hidden europe 33

Crossing the lagoon

by hidden europe

Summary

The Stettiner Haff or Szczecin Lagoon is one of Europe's unsung water bodies, a vast area of shallow saline water that is home to many birds. Seasonal ferry services cross the lagoon in the summer months, allowing travellers to explore this remote area on the German-Polish border.

The Szczecin Lagoon (referred to in the above feature) exemplifies the way in which land and sea ambiguously blend along the southern coast of the Baltic. The lagoon is a significant body of water, a dozen times larger than Scotland’s Loch Ness and a third larger than Lake Geneva. At its seaward margin two islands hem in the lagoon, so that access to the open sea is restricted to narrow channels. This watery wilderness deserves to be better known.

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