E11: Rädigke – Bad Belzig

Wednesday, July 25: Very hot and sunny, not much wind, a few clouds

Hiking: 30.4 km

Hotel zum Alten Brauhof, Straße der Einheit 16, Bad Belzig, double as single (€45)

The night was somewhat cooler, but that meant having to keep the windows open, and I could hear one or two mozzies looking for dinner. The sun was already quite hot, and although Bernd’s invitation for breakfast in the garden was hard to resist, I had to get the umbrella in the right position so that I wasn’t already being fried at 8:00.

I had all my stuff together, except for the small change I had put somewhere inexplicable – it turned up on one of the wardrobes – warning to self: Put all objects on low lying tables where they are visible! Then I was off down the track some distance from the road and alongside Raben with various amounts of shade.

At one point I was drawn to a hut with a map on it and was surprised by a voice saying, “Guten Morgen” from the inhabitant of such, who looked like he was on a similar sort of mission, only with a backpack on a trolley, and was sleeping rough. Also met a bloke on a bike who pretended to be impressed with my pace. Once I lost track of the signs (!) and had to double back to find them again – there was a tricky turnoff that went in a counter-intuitive direction. Then it was on the cycle track south to Grubo where my friend of sleeping rough turned up again, this time with questions about supermarkets in Bad Belzig that I couldn’t answer.

Through Grubo the track returned to the forest again. There was one tricky part where the track had been removed (and the forest with it) which involved crossing a bare patch and trying to find the track on the other side which I eventually did. Then a sheltered bench turned up just at the right time for lunch. Bernd had given me a roll with liver sausage for lunch, with two of his abundant apples and tomatoes. The one bottle of softdrink he had given me had already been consumed, and I was now starting on water @ 500 mL per hour.

The very dry state of the forest led me to think about the chance of it catching fire (or, more likely, some idiot holding a lighter to it). After about an hour in the forest the first clearings turned up, with a couple of villages and I was fairly soon at the gates of Bad Belzig.

I thought I might save some time by taking the “north route” signed every now and then, as it appeared to be just 300 m longer, but after the first exit, the track appeared to want to snake around the whole city and I was looking for calling it a day. Took the second exit, and was at the Tourist Information just before 4:00. It was closed, however, as was the hotel, but located first of all an ice-cream shop for green apple/cherry amaretto, then a supermarket for tomorrow’s softdrinks. By the time that had been done, the hotel was open, so I announced myself and got my room.

Interactive Map

Now it was time for major laundry – sox, undies, and shirt, which soaked as I took a shower. After that I reviewed today’s track, and tried to work out how to get from Golzow to my next host’s place in Schlachtensee. Seems like every half-hour is OK, and the trip takes just on an hour and a half. I will leave the ticketing for tomorrow.

Dinner was a small salad (OK) and a medium pizza mista (together €10) from Cascada, Straße der Einheit 1. Have eaten better. Say no more.

Had to complain to the gent next door (the only other guest in the hotel) about shouting into his phone after 10:00. Really.