Mirow

My alarm spared me the surreal experience of being woken by traditional German music being blared out over the hostel intercom. Dashed down to beat the school party rush & just managed. Small matter of getting round Muritz lake & then southwards towards Berlin. Bike lanes on busy roads, I guess for the tourist heavy area. Once that was negotiated it was largely green lanes and quiet country roads. All very pleasant, very little traffic - mostly geriatrics on e-bikes. A couple of notable points - having to pass on jumbo jars of local honey in Viperow and just beyond a memorial to a Russian pilot who died saving the population of the village he was about to crash into. Had a little double take - why would a Russian be in Germany but it was East Germany then. Further down the line was having a break in the middle of nowhere when a school party on bikes appeared - steady stream. Later on some stragglers appeared and had to ask me directions - not a good sign. Further on there was the mad (good) situation where the bike lane was a better surface than the road. Things could only get worse from here. Cue road closure. Google had suggested it might be the case but was ignored. Problem was unlike yesterday there was no reasonable way round. So wheeled the bike through the building site and then some substantial bushes. Damned if I was adding another 20+ miles. The joy of these cycle lanes was the wildlife - hares, countless colourful birds and red squirrels.Read more