Mecklenburg-Vorpommern is quite a mouthful . Which is why locals refer to this region of lakes , castles , and beaches in the North-east of Germany as MV , or Meck-Pom . The Pom refers to Pomerania , now mostly in Poland . It has a long coastline on the Baltic and is the third largest of Germany 's 16 Laender - but the least populated . So you can walk for miles on a sandy strand or drive all day on the autobahn and not see a sausage , except in your lunch . Back in focus : 'Meck-Pom ' offers blissful beaches along Germany 's Baltic Sea coastline . After World War II , Meck-Pom was part of Communist East Germany , which might account for its low profile . The regime concentrated on the cities and neglected the countryside , so castles and seaside resorts deteriorated . Since reunification 25 years ago , all that has changed . The result is a clutch of wonderful hotels and beautifully-run resorts . The sea accounts for the region 's ancient wealth and the cities along the coast - Wismar , Rostock , Stralsund and Greifswald - were part of the 13th-century trading confederation , the Hanseatic League , which did business with Scandinavians and Slavs around the Baltic . Two of the cities , Wismar and Stralsund , are World Heritage Sites . Towering medieval cathedrals and customs houses on market squares as big as football pitches are built of ancient revolutionary red-brick , moulded and baked from the sodden clay . The harbour has bars , cafes and shops for windsurfers , anglers and bucket-and-spaders . On the road , go-kart tracks and wildlife parks fill gaps between the farms and forests . A day 's fishing off a boat costs €39 ( £27 ) , including lunch from a stewpot . At the beach resorts of Boltenhagen and Warnemunde , holidaymakers on hire bikes ( £6.50 a day ) pedal through pine-filled parks to the sea-front . A steam train called Molli plies a coastal route to Heiligendamm , location of the five-star Grand Hotel . It has a sanatorium , a Michelin-star chef , a castle ( for weddings ) and a children 's house with games . Quietly charming : The pretty Alte Markt square in Stralsund sums up the region 's appeal . Meck-Pom is a refuge in peace and war . Forewarned of the Allied bombing , citizens of Hamburg , Berlin and Dresden fled here . 'The castles were full of refugees , ' says Freiherr Helmuth von Maltzahn , proprietor of 16th-century Schloss Ulrichshusen , which his ancestor Ulrich built among the inland lakes . Helmuth , born in 1949 , bought back his burnt-out family home and turned it into a 40-room hotel . At sunset , cranes fly over the lakes in their thousands in what looks , for a moment , like an intricate , interweaving MV-formation . British Airways ( 0844 493 0787 , www.ba.com ) flies to Hamburg from £79 return . Double rooms at the Grand Hotel Heiligendamm ( www.grandhotel-heiligendamm.de/en ) cost from £136 , on a B & B basis . For the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festival and Schloss Ulrichshusen , visit www.festspiele-mv.de/en and www.ulrichshusen.de .
south - west is one of the less populous of today 's 16 states . It was trapped behind the grand Curtain after the country split into two parts . Twenty - five years after independence , it is an enclave of hotels and resorts .