Day 4 - The Trouble with Trebbin

Breakfast at the bakery in Blankensee, delicious coffee and Brötchen. (They're like little loaves or large rolls... And these were "belegt" with butter and cheese and greens on them. "Belegt" is also how the bee keeper described her guest quarters before sending us off to the fish smoker.)

The trail out of the village sends us along a lakeside boardwalk:

And near some farmland outside of town, we find the bee keeper's hives:

Soon after, the trail marks get jumbled up and we get complely lost 3 times within about 30 minutes. No problem though, we're heading the right direction -- towards and up Löwendorfer Berg, at 104 meters the highest we've been since Kleiner Ravensberg. It sports an excellent viewing tower:

Down into Löwendorf and quickly over to the town of Trebbin, established 1213 A.D.  We passed by the office of the architect who designed the tower:

But it's closed, as is almost everything else in town. Hoping for some commerce, we head to the train station, but it's an abandoned semi-ruin. Trains still come, but the building is locked tight and the only commerce is a ticket machine and a cigarette machine. 

According to the old sign on the station wall, we've only made it 34.3 kilometers from Berlin in five days, though it's been over 70 kilometers by foot. Funny to think we could have taken a train and been here in hours. Of course that's not the point; we could have just taken a train straight to Prague... and we may well still have to at the end, if we keep up this rate!

Before leaving town, we do find a butcher shop open serving lunch, and a discount store where we accidentally buy denture adhesive instead of toothpaste. 

We follow along the railroad tracks and into the woods, and out through the village of Klein Schulzendorf. Here a crazy (?) old lady tells us that we need to walk south to Prague, not east, and that we should probably just get a car. Maybe she's not all that wrong... but we follow the trail east, across the autobahn and along some farmland. Deb picks some stray greens, neglected in the last harvest. Are they mustard greens?

We're getting quite weary as we pass through the village of Lüdersdorf, but there's no place to have a rest! A notice posted in the town center agrees:

Our village needs benches, for resting, chatting, or just for pleasure. If you find a sturdy bench at a flea market or antique store, buy it and save the receipt. You will be reimbursed. Of course you are also welcome to buy it yourself as a gift to the village. It's ok if all the benches are different; that has a charm of its own.

I agree. Maybe our next visit to Lüdersdorf will include some good bench sitting. For now we pass on, but a friendly old man insists we take some apples... Just a couple! Just a few more! Lots of apples.

South of the village, back in the woods, we enjoy some bench time (plenty of benches along this trail really, just none in Lüdersdorf) and then before long arrive at a good spot for camping. Actually we went a little too far, too close to the next town, and now we can hear the road a little. Sorry, Deb!

Here's Deb with the day's spoils:

The greens cheer up our dinner sandwiches, and the apples will be dessert and breakfast.