), Helgenfeld, Jakobsdorf, Marsdorf, Puddenzig,
2355 Basenthin für Barfussdorf (Teil), Basenthin, Glewitz, Gollnowshagen, Harmsdorf, Kriewitz
2454 Gollnow für Eichberg, Fürstenflagge, Gollnow (Teil), Grünhorst, Hackenwalde (Teil), Karlshof, Louisenthal, Lübzin

What else is needed ?:
Local currency is the polish zloty. Actual exchange-rate is 1:4,25, e.g. 1 Euro = 4,20 Zloty. One liter fuel costs approx. 1,20 Euro, that's 25 cents cheaper than in Germany. The Big-Mäc-Index is at 3,00 U$, where in Germany it's 4,95 U$. You find small fast-food-shops everywhere near the roads, where you can buy fries, burgers, schnitzel etc. In the small superstores you find everything from Coca-Cola to Milky-Way and for half the price then in germany. Conclusion: you will survive in the region if you have some cash with you.....
For money-change it's easyiest to use the european EC-Card to get zloty at an automat, but you can change euro or $ in every bank too.
A car for rent is necessary, if you are not around with your own car. Cars for rent are available at the Stettin-airport for example, which is only a few miles away from Gollnow. Price approx. 200-300 Euro/week.
http://cars-for-less-car-rent.com/?http://www.cars-for-less-car-rent.com/mietwagen/poland/szczecin.html
And: to have someone with you, who speaks polish, so you can talk with the locals is priceless....

Friedrichsdorf, 26.11.2014