Thursday, 1.7.

Clear sky, let's go swimming. Which lake will we concede our favor? We decide to go to the Lenz at the Plauer See where we have come along yesterday. We enjoy to ride without baggage on a hike trail at the Malchower and Petersdorfer See. The landscape is wonderful but for cycling one needs some skill. At the Lenz beach we lie on our thermo pads, the lake is blue, the water transparent.

Plauer See

We just have dived into our reading as a group of five motor-cyclists comes on. Helmets like knights, rigged in leather suits they come near with swinging strides. They are from Köln (Cologne) and suffer of her grumbling heads caused by the drinking about yesterday. As they have peeled off their equipment they don't look like machoes with their pale bodies and  swimming-trunks. Two of them are nearly dead, they stay to their suits and lie down immediately to sleep in the blank sun. As usual for motor cyclists they talk of nothing else than their preference. The professional braking, technical details of the scene, past time accidents. Sometimes one says "Nice here". We do hard to concentrate to our books. Finally one of them reliefs an odd sound at his backside, so I must look into another direction for my wife bursts out of laughter at such situations.

At noon the motor cyclists get on their stuff again and sort their equipment. Soon they disappear with rised bums and howling engines around the next bend towards Malchow.

We flap up our lower jaw bone again and eventually jump into the water. To achieve a water depth sufficient to swim one has to wander some hundred meter into the lake. And the sun does its work. It is too late when I start to use a suntan cream. I end as somewhat like a polished tomato. We return to Malchow on the usual road and look forward to an enjoyable evening at our terrace.

But first we go for dinner to the Deutsches Haus, Heidi orders a roast beef and I a fried trout which nearly does not find place at the plate. The restaurant is busy so the waitress is in full cry. She is alone and masters her job in an astonishing manner. She has a grey brush like hairdress, hoisted shoulders and a strong neck. Though not quite petite she is very agile. She runs from table to table and snaps off an empty glass of beer or bangs down a new one. The guests have their fun. At the door there is a step and she varies to pass this trap with her front or back foot, once the left, then the right and balancing a couple of plates as well.

Back "at home" as one usually says we sit down for relax at our terrace. The Müllers plan a barbecue next evening and would like to invite "the young people" as they say. We are very delighted about this friendly gesture. And we will have salmon trout grilled in alu foil - a dream.

Thereafter Heidi retires to the TV and I lift my legs on another chair to continue reading my book. This turns out to become a serious disaster. There is no silence. A neighbour insists to clean the roof of his hut made of corrugated stuff (Wellblech) by this awful high-pressure-water-tube. Sometimes he takes a rest and then one can imagine, what a wonderful silence there would be. When he continues his work I can nearly cry and execrate every property market of western and eastern Germany. Eventually he comes to the end of his roof, and silence!!! But the roof does not seem to be sufficiently clean. He starts again from the very beginning!!! I retire too. And the TV-film is a western with heroes shooting for everything movable. And from time to time there is an interupt for noisy advertising spots. Life is no paradise.

Friday 2.7.

What to do on a rest day during a bike-tour? Sure, let's do a bike-tour. Of course a moderate one, we will cycle 30 km to Waren/Müritz. We have a solid breakfast at Mrs. Müller and with two apples in our pockets we ride off. Fields and forests along the "Güstrower Straße", then more to the east with a good tailwind. At Nossentin at the Fleesensee the community of the village has assembled to restaurate and establish park and grass areas. The church looks like a school and nothing else is to be seen.

Flowers

Waren an der Müritz

The entire Müritzsee - the biggest lake of Germany by the way, caused by the circumstance that the Lake Constance (Bodensee) is bordered by three different nations - is not to be seen from Waren. Waren is located at a bay named Binnenmüritz. But it's odd, at this bay there is the deepest point of  33 m. The rest of the lake has 10 m depth in average. At uncertain weather conditions the Müritz can be very dangerous. Some weeks ago some sailers drowned, so someone told us.

Early enough we start for the Kietzbrücke where the boat sets off. Short before 2 pm there is nothing to be seen of it. As usual we zigzag around and ask the people who don't know anything themselves. Eventually we find the ship at another pier. But then things run as they shall do and we leave Waren in time. I have to sit with my backside to the sun due to my red face. A gentleman aside looks worse, his nose is covered with bubbles. On a bench at the back of the ship a happy lad has lied down, earplugged and singing. By the way he informs the folks that Boris Becker has lost the semi final of Wimbledon.

Now we have pure nature around. There are great crested grebes (Haubentaucher) with their squeakers, families of coots (Blesshuhn), greylag geese (Graugans) and sea swallows. There are nice passages from one lake to the next. The sailers have no progress today, there is nearly no wind. There are odd boats shipping around. One ship looks like a discharged tugboat as we know them from the Hamburg harbour. Irritating are the speedboats which cause serious destructions at the shore zones. Moreover they are very noisy. So a couple of people have their fun and hundreds of others suffer from their ignorance. And they are toffee-nosed moreover.

The tour from the Binnenmüritz via the Reek-Kanal to the Kölpinsee, then via Fleesensee to the Malchow See lasts two hours. This is just the time we have needed overland. We arrive at our lodging in time to take share in the barbecue of the salmon trout. A couple from Bremen and their son participate too. Mrs. Müller has removed the flakes from the fish, brushed with butter, and filled the inner with cabbage and onions. Altogether is rolled in metal foil and cooked on the barbecue. We do hard with our collecting mouth water. As we finally start to consume the delicious meal no one says anything except an occasional sigh of comfortable feeling. The flesh of the salmon trout is red and the size of the fish is nearly like the forearm. So this is enough to fill one up but there is nothing to remain as well.

At last everyone leans back, the ladies get a champaign and we feel like "God in France" (German saying).

Müllers have another date. There will be a contest of the best decorated boat at the lake. The Müllers have spent a couple of days to prepare their boat for this occasion. The last attempt was to fabricate a on-bord-bar. Sorry, there is not enough room for us  "young people" yet. So we will be part of the enthusiastic community and undertake the washing up.

MS Bochum

As we arrive at the shore of the lake we just see as our favourite boat takes off. It looks nice and its name is "Bochum". Don't care that the letter "B" of the larboard side has been lost. The rivalry at the lake is not so hard, some boats have only flied some flags and fixed a teddy bear to the mast. Up to the final decision we stroll to the dam of the Malchow island. There shall be a Platzkonzert. A handful of visitors has come to listen a somewhat moderate sensation. One girl of the Spielmannszug has her leg in gypsum.

Back at the bridge the contest comes to an end. The first reward is won by a bajazzo-family, the second by a foldable canoe decorated with palms etc. for imagination of South Seas romantics. The third reward is won by a pedalo boat, a palm tree on board as well. But for the presentation ceremony he is undiscoverable. Our Müllers don't win anything. But this is not the motivation.

It is late and we go home. At midnight we hear the Müllers asking if the "young people" are still awake. But for today we are too tired.

Saturday, 3.7.

The last day at Malchow will offer a surprise for us. At breakfast Mr. Müller recommends a boat tour to the Jabel See. We are enthusiastic. This time a couple from Starnberg will participate.

Kloster Malchow

We start towards the Fleesensee. The weather has turned to be cloudy and there is a stiff wind. We wear our sweatsuits but Mr. Müller persists on his T-shirt. During the outward bound we have a tail wind and a very romantic passage between the Kölpin- and Jabel-See. We enjoy to observe the sea swallows. They look similar to seagulls but are recognizable by a split tail and their artistic flight. When they have seen a fish in the water they tip over one side, fall like a stone and at once rise again into the air. At this speed you cannot recognize what they have caught.

Passage between two Lakes

We leave our boat at the camping site of Jabel. There are many cars with the sign HRO (Hansestadt Rostock). We enter a restaurant for a "Soljanka" (Russian kind of soup) or a fried chicken, named "Broiler" during the DDR-period. Mr. Müller tells his story. He stems from the west, the town of Bochum exactly. As the frontier of the DDR was closed at the end of the fifties he could not return. But he did not want to for meanwhile he had a family and house at Malchow. Nowadays he is unemployed and an early retired person as many people of this region.

As we want to set off with the boat it will not move. Soon the reason is found, we have forgotten to pull up the anchor. Now we sail into the wind. The Jabel See is small and surounded by forests so there is no problem. At the passage from the Kölpin- to the Fleesensee we have the strong wind from straight ahead and the small boat is just moving like a snail. The motor must be choked down sometimes to avoid a crash with the pressing waves. If we look to the shore we have the imagination that we do not move at all. We feel not quite secure in this situation.

But we succeed to come back. The most astonishing matter is, that we have needed the same time for the return section. The reason for this is, that the boat rides on the waves and this gives the speed. So Mr. Müller says and we cannot understand this fact.

During the rest of the day we relax and prepare the departure for tomorrow.