Berlin day 1

Travelling to Berlin, Katherine Kolwitz mus, Haeckel Markt

There was heavy, heavy rain during the night. I had hoped for sunshine so that i could have a last walk by the lake. But it was grey and cloudy. Jorg, Tina and I drove over the flat German plain chatting about life. They detoured into Postdam to drop me at the station, and I picked up on the Berlin transport system. Checked into my hotel, a nice one close to Alexanderplatz. Spent the afternoon in the Kathe Kolwtiz museum, a beautiful if sad place. It has a small oeuvre. She trained as an artist and was a social and political campaigner, she became a committed peace activist after losing her son early the First World War. Her pictures are rather dark and like Goyas, with expressions of sad dark emotions.

She was influenced by Ernst Barlache whose work I had seen 2 days earlier. Afterwards I wandered along the street popping into the very smart shops there. I wandered into a second hand book shop, which had high end 18c books and a lovely leatherish aroma. I dipped into a modern jewellers and looked at the work. I had an excellent browse through a photo shop making v interesting high quality prints. Then had a coffee on Kusrtsendam which is more high end then when I first saw it in in 1990. Had open air supper in a haedke Markt where lots of people were siting eating and buskers played, very agreeable.

Plau an see and bike ride

Plau am see, bike ride, evening with Argentinian 

I started the day with a brisk walk beside the lake. Ingrid, Tina, Jorg and I went into Plau. It is an attractive small town with typical N German architecture, churches built of small red bricks, and a Rathaus on the main square, lots of buildings of different ages ranging from 17 c onwards. It is a German tourist spot. We rented bikes biked across the countryside towards Lutz, a brewing factory, we biked through small villages with a few houses and a church, all made of small red bricks. Many of the houses had been repainted, there were also large landowner farmsteads from two centuries ago. The forest was lovely with mixed trees and smelling of pine and other scents. Tine loved her first forest biking experience. If the weather had been better I would have biked beside the lake. It was very easy to hire bikes and the roads were well marked. 

I bought a blue mug with an interesting line running along it from the local female potter, it will remind me of the Baltic. In the evening we had an extraordinary supper cooked by an Argentinan who married a German 25 yrs ago and established a brass band and training for children here. He had built a huge barn in his garden for training sessions and camps for kids. He was exuberant and not good at managing the detail in his life. He had heard Miguel and concha speaking Spanish at a concert earlier in the week and clearly wanted an evening of speaking Spanish. He set up an Argentinan meat feast sardo with about 20 different types of meat and we eat these sitting at a canteen table in his harshly lit barn. He talked about his life and has enthused children to play in brass band in Mecklenberg prommen.  

I asked people about the highlights and the surprises of the holiday; we all enjoyed the northern German architecture and the clear northern light on the houses and villages and being in the group again. Tina’s highlight was swimming in Baltic and biking, she was surprised that Mecklenburg is part of Germany because it is so different to the industrial west and Bavaria she has previously visited. Jorg was surprised to see the posters supporting the local neo Nazi politician on the route to Rostock and Miguel by the evening with the Argentinian.

I enjoyed the friendship of the holiday; they are all nice people and have socialist and international perspectives and interest in culture. National stereotypes are definitely discernable in the group, the Spaniards Miguel and Concha are gentle, thoughtful. Jorg is kind and thoughtful but combined with German angst. He has been happier since buying his house in Sienna 3 years ago. Tina is warm and Italian and happily has no long -term effects from her cancer 15 yrs ago. Frances is half Welsh, half Ghanian and working in South London and with London interests. Ingrid is a solid reliable German and is keen on culture and has the burden of an elderly mother living close by. We are all still working in medicine, Miguel and Concha as consultants in infectious disease and oncology respectively in Madrid, myself in London and globally, the others are all GP’s with varying work-life balances.

Rostock

Art gallery, Rostock, swimming in the Baltic, conversations.

Drove through the forest to the art gallery of Ernst Barlach, In Heidberg, a 19c sculptor who lived and worked locally. His prices were smallish in bronze and clay and transmitted emotions well, fear, horror, he had been influenced by Goya. He died in 1938 so would have experienced the unpleasantness of the Nazis. His life was displayed on boards but unfortunately not translated. The gallery was a beautiful modern space, set in the forest with large open windows.

Our landlady had been dismissive of Rostock, “very badly bombed during the war” she said. But we enjoyed our walk and lunch there. We walked past the wonderful old university building spanning 6 centuries of learning, then walked along a street full of interesting buildings, all very Hanseatic, with narrow gaily coloured fronts and Art Deco style in other buildings. We had lunch of smoked fish brodchten in the square bought from a man with a van and endless patience for the different combinations that we all wanted. I had smoked mackerel and finished off Frances’ Dutch style herrings. The Spaniards are surprised by the German food vans, in Spain one buys good to take home to eat and there is not a culture of eating on the streets. I popped into the cathedral, quite plain with a very heavily decorated organ and altarpiece only, not as over decorated as the southern German churches. I could happily have spent more time in Rostock. We were determined to swim in the Baltic and we did at Borgerend. It was a lovely little resort with sand dunes that one walked through and then a narrow strip of beach. Lots of families were playing in the warm sun. We went down and plunged in, the water was cool and refreshing and it was more enjoyable if one swam around. The sea was barely salty and there was almost no tide. We had coffee watching the small harbour on a huge inlet, lots of people were taking boats out in the long summer evening. The port and beach had a lovely small scale. Had a lovely drive back seeing the countryside in the evening light, golden on the just harvested fields, mixed forest, small villages with houses and churches, small lakes. We had a Spanish style supper at home with a large tortilla and salad.

I was surprised by the beauty of Rostock, being on the beach was innocent fun and the evening light beautiful.

Malchow

Exploring the area with a forest walk, a visit to a Bear park, lunch in Malchow, seeing the DDR museum. 

I walked through the forest beside the lake. There was a huge campsite there, with many permanent tents and women were being good haus fraus and sweeping in front of the tents. There had been a heavy rainstorm during the night. I inspected and was impressed by the cycle path around the lake. Ingrid was keen to visit a local bear park. We walked on paths through the forest and the bears who had been rescued from captivity mooched around in the forest. I don't like seeing animals in captivity so this did not really appeal to me. We then tried to find a place for lunch, village after village was too small to support a cafe. The lakeside cafe staff said they could not serve 7 people unless we had pre-booked, that felt very E German. We ended up in Malchow eating a local delicacy, smoked fish with potato salad and chips. The smoked fish was fresh and tasty, red snapper, halibut, also fresh herrings called Bismarck herring. We sat at a bench and it felt very Hanseatic, I was reminded of eating fish in Holland. We checked out the DDR museum which was a vast unselected collection of items from the DDR era. They were grouped into five themes, radios, TV, clothes, dolls and toys. Sadly they lacked an explanatory narrative so one did not know whether items where there to illustrate poor DDR design or just from that era. It was a pity because the collection could have been interesting with some selection and explanation. We wandered back through the town, and Jorg and I sat on the bridge of land connecting the island to the mainland. It was windy but we enjoyed the bright clear light We drnk a local a beer flavoured with rhubarb, rather sweet for my taste. The owner dropped in to the house whilst we we're there, she is a teacher in her early 60's and had moved from East Berlin to West Berlin in 1986, to join her husband, she left her mother behind in this house. She was fortunate that The Wall came down 4 yrs later; she could not have predicted that. She must have an interesting story having grown up in the east and moved. She had a warm intelligent face and said that her pupils were not interested in the past, fortunately her children have asked her to write it down. The area has improved hugely over the last 25 yrs, many houses have been renovated and repainted, but it is a tourist area. Over supper we have talked about the DRR here because of the palpable recent history.

friends reunited Malchow

A day for catching up on friendships with Jorg and Tina, Miguel and Concha, Frances and Ingrid. We explored Plau Am see and an old monastery, and had an E German style peasant lunch, afternoon in Malchow.

A wet morning so I explored the house and garden. The house has been in the family since being built in local style in 1932 and is now rented out for holidays. It has a large downstairs with two double sleeping rooms and a sitting area, upstairs are another two sleeping rooms with a 60's orange striped sofa. The house has some real old touches, her mother’s silver comb set laid out in the front hall, just like my mothers' set. The house is well equipped and modernised with new Ikea cutlery and crockery. The garden is lovely with mature apple trees laden with fruit and a mixed floor and vegetable bed. We headed to a local information centre in the national park where I learnt more about the forest and geology than I wanted to know. We walked around a huge old monastery complex; it looked old but was a 19 century build built in gothic style with small red bricks. The complex is now a home for people with learning disabilities. The cafe was closed on Monday so we headed into a local village and had a massive peasant sized lunches with beetroot soup, meat and two vegetables, very traditional and not spicy. The decor of the restaurant was unreconstructed E German with a wooden bar and sports trophies. Malchow is the local town beside the lake and looked Hanseatic with houses with narrow fronts, pointed roofs and bright colours. The bright evening light was beautiful. It is a crossing point for boats and cars and we watched the bridge being swung round to let the local boats go through. There are many German cyclists around. Had a beer and an hour on the Internet with Jorg at a local hotel, nice to sit outside in the warm air.