Swimming in the lake

Friday 6^th July

Yesterday was lovely day. I spent a few hours in Kradow before driving to the side of a lake where there were few people. The lake is bordered by woodland and in various places there is access to the crystal water. Along a dusty track I passed by small numbers of people enjoying the tranquillity and sunshine. To my surprise there were a few who were bearing all to the sun but then I shouldn’t be surprised because this is Germany. I found a spot, put on my shorts and entered the water; there were a couple nearby and my modesty forbade me from going with shorts. It was easy to enter the water because it was not that cold, unlike the sea where you have enter slowly and allow your body time to adjust to the coldness. When the couple left I took off my shorts and wallowed in the pleasure of being naked in the water. I was cautious of swimming too far out however, the experience of nearly drowning in the river by my home in Zunyi had altered my attitude to the water, so now I had to make sure I always could feel a surface under my feet, especially with no one around.

After my swim I went back to the van and had my supper under the shade of the woodland; two boiled eggs and bread.

I had finally heard from a couchsurfer, Franziska, in Dresden and so I would be heading off in the morning and so my plan was to return to the lake and swim in the morning before driving off. I didn’t expect however, that the weather would change and be cloudy and cool. So now I sit in the van and write, swimming on a cool cloudy day doesn’t have the same appeal.

Schwerin

A bear blowing bubbles

Schwerin castle gardens

No oil painting

Where's my little van?

I wrote a message to Frederick yesterday, he was a guy I couchsurfed with in Schwerin, my previous stopover. He is such a nice guy, easy to talk to and very open and honest. Schwerin is between Rostock and Potsdam, and was recommended to me by Angelika, another CS host. It was a very good recommendation. Schwerin is a small city and such a delight; everywhere you turn there is beautiful architecture, colour and quietness. The centre is void of traffic and even walking around the side streets; all is peaceful and every now and there would be the site and sweet fragrance of roses to greet you. What I love about these towns and cities of Europe, which you hardly get in the UK, is the colour, Nearly all the buildings are brightly but not garishly painted and have individuality. These multicoloured streets are a delight to me, having lived in China for so long, where the only colour you see is red – red slogans. That’s an exaggeration of course but the Chinese have no idea about creativity with colour. They are building so many high rise apartments but for the most part they slap on one single colour and that’s it; one collection of apartments was painted battleship grey – the designer must have had a hangover when he thought that up. 

Oh, I just remember, there was one over stopover from Rostock to Potsdam and that was in a small lakeside town where I stayed one night at a motor home parking site; my humble grey Citroen van amongst all these large cream coloured motor homes. It’s on occasions like this when I really feel like an oddity. No one is travelling alone and all have respectable expensive motor homes with all their mod cons aboard. At least I was able to take a shower but when it came to washing a few dishes in the sink in the toilet/shower block, I was reprimanded by an elderly German man – “Vorboten!” This is something you come to discover about life in Germany, it is highly regulated and people adopt rigid ways of doing things. Like the German couple I stayed with Denmark, who said that bread was not allowed for breakfast because “if one person wants something different, everyone would want something different” – everyone being them, me and their friend – their two young children didn’t have a say in the matter but if they didn’t eat what was given them at one meal, would be get for the next. What we ate every morning except Sunday was oats, soya milk and a little dried fruit, no bread and definitely no eggs.

This town, on the edge of the lake, had become a marina for Germans who have the good fortune to have motor or sailing boats, and that’s the view you get from the restaurants which line the shore side, someone else’s wealth. It’s a bit like having a view of a car park full of Lamborghinis and Ferraris. Of course these vessels are quite attractive but do they have to take centre stage? Why can’t they be parked around the corner, so that the visitors can get a view of the lake with the occasional boat sailing by, not an aquatic park for someone else’s luxury?