Three lakes wrap around Fürstenberg/Havel, and the town calls itself a water town with good reason: bridges, boat hire, and the Havel threading between the Röblinsee, the Baalensee and the Schwedtsee. It sits right on the border with Mecklenburg, at the southern edge of the great lake district that runs north towards Neustrelitz and the Müritz, and in summer the waterways are full of houseboats and canoes.
There is a heavier story here too, and it deserves a stop. On the far shore of the Schwedtsee lies the memorial of Ravensbrück, the largest Nazi concentration camp for women, where tens of thousands of prisoners from across Europe were held between 1939 and 1945. The site is sober and well presented, with an exhibition in the former guard buildings. Looking back across the water at the pretty town afterwards is an unsettling experience, and an important one.
The riding around Fürstenberg is easy and green. Roads run through beech and pine forests, past lakes glimpsed between the trunks, with gentle curves and very little elevation. The B96 is the main artery and fills up with holiday traffic on summer weekends; the side roads towards Himmelpfort and Lychen are calmer and lovelier, though some are narrow, tree-lined and cobbled in the villages. Cranes and sea eagles are common sights.
Fürstenberg has fuel, supermarkets and several places to eat, including cafés near the water where smoked fish from the lakes is a local speciality. It is a good lunch halt on a long day north of Berlin. If time allows, Himmelpfort a few kilometres east, with its ruined monastery, is famous in Germany as the Christmas post office where children's letters to Father Christmas are answered.