Day 2: Awesomeness

I started the morning by visiting a bike shop next to my hotel, in Oranienburg. I was looking for a rack for the bike and some bags for it, so that i could get all the heaviest things from my backpack to put there. I found one, and after 10 seconds of bargaining I was like, "please take my money and give me that thing." However just a few minutes later as we tried to install the thing to my bike, we found out that a tiny little screw hole for attaching this thing was broken. The man from the shop told me, that this makes the installment impossible. So f*** it! At least saved some euros.

As I started my ride soon later, everything turned out allright! My solid 9 hours' sleep had worked magics and I felt refreshed. Back was not paining much anymore. My buttocks were the only part of my body still protesting against the backpack's weight. 

A nice start for the day's ride: 20 kilometers straight on a beautiful riverside.

But the best part: the biking lane soon dived deep into a beautiful forest, where I had tens of kilometers of asphalted road just for myself! Perks of the early season. The landscapes were amazingly beautiful and relaxing, much nicer than yesterday's suburban ones. Sometimes the bike lane followed a river bank for fifteen kilometers straight. Sometimes I was biking in the middle of a forest, hearing only the wind and the sounds of nature waking up from the winter sleep. At some parts, the road went through fields, some of them already deep green with the growing plants.

After a lunch break in the idyllic village of Zehnedick, I continued the ride north, where I was suddenly surrounded by dozens of small lakes, glimmering in the sun. Amazing! (The sight also made me want to fish terribly much.) Anyway, soon I realized that I had gone astray. Consulting the map, I saw that I should be able to follow the (ever smaller and narrower) road deeper into the lake area and find my way eventually back to the bike route. Easier said than done. After 10 kilometers of the wrong route, I had encountered two dead ends and then a big gate stood in front of me (with a few "Verboten" signs, of course). No way in hell would I turn back after coming so far, so I decided to go around the gate through forest. After this, the road turned even worse. It felt almost like mountain biking, only with 15 kilograms on the back! However, this turned out to be the right move and the path led me to an oh-so-smooth big road.

Signpost in the small town of Fürstenberg.

When the sun was finally setting I was tired again, but not quite as much as yesterday. I felt I could still continue, but decided that 95 kilometers of biking was enough for the day. I stayed in a little guesthouse in a tiny village called Wustrow, being definitely their only guest that night. After tasty German dinner in the only restaurant of the village, I went to walk outside in the bright moonlight. A starry sky, such as one can only see far from towns and cities lay above me. The forest around me, on the other hand, was black. It almost felt alive, watching me. Sounds surrounded me everywhere, made by nocturnal animals I couldn't see.

After sunset in the village of Wüstrow.

Returned to my room in a bit strange but very peaceful spirits, ready for a deep sleep.