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.