Welcome To Small Town Germany:
Marlene wanted to see how real Germans live, so we escaped Berlin prior to getting comfortable. The folks at the rental car company informed us that they didn’t have maps (use your GPS in the car) and that they couldn’t tell us how to actually get from the train station parking lot onto any road heading out of Berlin. The GPS, of course, is a nearly useless piece of equipment for us. We did have a basic map of Berlin that we bought at the German Tourist Bureau at the train station, so we had a chance of knowing a thing or two about our whereabouts. We got headed northwest from the train station on the north part of town. Not good, as we were wanting to go over one hour to the southeast from Berlin. We ended up finding the circle auto route (beltway) on the northwest side of town and in rush hour traffic with hard rain we made it to the southeast side of Berlin and made our way into the countryside. I had the journey mapped out in my head and had notes written down from using Google maps. Of course, I write down highway and road numbers and, where possible, the actual name of a street. Though much better than in France, the Germans basically use directions to towns and cities, rather than road numbers. So, if you are looking for the exit to road L 23, as I was, you instead need to know to get off at the exit marked Storkow, which is obviously a city. Frustrating that they can’t manage to let you know it is road L 23. Anyway, we made it to Reichenwalde and the Alten Schule Restaurant and Hotel.
The first photo gives you a look at Alten Schule, which is actually an old school house that has been renovated, not long ago, into an eight-room hotel and restaurant. We are in an apartment (see the top two windows on the left side). The next photo shows the side of the old school house and the main intersection of town. We are very pleased at how nice the accomodations are. Reichenwalde is not very big and it is QUIET. It’s basically a farm town, with the facility we are staying in and a tavern a half block away. It is well-groomed, clean......it is very German. Everything is in its place, all is orderly and you can tell you are not in France. It is amazing how close the Germans and French are to each other and how totally different they are. It’s not all that surprising that they apparently don’t like each other much. My personal comfort level is much higher in Germany than in France. My strong German ancestry definitely made an imprint on my personality. As Marlene points out, French life and culture provides many inconveniences for transplanted Americans, while that is not the case here in Germany.
I was really guessing as to where to come to. The primary goal was to be about an hour from Berlin. After not finding all that many lodging opportunities out in the middle of nowhere, I just selected Alten Schule and hoped. As time went on I saw it was near some lakes and near the town of Bad Saarow, which I was beginning to think might be a bit upscale, primarily based on what looked like a nice hotel and resort spa being located in Bad Saarow. Reichenwalde is southeast of Berlin, and only recently did I read that some pretty areas were located north and southeast of Berlin. Just got lucky, as it is pretty. Lots of farm land with some lakes mixed in. It all looks just like the U.S. and has many characteristics of Michigan (flat land, woods and lakes). Anyway, Bad Saarow, about a five minute drive from our apartment, is located on a lake (see the photo). We had lunch on the lake and checked out biking, boating and the like, hopefully to be accomplished over the next three days. We ran across Café Dorsch, which I had read about and is located on the lake. Wow! What a great and classy place. You see a photo looking out from the dining room, past a couple eating on the deck and down to the lake. And, there’s a photo of Marz enjoying the tranquility at their hillside bar with the lake in the background. We have dinner reservations for the four of us on Sunday. Bad Saarow is very upscale. I’m trying to figure how this wealth existed in the communist East German years? I need to do some research. I was so interested to see what might be left of the gray, poor, restricted life in East Germany. From what I’ve seen, it doesn’t look possible that everyday life in communist East Germany could have been all that bad. By the way, things are so much less expensive here in Germany than in the south of France. I guess there’s a sunshine tax in Provence.
We knew we’d be here in Germany for the U.S.-Germany World Cup game today. So, we went into Bad Saarow, where they had a TV set up lakeside at one of the small restaurants (walk-up counter service). Game time was 6 pm and we were the only Americans in attendance to watch the match. The photos tell the story of the setting. And, the bratwurst was great, as it was at lunch. Is there a reason the French can’t make a bratwurst like the Germans and the Americans? Yes, in a mere 48 hours we again have found some more American-like cuisine. It may not be pretty, but it is good. Oh, the cherry strudel! It may not be petite and pretty, but it was hearty and major league in every way. And, the Coca-Cola fountain soda tastes just like it does in the United States, which is not the case in France. It seems like taking a few days in Germany is almost like going back to the U.S. for a few days, though the language is certainly perplexing.
So, Thursday comes to an end and we’ll see what the next three days bring, before we get back on the German overnight train to Paris.
The Wilsons
