Hiddensee

Between dreams and waking English News Speech Based BBC Radio 4 slips in a news item from the government about not intending to support English over 50. As time passes government planners know this is uneconomic. These reports are not repeated as the over 50s awake. Other similar and harsh messages emanate from BBC journalists staying at the Langham Hotel who know about time running out for over 50s who have lost work. Today between dreams and waking recalling dream images of being parachuted into a Peninne holiday zone alone whilst others fly off to the Mediterranean, and two blackbirds cannibalising another blackbird may be about loss and a fear of death. Some over 50s will feel this nearness to loss and death. Hiddensee is a Baltic Island visited by Albert Einstein from his home in Kaputh, near Potsdam. Germany's best kept secret holiday destination looks like it was in 1930, allows no vehicles. It flanks Ruegen Island like a lizard. Cycling is OK there but walking is perhaps better. Young Germans are seen gathering hay with pitchforks on to horse drawn carts. Nearby a derelict gun emplacement, and a remote beach overlooks the bay beyond Strahlsund. Remember Casper David Freidrich's Koenig Stuhl lonely chalk cliff is on Ruegen. Hiddensee then is an island off an island off the Baltic Coast. Take the train from Berlin Ostbahnhof and change at Strahlsund. If you go treat the island with care and affection. Take litter, rubbish and packaging with you off the island. The ferry men in fast boats stare directly in your eyes but don't be scared.

If you go please keep Hiddensee a secret. 'You'll be glad you did!'