Time slows down in the former East German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, now the most lightly populated part of the Federal Republic. If Germany has a sleepy corner, it's Pomerania. And the lackadaisical pace of life here has long invited ridicule from the rest of the nation. Indeed, 19th-century generalissimo Bismarck said that, should the world come to an end, this is where he would head - 'as everything comes to Mecklenburg a century later'.
A bucolic land of wild meadows, beech forests, fields of bright yellow rape, and rural towns crammed with well-preserved medieval architecture, this is where Germany meets the Baltic Sea.
Meckenburg-West Pomerania, to use its anglicised name, feels mellower than the rest of the country, but no one is complaining, least of all the hordes of German holidaymakers who come here to escape their frenetic urban lives in the cities to the south and west.
This unspoiled region is a secret that Germany keeps to itself. It's a domestic tourism honey pot, but little known outside the country.
The coastline - part chalky cliffs tumbling into the sea but mostly beaches of the finest white sand - draws the crowds during the spring and summer months. The hinterland is a marvel of pristine nature much loved by hikers, cyclists and picnickers. Three of Germany's national parks are in the state, and several hundred nature conservation areas.
To the west lies Schleswig-Holstein, bordering Denmark. To the east, Polish Pomerania.