Glassblowers once worked in the forest just outside Baruth. In the eighteenth century, the counts of Solms-Baruth founded a glassworks here, using the local sand and the wood of the surrounding forests, and a village grew up around it. Glashütte, as it is still called, is now a museum village, with workshops where you can watch glass being blown, old workers' houses, a café and craft shops, a charming stop deep among pine trees.
Baruth itself is a small town with a castle and a park, set in a broad valley that runs east to west across southern Brandenburg. This is the Baruther Urstromtal, an ancient glacial valley carved by meltwater from the ice sheets, and it is lined to the south by the gentle hills of the Fläming. From the higher ground, the views stretch over the forests and fields, a rare vantage point in this flat land. The forests are mostly pine, with heaths and dunes in places, and they are sheltering deer, wild pigs and wolves, which have returned to Brandenburg in recent decades.
The roads are flat or gently rolling, ruler-straight through the trees, kinking only at village corners. Traffic is light, apart from the B96, which runs north and south through the town. Blown sand, crossing game and the odd cobbled village street are the only real hazards. On hot summer days, the smell of pine resin fills the air.
Baruth has fuel, a few shops and restaurants, and the museum village has a café serving cakes. Luckenwalde, the nearest larger town, has more services. A visit to the glassworks, followed by a coffee, makes a pleasant break before the long, flat run east towards the Oderbruch.