Julia Bradbury's German Wanderlust - Ruegen

Julia Bradbury takes her boots and backpack to the Continent to explore the landscape of Germany and the cultural movement that made it famous - Romanticism. The Germans enjoy a relationship with walking that has lasted over 200 years. The exploration of their landscape has inspired music, literature and art, and Romanticism has even helped shape the modern German nation, as Julia discovers. By walking in four very different parts of Germany, she explores river valleys, coastlines, mountains and gorges, following in the footsteps of Richard Wagner, Caspar David Friedrich, Johannes Brahms as well as British Romantics like William Turner and Lord Byron. This is Julia's chance to discover her own sense of wanderlust. The Baltic coastline is the setting as Julia continues her walking tour. Generations of holidaymakers have flocked to the island of Ruegen, inspired by the Romantics of the 19th century - particularly Caspar David Friedrich, the most celebrated of German Romantic painters. Julia's walk explores popular seaside resorts and beaches as well as the stunning chalk cliffs that Friedrich loved to paint. But in between lies the eerie and unexpected remains of Hitler's ambitious attempt to create a vast Nazi holiday camp.