What to do in Rathenow

Situated less than one hour away from Berlin - with the ODEG line there is a train every hour, the two-way ticket costs 17 EUR - Rathenow is famous for the optical industry an the special red bricks, made from the clay of the river Havel. Maybe during the winter, it doesn't say too much to the visitor, but during the summer months, it has for sure a hidden natural potential. Here are my discoveries, done part of my first trip out of Berlin in 2017.

Just in the front of the red bricked train station, there is the big Druckerplatz, where the classical colonnades are bordered by two feather like glass columns. It is the local respect paid by Rathenow to the one who put this locality on the German map of industry, Johann Heinrich August Drucker, theology graduate, who created the German optic industry.  

From the train station, we took the Friedrich Ebert Ring, passing near the Soviet Cemetery, a reminder that Rathenow used to be once part of the communist part of Germany. Hence, the predominant architecture of the place is old communist blocks of houses, with some stylish architectural presences, mostly abandoned, like the pinkish one in the picture - situated at the corner of Berlinerstraße. Pity, as in its glorious times, this one might have been look like a little urban castle. 

One of the few spare time activities people here can do - particularly in the winter - is to attend some of the musical events hosted at the Musikbrauerei. It offers cocktails, dancing evenings or the opportunity to watch main sport events together. Could be something when you are looking for some company.

At Platz der Freiheit, the local court - Landsrat - is hosted in a very impressive red bricked building, with religious architecture influence, but also urban elegance. 

Close from it, there is another center of local activities: the cultural center - Kulturzentrum - where besides the theatre, there is also a museum presenting the local optical history and achievements - Optikmuseum. Near by, the City Center offers the best of shopping as well as some local coffee houses. Other shopping opportunities can be found along Berlinerstraße.

After 10 minutes of walking, you find yourself near the Havel, which during this time of the year looks grey and unattractive. But once the spring is set, the natural setting on the shores offers a pleasant company for biking. 

The old city wall - Stadtmauer - is a remainder of the old history of the city. Well preserved it is surrounded by nature too. Close from the wall, there is the Haveltorkino, an American looking movie theatre offering...not surprisingly, an American dinner venue. On the same side of the road, there is the optical center, to be visited only if you are really a potential customer. For the visitors, there is only the aforementioned Optikmuseum. All over the city, small billboards with various optical illusions are displayed, awakening the interest of the visitor for knowing and discovering more.

Going on the different shores of Havel, there are different snapshots of the city, many of them displaying a mixture of new communist architecture and old red bricked buildings. I suppose when everything is green, the entire concrete apparitions are looking friendlier. 

The spectacular metal bridges connecting the two shores of the Havel are part of the Naturradweg road, a natural biking route. As for now, there were only kids enjoying the adventures of riding alone from a part to another. On the other side of the bridge - Am Altenhafen - , there is a small historical area, with a church and a monument dedicated to the famous German politician Otto von Bismarck from the end of the 19th century, who started his prodigious career in the modest Rathenow. 

For some diversity, a statuary group of people about to throw a bottle in the Havel, brings you back to the humorous present. Not sure if this statue has to do with some local habits, but it's funny anyway. Better not ask more sometimes.

More classical and interesting is a couple of meters away, the baroque monument in the memory of Friedrich Wilhelm the Great. Back to the train station, we tried to discover other hidden treasures of the city. For instance, the Stadtgalerie Karl Martens Kunstverein, featuring local works of art. If you are hungry for some snacks, I've spotted two bakeries serving traditional local Hörnchen - the German version of croissants - sandwiches and pastry: Meister Möhring and Bäcker Lohse, on Mittelstrasse. 

Our trip started on a grey winter note, but less than one hour away from our departure, the sun shined in Fontane Park, a natural destination where you can walk, enjoy the beautiful nature or ride your bike. As our trip to Rathenow ended in an optimistic note, as I am sure I will soon return for a long nature walk. Who knows, maybe I will finally start biking myself this year and this place look like a good beginning for a different journey. It looks so quiet and tourism-free that you may want to visit it more often.

For more inspiration about what to do in Rathenow, check my dedicated Pinterest board: https://de.pinterest.com/ilanaontheroad/rathenow-brandenburg-germany/

Early spring in Templin

Give me a ray of light and some spring and you can hardly find me at home. As the winter was so mild winter this year, no wonder that I was on the road most part of the time, looking for more and more interesting places to write about. When I want to be spontaneous, I only have to look around Brandenburg and I have a one-day trip guaranteed. For the first serious spring day of the year, we took an almost 2-hour ride to Templin, also called 'the pearl of Uckermark' and the hometown of the German chancellor, Angela Merkel.

The ride was very pleasant, with a lot of green plains and deer running freely. Later on, my enthusiasm about the beauty of the countryside will be calmed down as I was told that the deer were not as free as I thought, but hosted at a farm till mature enough for being sold as meat.

Templin developed in the 14th century as a middle age town and has the best preserved fortification system in the North of Germany. When we arrived there, around 11.30, everything was covered in quietness. Except some tourists, no one shown up before the second half of the day.

We visited the Berlin tower, where we watched a live display of local traditions performed by people of different ages living in Templin. The city has a strong rural component, that was kept despite the industrialisation. The home made baskets look interesting and so are the home made soaps, some of them following Middle Ages recipes, transmitted from a generation to another. As the family plays an important role in transmitting and keeping traditions live, we are told that the children from Templin are regularly invited for various workshops in the tower.

Outside in the sun, we walk for hours the cobblestoned streets, with houses lost in time.

On the other side of the fortified walls, the boats are waiting the beginning of the fishing season.

Till then, the lake is quiet and half frozen near the shore.

With such a quiet ambiance, we wonder what can be done if you are living in Templin. The main cultural activities are held at the Multicultural center, where movies and various shows are presented. Other cultural activities for tourists is a visit to the museum of local history, that was closed that Sunday.

The main shops - mostly small ones, selling things of immediate necessity and home made products - and the few restaurants are concentrated in the area around the city hall, where regularly the weekly market is held too.

After so much walking and courageous plans to continue the hiking for another hours, we decided to have a stop and a coffee. Caught by the sound of French chansonettes, we entered Café Flammene, a small cozy place, with tables made up of sewing machines. The coffee is delicious and looking good and everything seems to be made with soul, including the waffles that we take as energy refuel.

From now on nothing stops us from the adventures in the middle of the nature. The small forest is not green yet, but carefully cut to leave enough place to the different marked hiking trails.

The frozen lake doesn't deter the swans and ducks to go further and enjoy the beginning of the spring. The ice helps keeping the dogs at a decent distance from the birds.

In the middle of the wild forest, everything is quiet and inspiring a round-up of the immediate priorities. We walk in silence, breathing deep the fresh air. With such a beginning of the spring, the next months look very optimistic.

For more insights about Templin Stadt, have a look at my dedicated Pinterest board: http://www.pinterest.com/ilanaontheroad/templin-stadt/

Spring hiking in Kremmen

Nothing compares with the smell of spring in the air. Give me some rays of lights and a clear blue sky and I am instantly at the door ready to spend the rest of the day outside. In one of those days of the unusual early spring, we took a train to Kremmen, a relatively less known destination in the always surprising area of Brandenburg. In less than one hour we were at the train station, without too many people around, and in the middle of an old looking train station. At least, it was a colourful invitation to the bar.

Hopefully, there were a lot of arrows indicating the way to the main areas of interests and we took Berliner Chausee till the first stop: the Spargelhoff/Asparagus yard. I hardly knew what 'spargel' is till moving in Germany, except for the decorative plant with the same name. 'Spargel' is a national food, with various celebrations organized on the occasion of the first - and second, and third - degustation. As we are relatively out season, the area looked empty, except some accidental visitors (us included). 

We made a little tour, had a surprised look at the big agricultural machines - the city girl doesn't have too many ideas what you can do with them - and tried to made a timid eye contact with the fury residents of the area, not yet ready for guests. 

Five minutes later, we were in the Scheunenviertel, a well preserved quarter of old peasant's houses - despite the frequent fires that affected it from time to time -, changed into location for different cultural and foodie attractions. It seems that here is the liveliest area of the little town, with many restaurants, coffees, dancing classes, art galleries and little antiques shops. Here is also a bar where the motor bikers area gathering, and we already noticed a couple of big metal machine monsters around. 

I preferred to stop at the Antiques shop, finding my way and the sense through the diverse pieces of furniture, from different stages of the history of interior design. 

The weather was so lovely that I didn't want to stop: we arrived at the central area Am Markt, with the small city hall, took the quiet street of Berliner Strasse, and after to Ruppiner strasse, where close to a war monument we saw a small barefoot path. Kremmen also has a spa/thermal center, closed till April.

Although Scheunenviertel offered a couple of foodie temptations, we decided to have a longer refuel stop at the former gingerbread factory - Zur alten Leibkuchen - for a coffee and more. The place looks a bit too crowded for me, with many reconverted pieces of furniture, but cozy and with a friendly service.

While we were planning the next stop while chewing the poppy seed cake - a bit too sweet, but lovely taste - and sipping the excellent coffee, one of the customers was reminding loudly his memories about the gingerbread factory as a kid. Somehow, knowing the local language always helps to get better travel stories.

With new energies, we were on the road again, direction Grosse Ziethen. The 5-km. walk is very easy, in the middle of a green scenery, with fields and farms. Accompanied by the birds returning back home the walk went faster and we enjoyed every breath of the new spring.

For those who dare to go farther by car or foot, there is a horse-back riding center, with beautiful horses getting ready for the high season.

At the end of the walk, there was a castle, Schloss Ziethen, nowadays an elegant hotel and restaurant. The garden is open to the public, and we continued our discovery of new spring signs. An art installation, by Janine von Thuengen, in the middle of the luxuriant garden, creates a certain feeling of unusual and unexpected.

But it was time to go back to our busy city life. The day was almost over but the spring air gave me more strength and an optimistic view for the rest of the season. When it's spring, I know that only good things can happen. If not sure, will take a new trip to Kremmen for the confirmation.

For more visual insights about Kremmen, have a look at the dedicated Pinterest board: http://www.pinterest.com/ilanaontheroad/kremmen/

Beelitz, beyond the spargel plate

Beelitz is usually associated in the Brandenburg area, with the famous German national spring food - asparagus/spargel - the kind of meal that I'm still doing my best to cook and maybe like it too - one day. As one of my biggest challenges when I travel is to go beyond stereotypes and too-much-beaten paths, two summers ago I visited this city trying to find more than a bundle of spargel. We arrived quite fast by bus, via Potsdam, on a sunny day, enjoying the green scenery and the quiet streets.

The streets kept quiet for the most part of our stay. Either we headed to the center or explored small streets we rarely had any encounter with the local people. In addition to the classical fast foods and local bakeries, a restaurant serving a variety of Balkan cuisine caught our attention.

Once part of the then GDR, with a significant Soviet present nearby for decades, Beelitz was still looking at the time of my first visit for for its post-Cold War identity, with many buildings left from the war times waiting for a new yet unknown destination.

Walking more, we discovered that the traditional spargel gardens are a relatively 'new' reality - in historical terms, being created only in the 19th century, by Carl Friedrich Wilhelm Herrmann, a local personality whose memory is reminded with a simple statue placed in a square.

The quiet streets allowed us to observe more of the city. It looks like time stopped here a couple of decades back, with many small traditional shops looking as back in the 1970s or 1980s. In the era of photo sharing and electronic devices, this photo atelier with old photos displayed in the windows makes a big difference.

The same for the small door that makes as stop for a while thinking about the impressive model-size of the inhabitants.

Two years later, I am back in Beelitz the last week, this time in spring, the high spargel season. I took the train and stop at Beelitz-Heilstätten, near the historical military sanatorium. The connection to and from Berlin is every hour and it takes around 30 minutes. Prepared to explore the ruins of the sanatorium, I was pleasantly surprised to encounter the modernist perspective of the glass and wood tower of the local fire brigade. This community service has a long tradition in Beelitz, with a special volunteering service that probably explains the architectural special identity and high-profile.

As in the case of the historical city we visited two summers ago, the streets are quiet again, with a discrete bus commuting every 30 minutes. Private owners are ready to rent their houses to holiday refugees from the city and there is probably a high promise of enjoying a very reality disconnected holiday.

Since moving to Berlin, I explored frequently ruins and abandoned buildings: the former Iraqi embassy or the former CIA listening station on Teufelsberg, among others. Fantastic historical sources once, especially if visited in the fist post-unification years, but nowadays a mass of wreckages. The Beelitz military hospital entered my travel agenda at a time when I lost curiosity for such experiences, but also when the building itself is in an advanced stage of deterioration that makes such an adventure risky. Thus, I limited my adventures to taking pictures from outside and observing the architecture, without jumping inside.

The huge complex, situated in the middle of a green area acquired in decades by the diverse administrations of the hospital, was created starting with the end of the 19th century, when the newly-born health insurance society of the newly united Germany was looking to create a tuberculosis station and a nursing home. In 1902, the Beelitz facility was opened, with a 600-bed capacity, open to both men and women. The architecture reminded me other medical facilities I visited in Berlin recently, such as Charité and Westend hospitals, created around the similar period.

During WWI, most of the facilities were operated by the Red Cross that increased the capacity to more than 1,500 beds. Over 12,586 persons were treated here, among which the maniac who will lead Germany to destruction during WWII. The hospital returned to the usual civilian use in 1920. One of the most sought speciality for a long time will be the lung treatment, that included also long relaxation and walks around the newly acquired green area. As I was walking from a building to another, I was feeling the fresh air maintained by the green trees. But as far as I was getting closer to buildings, the smells and the swarm of flies kept me away.

Many of the 60 buildings part of the complex are vandalized and covered by many layers of paintings and graffiti. During the Cold War, the Soviet Army turned the sanatorium into the largest Soviet military hospital outside the USSR, and it kept this status till 1994, when the Russians left Germany. While walking, was trying as much as possible to do not get lost. The idea of spending more time that I need around, wasn't on the to-do-list of the day. Regular tours are organized in the area, with in-depth explanations about the architecture and history, but I feel at a certain extent for me it was a one time experience.

In December 1990, another German dictator, Erich Honecker, the GDR president, was treated here for liver cancer. The red-bricked buildings hide many state secrets probably, but from a dead world. In 1997, part of the buildings were reopened for medical use, with the creation of a special facility for Parkinson disease and neurological disorders. As it is listed as one of the largest historical sites in Brandenburg, assigning a new destination or the simple destruction is not possible.

Being far away from the ruins was a good feeling, and I kept walking around the green area, breathing deep the fresh air. The doctors were right, again, there is a special air quality that makes the place so healthy and relaxing.

Taking the advantage of a sunny day, I continue my exploration by foot for another one hour direction Fichtenwalde. Riding by bike is also a good idea. Once arrived in the small village, with colourful flower gardens, I entered again the quiet spirit of Beelitz. Local products, as honey, are on sale, colourful billboards inviting you to go home with some natural healthy souvenirs.

Another consequence of spending so much time in open fresh air, I got hungry. Back in the sanatorium area, I stop at the restaurant of Landhotel Gustav that I spotted before. Besides the big pieces of naive sculptures in the yard, following the basic advertising made by a big black board announced with chalk hand written words that they serve - what else? - various specialities of Beelitz spargel. I followed the curiosity and entered. The place is hosted in a construction built in 1902 for the use of the sanatorium. Many years after the Russians left, the building was turned into an accommodation facility, with a beauty saloon and a restaurant. The interior is crowded without a special style line with various old pieces of furniture, mirrors and even some toys. It also has some tables outside, a good choice for the sunny days.

The service was too slow for my taste, although there were only two more customers in the restaurant. I ordered a classical spargel with season potatoes and sauce Hollandaise, a simple countryside meal. The spargel was smooth and well boiled and the sauce brought some special flavours and taste. A good healthy meal, but not necessarily my style of menu.

Near the sanatorium buildings currently used for medical purposes there are more abandoned buildings, in a better state, but still marked by the traces of decay.

What the future of the former sanatorium buildings will be, is not yet clearly known. The ruins are not only very popular among tourists and travel adventurers, but were also chosen as filming locations for movies such as Operation Valkyrie and Schindler's List.

I left Beelitz again, this time curious to return sooner than two years to check what the whole area will become. With so many histories and secrets hidden behind old walls, it seems that this place has more stories than spargel recipes to tell.

For more Beelitz insights, have a look at the dedicated Pinterest board: http://www.pinterest.com/ilanaontheroad/beelitz/