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.

Plau Am see blog

This blog describes the holiday that I had in Northern Germany with my friends from the LSHTM DTMH class of 1991 who have holidayed alternate years in different parts of Europe. I am an honorary member of the group, having joined holidays in Tuscany and Cornwall. This year the holiday was organised by Ingrid who lives and works in South Germany but is interested in Northern Germany and the regions that were previously part of the DDR (E. Germany). Serendipitously it fitted into the Baltic theme that I have been having for my travel this year.

We stayed in a house rented in a holiday area in Mecklenburg state beside a lake called Plau Am see, which is a long established holiday area with lakeside houses for decades. We explored the forest and visited Rostock, another Baltic port. The small villages felt N. German and Hanseatic. It was interesting to see how the old DDR area has been developed. I then had a day in Berlin and biked around the city.

St Petersburg 5 to London

Erata museum, flying to London

Checked out and took a taxi to see the Erata museum, described by Lonely Planet as one of the art sights in St Petersburg. It is set in a converted warehouse in a previously industrial area. It is a very light airy museum spread out over 5 floors with very contemporary work. They were very enthusiastic about modern art. I enjoyed a few pieces, there was a nice sculptures comparing the right and left halves of the brain with the left half being organised angles and clear pathways but the right a growing organic mass of connections. There was a beautiful large sculpture of aluminium pieces called "earth worm cast”. There were witty pieces; one painting of a kitchen included a Mondrian fridge. But it did feel that it was trying a little too hard and the explanations were too long.

Went to the airport by taxi and was there ridiculously early by my standards! I caught up with my blogs. On the flight I finished reading the Baltic Revolution by Anatol Liven which I am glad that I read but it did take too much of my reading time. But it did give me a good insight into the history, and especially problems like the Baltic Russians who are a large part of the community in both Latvia and Estonia. It was much better than the Balkan History by Misha Glenny that I struggled with last year.

Took the tube home and it was good to be in a multi- cultural society again. Both the Baltics and Russia were mono ethnic with pale skinned northerners.
My Russian add on was a fascinating part of the trip and I loved being in Piter. But it also diminished the Baltic States a little. They seemed so small and Russia is so big.

St Petersburg 4

Russian museum. Nice cafes, feeling very energised by being in Russia.

I experienced 5 centuries of Russian life through the art in a series of 90 rooms starting in the 11c and ending in the 21c in the Russian museum The Lonely Planet guide was an excellent companion explaining the significance of each group of rooms. There were beautiful works there, starting with 4 rooms of lovely icons, then portraits of the people that Peter engaged to build his new city. The church featured very little. One could see this educated enlightened city developing. There were also large genre pictures for the late 19 c capturing Russian life. The 20 c section had a large collection of Malevichs and one saw the constructivist style. I was very excited to see so many together. I also love his pictures of Russian people. The twentieth century art was very impeded by Stalinisation. I also ran out of energy, another time I would concentrate on the last twenty rooms. There was also a folk art section beautifully displayed but very poorly labelled with no maps. That could have been a small museum in its own right. It also reminded of the beautiful folk art in India which is now celebrated and seen as representing the diverse aspects of life there.

Came out of the Russian museum really blown away by the variety of the collection. Had a very late lunch in the literary cafeteria on Nevsky prospect where Dostoevsky had his last cup of coffee. Now there is a mannequin sitting at a desk writing in the hall and a modest upstairs dining room with fine views down Nevsky prospect. The Japanese mother and daughter next to me were using Google translate and pictures to negotiate the menu with some difficulty.

I had a quiet evening sitting by the canals watching the world go by and had a low key supper in a small cafe where locals were popping in for drinks and food.

I have not had enough time relaxing days in St Petersburg, too full on with so many interesting museums to visits.