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Großer Jasmunder Bodden

The Großer Jasmunder Bodden is the great shallow lagoon at the very heart of the island of Rügen, a brackish inland sea ringed by reeds, pines and the peninsulas of Wittow and Jasmund. Some 14 kilometres long and on average six wide, it is one of the largest Bodden waters of the southern Baltic — a flat, mirror-calm expanse that the Romantic painters adored and that sailors today can cross to reach almost the exact centre of the island. Far from being a quiet backwater, this is the island's playground and fishing ground in equal measure: sailing, windsurfing and kiting on its wide bays, swimming from small beaches at Polchow, Neuhof and Lietzow, and long, level walks along reed-fringed paths. It is open to visitors at all times and free to enjoy — most people come for the light, the vast horizons and the slow pace of the water.