August 18, 2013
Day 31: Zwenzow to Zehdenick
We took some extra time this morning to run stuff through the dryer at the canoe club, annd to wait for the brotchen delivery. We have a covered table and power here, so it's really comfortable to just hang around. But now at 9 a.m. were are getting nervous about leaving late. We see that it will still take two sleeps to get to Berlin. It's not that we have any appointments to keep in Berlin, of course, but we just want to get there. Without some kind of drive or goals, how would one ever cycle 5000 km in general?
We went to the reception to check out, and the man showed us how he had put our photo with him up on Facebook. He had also put a link to our blog. We had him click the link, and showed him where in turn our photo of him and us was placed. Support like this is really valuable. So with renewed determination we said goodbye to Evan the dog, and set off.
Riding was good, with usually smooth and safe pathways, but nothing too remarkable in terms of scenery. We continue to pass through lake and forest country, and so are seeing a lot of lake and forest. The way also is generally following the Havel River, which eventually ends at the Elbe. We in fact passed the source of the Havel yesterday. The watery environment seems ever more like where Dodie's father would have gone, and we have seen plenty of modern day paddlers here.
As the kilommeters slowly creep by, we feel we are detecting a continuing change in the appearance of the houses and villages. They are noticably less cared for, less renovated. It's hard to judge it, though, because there are plenty of gorgeous houses, solid construction, with shiny tile roofs and many flowers around, and plenty of streets that put anything back home to shame. Still...
Aside from the appearance of houses and towns, the GDR history suddenly struck us as we innnocently noodled around Furstenberg looking for the right route. We came to an odd sculpture titled "the Mothers", together with a sign and diagram of "the site" in 1945, showing just some unlabelled rectangles. With no further background or understanding of this sculpture, we just carried on.
But not far away was a 1940's Red Army tank, and a German inscription about the "liberation". Hmmm. Next, in four languages was a memorial to people who died "building this road" as prisoners of the SS.
Slowly, we came to understand that we were passing the Ravensbruck concentration camp. 20-30,000 women and children were tortured and murdered here. Later, buildings were used as barracks by the Russian army. We didn't stop, and in fact saw little in terms of documentation or memorial. There was no museum or "welcome centre" that we encountered.
As we pedalled on, we were quiet for an hour, neither wanting to trouuble the other by admitting being distressed by this brief brush withh German and Russian history. But surely, our focus had shifted from pastries and rathauses to darker thoughts.
So we were when near Himmelpfort we came upon an octagonal church that styled itself a "rad wander kirche" or bikeway church. We naturally stopped in, and Dodie spoke to a 69 year old volunteer custodian. She learned that the church was on the land of a powerful royal family, and got a description of the family history. The church had been trashed by the Russians in 1945, and restored by the family after reunification. The lady asked why we were headed to Berlin, and got the story of Dodie's dad, who had grown up in Berlin and escaped the country in 1939 - while losing his family to the concentration camps. The lady then expressed her feelings of guilt for what her parents hgeneration had done, and held out hope for the future, citing the interrnational outlook and friends of her own children. There were some tears, and hugs exchanged.
Our maps did not show a lot of camping ahead, but there was some on route, and we headed for it. at least we thought we did. But when we got to Neudorf, we realized we were off route and far from any camping. We were gearing up to look for a gasthaus when we spied a sign for a "wald bad" that had a tent symbol. We found a swimming facility by a lake, and a yard with a tent symbol on it. So we just pitched. Later a strange man appeared and went into a rather dodgy tent across the way. I approached him for information, but he spoke no English. So he we are. No one has bothered us, or bothered with us, and tomorrow early we will be gone.
Dodie says we will not be gone so early, though, as to miss cooking porridge. She seems to need this gloppy stuff to start the morning with any power. Weird.
Today's ride: 74 km (46 miles)
Total: 2,188 km (1,359 miles)
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