Tuesday, July 24: Hot and sunny throughout, a couple of clouds in the late afternoon
Hiking: 32.4 km
Bernd’s, Rädigke, single room upstairs with shared con (€27.3, airbnb)
Had to be up half an hour earlier to get everything done on time for the early train. Breakfast was dealt with, then it was off to the supermarket for two bread rolls and two bottles of orangeade, then back to René’s to make the lunch, clear up the room, pack everything away, and I was well in time to take leave of René, and head off for the station.
Guy at the one ticketing machine seemed to be asking for extra service, so I had the time to go to the cash desk and buy a real ticket. On the platform the end half of the train didn’t seem to be taking passengers, so I moved up forward and got a seat with a view in order to get a good sat fix for the GPS. Only fly in the ointment was that the ipod was not giving out any sound, will have to look into this in detail. Otherwise it’s bye-bye Apple.
The journey was soon over and I walked back along the road to the track start. This is where the major error occurred: I took up the Luther Path (even though it was not carrying the E11 signs any more) and ended up heading towards Wittenberg, which I really noticed only after about 2.5 km. I should have looked very closely at the start before beginning, but a sign giving 4.0 km to Möllensdorf was too tempting. Anyway I had to traipse back over the hot fields, and try to make my way north. This sort of worked, but involved some dedicated bushbashing and after 2½ hours I finally found a sign to Möllensdorf (only 0.9 km), but this had taken seriously much more time than necessary.
To find a way forward, I elected for the road from Möllensdorf to Pülzig (no signs for the E11 were visible at all, though) and on arriving there saw that I would have to try walking from my notes, as there was no further advantage to be gained from walking along the road. Pretty much on the dot of the 400 m I had estimated to where the track leaves the road, there was in fact a track with a white-blue-white marking which led directly to Senst, where I stopped at a bbq/playground for lunch.
Slide Show
Click on the image to stop/start the animation
Continuing through Senst and along the street towards Groß Marzehn, the appearance of a field followed by a forest made sense in my notes, but not a single sign for a while, until the border with Brandenburg was reached. Then all the signs in the world turned up. Firstly, the white-blue-white signs appeared regularly from now on, as did proper signposts with realistic distances on them. What a change! For the first time in about 100 km there was a sense of confidence in the track. I could now see that I would arrive at Burg Rabenstein at around 4:00. However, this track does deviate from the track that I have a copy of, most notably between Groß and Klein Marzehn, where the real track follows a forest path, rather than the road, and there is even a new section just before Klein Marzehn, which still has to be paved.
Along the way to Rabenstein, the Million Bridge is a very imposing, gigantic Roman arch made of bricks to carry the motorway. A short time later the castle was reached, where it was time for a shandy, before the last kms into Raben. I was set on walking the whole way, but Bernd had told his acquaintance he was supposed to be meeting for coffee that he was expecting me, and after just on a km of road walking, a car pulled up and asked me whether I was staying with Bernd, and she took me all the way to his house. I had done enough walking anyway.
Interactive Map
Bernd is a very pleasant older gentlemen with motor center damage from a stroke affecting the left arm. He was tending to his expansive garden when I arrived and I surprised him a little. He is very much involved with bringing some culture to this very small village (150 inhabitants) and related his encounter with Paul Oestreicher to me. Now, Oestreicher and I have at least one common acquaintance (Lenore Ryan), apart from his connection with Dunedin and Karl Popper who was also in his cohort of Jewish refugees taken up by New Zealand. What intrigues me is that I had never heard of him before.
Anyway, a short shower had to be taken, some sox washed, and then the question of dinner arose. The only pub in the village (which doubles as its library) was open, and Bernd was a guest of honor, so the choice had already been made for us. I had a pork steak with onions, chips and salad with a wheat beer for €15 (Gasthof Moritz), and the spacious courtyard was a tranquil end to the day, with a couple of families turning up from the local camping site. Bernd took me for a brief guided tour of the place, showing me how to avoid the road to get back onto the E11 tomorrow morning.
In the meantime Bad Belzig had organised an hotel for €45, which is the best of a tight situation, and I will have to see tonight about booking something for further along the track. But at least the track is there for once.
