Calories Straight from Heaven

Our Friday route is a shorter ride of 50km / 30m, so we come up with an alternative plan before we set off; first to visit the Muritzeum 'to experience the nature' as our guidebook informs us in its exquisite language, secondly to visit the Tortenhus which was closing as we arrived yesterday evening.

The Muritzeum, Waren's natural history museum, did not open until 10 o'clock, so we gave ourselves a slower start to our day before we set off. As we stood outside beside a group of school children with five minutes to opening time, we wondered if we would be back outside and on our way ten minutes later. Instead, we found a wonderfully presented exhibition of live specimens, stuffed specimens and excellent descriptive displays, many of which had English translations. We walked from the entrance to a wide steel staircase connecting the two floors of the museum, beside which was a complete glass wall the height of the two floors (probably 30ft high by 20ft wide) giving the impression we were looking below the surface of a huge deep lake. Hundreds of huge fish swooped and glided in front of us, or disappeared into the distance as we stood on the staircase. Several other huge tanks of fish were imaginatively displayed, with a couple of them viewed by us from inside the museum but the tanks extending out to the ponds outside where swans and ducks swam. Upstairs we wandered amongst the displays of birds and flight, then did a quick side trip through the descriptions of changing landscapes over the eons. By the time we left after our quick 45 minute visit, we were very glad we had made the effort.

Next stop was the Tortenhus, somewhere to go for fancy gateaux for upmarket elevenses. We were not expecting this to be a wasted visit, but had no idea until we got there whether it would be open yet. Disappointingly, the doors were shut as we walked across the Alte Markt square towards it, but we were pleased to find that it opened at 11 o'clock - meaning we had a mere seven minutes to wait. Then, in we went to select our choices from the elaborate gateaux displayed in the glass case beside the counter; deciding to have two different choco-overload concoctions for comparison. Two waitresses brought our coffees and slices / slabs out to our outside table, where of course we had to drool and take photos before starting to destroy the masterworks.

Nearly noon before we started our cycling for the day. Every surface was covered from rutty, rocky to smooth as silk pavement. Occasionally we share space with cars. The pavements are lightly traveled but narrow and the cars drive like they are on the Autobahn.

One of our "highlights" was a big ship propeller to note the location of the company which makes the biggest ship propellers in the world. We are still looking for the Scandanavian Rock, wondering its significance and did it just down the hill into Germany?

More forests, more lakes, more farmland. At one point our attention was attracted to small leantos of sticks. The sign beside the road labeled them as "wichterhaus" which seems close to witch house. Relying on the Internet and much searching we found they are the homes of friendly elves.

Surrounding nearly every field are elevated shelters that I assume are blinds for hunting. Fortunately it seems to be off season. As we approached our golf course hotel there was a larger version built for passersby to climb and view another lake across the fields of wheat and barley.

The hotel was hosting a wedding, a small golf tournament and, of course, a bunch of cyclists.

 

 

 

 

 

Posted with Blogsy