I had a good sleep in the dead quiet of the forest, but Dodie was a bit disrupted, particularly when a car crept by about 3 a.m.. The morning was really great, though, as we were totally alone.
Totally alone only goes so far as a thrill, and it pales when you are looking for some breakfast rolls. so we travelled some pretty bumpy roads, on the way to a town with a bakery. Before we could reach anything so exotic, Dodie came down with a flat. Later forensic analysis showed the puncture to be dead centre in the bottom of the tread. In short, a standard flat. So much for "Unplattbar", Schwalbe!
When we did reach a town of sorts, it had only a small grocery. However people were streaming into the place, and out with bags of rolls. They were lined up a bit at bins, and were shovelling them out wholesale. "Hey Dodie get in here, these guys are buying up all the rolls!" I need not have worried, for a staff lady arrived with bins and bins more. Only thing there was only one raisin bun left. We got that one, but then of it was only one. We split it, of course.
The reason for the good business at the little store was that there was no bakery nor anything else around for quite some distance. This is the region of the Muritz National Park, and features many lakes and protected forests. There are towns in and around the park, but few have any consumer services like bakery or grocery.
Our favourite sign, no matter where. It's the oldd city centres that hold the interest in each town. Normally there is nothing at all of interest that is new, Since Canada is all "new" that accounts for why we are here!
The place that does have it all is Muritz town. The first thing we encountered as we entered was a triathlon, just getting organized. A little further into town, a large cyclists' rest place with cafe and rooms, Then finally was the market street and square. This was just stuffed with bakeries and cafes, cyclists and general tourists.
We sat at a bakery/cafe table for a while, finishing yesterday's blog upload and listening to a man playing a large music box. It's times like this, with great stacks of pastry at hand, perfect weather, gorgeous buildings all around, and cheerful crowds, that cycle touring is at its best.
We left town and spent the rest of the day wending through and around the park and the many small towns. The park had put up signs in each town, explaining its origins and history. some were famous for being on a salt route, and one was the original home of Heinrich Schliemann, the founder of modern archeology. Dodie somehow knew this, but I only thought the guy founded the beer company!
When we reached Zwenzow we had the choice of several camping spots. We chose the canoe club, because we generally like them, but also because it seemed to be close. In fact it was way down a dirt road. When we finally got there, though, we made a "splash". The people in the reception were really tickled to have two old long distance travellers from Canada, and they insisted on taking our picture with them. They also wondered what we were doing so far down a darn long dirt road. Us too.
Don't miss the photo captions, which tell more of the story ... coming tomorrow morning, Germany time.
This shot shows three kinds off Crazyguys - the one with the grey beard approaching is a Steve type, then there is Dodie, and finally Florian on his tag along, with his Dad.
Now this fellow was one of the craziest of crazyguys. Have a good look at his kit. How about those custom aluminum water bottle holders. He was not a transient but a tourist like us, with a round Europe itinerary.
We are in the former GDR but see little evidence of it being a poorer area. What we do see is very subtle. However, further west a farm building like this would not occur.
At the canoe club. The dog is named "Evan", which the owners say is a celtic name meaning little fighter. Evan was supeer well trained and gentle. The canoe club people were really kind to us, as others have been in past days. Without much comment, people have just handed us cookies (rouund a campfire), a pickle in a market, some brotchen (at a campground), and a free shower and dryer run (here). Either we look like hard luck cases (hopefully not) or people are just kind and generous.
