Friday

Friday Friday after a good breakfast, we headed for a wisant reserve in Federow. A wisant looks like a skinny buffalo and is, in fact, a cousin of the American bison. We wanted to watch the animals at feeding time. We were a little early so we walked down to the lake for a nice view and a fight with a gazillion mosquitos. Man, those little buggers were nasty. I really didn’t get bit too much, but some of the people had really big welts on their legs by the time the trip was over. We came back to the platform and watched the animals get fed and listened to the keeper tell a little about them. They are being bred there and sent all over Europe. We then headed out for Malchow, which is a picturesque little town, part of which is on an island. To get onto the island there is, of course, a bridge. This bridge doesn’t raise and lower for ships, it rotates on a spindle. We a stop on the near side of the bridge to grab a fish sandwich for lunch but were told to be on the other side of the bridge before 2, otherwise it might be half an hour before we could get going again. We all made it, and I have to say, the entire group was always punctual for everything. We all got along just fine and were all considerate of one another. I think most impressive for me about the group was that, there was one younger man along, who obviously mentally handicapped. But he was able to fully function in a group situation and the entire group treated as an equal and never once talked down to him. Its experiences Ike that they allow one to keep believing in the goodness of humanity, in spite of what happens in politics. Along the way, the landscape was stunning. There were gigantic fields of ripe, yellow wheat edged with cornflowers and poppies. And maybe we were lucky because the school vacations haven’t started yet, but there weren’t an awful lot of people under way with bikes. It was after Malchow that the first people started complaining that the e-bikers were setting a pace that was too fast. I was in the back with some other women who didn’t ride e-bikes and we were holding our own. But we weren’t planning on riding the Tour de France, but we were riding a comfortable pace. Nobody was mad, but the older woman mentioned it and just made a point of saying that, if we didn’t keep up, please wait for us at the next turn. Everyone was good with that. What we also noticed was that the paths were hilly and sometimes so sandy that I had to push my bike. It was like trying to ride on the beach. We stopped a a place called Kline for coffee. It was actually pretty warm that day so we were glad for the break. The last ride into Waren was sandy and steep, so we were glad when we got in, even if it was a little late. We just had time to lock up the bikes and shower before we walked back to the harbor for dinner at a different restaurant. This wasn’t such a pleasant experience. First of all, soccer was on TV. Every restaurant had TVs out on the sidewalk so that even the customers sitting outside could watch. And the waiter was a smarmy jerk who kept making “funny”jokes but took forever to wait on us. I was glad when we finally got out of there because we were sitting outside and we were cold. Two women decided that they were not going to ride along the next day. It was supposed to be about 60 km and they were exhausted from the ride we had done to Malchow. It turned out to be a good choice for them.