In May, I spent a few weeks with some friends and family in a very rural part of Germany. Here are some impressions.

Germany is very densely populated, so even the rural parts are developed enough to get some light pollution during night shots. The ones below were taken at my mum's beach house:

As you can see, the sky is pretty clear, but there is still a lot of light spill from the horizon line, making it look like the sun just set when it was in fact past midnight when I took these shots.

Rural in Germany means that it's about a 30-40 minute drive to the nearest bigger city and on the way there, the roads are lined with fields, occasionally interrupted by a small village or industrial area. Those of you who know me, know of my affinity for anything industrial, so you'll be surprised that I did not take any pictures of industrial buildings. The thing about industrial areas in rural Germany is that they don't look industrial at all, they look like your standard warehouses with everything industrial neatly hidden behind the walls. I have worked in a few of those when I was a teenager and trust me when I say that the production floor of any factory in Germany during production looks neater than your closet. If you want to see real industry, go to the cities. In any case, here are stock photos I took of some rye fields:

Aside from fields, what else do farms have to offer? Animals of course. My friend Martin and I were out hunting for an old wind mill that we remembered was somewhere in the area. What we found was even more exciting - a small herd of cows including a calf with a wind mill in the background:

And what would a trip to rural Germany be without having an all-you-can-eat right by the waterfront?