Chorin Abbey rises out of the trees like a red brick cathedral that someone forgot to finish. Cistercian monks founded it in the thirteenth century as part of the German settlement of Brandenburg, and its towering west front is one of the finest examples of north German brick Gothic. After the Reformation it fell into ruin, and the Prussian architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel was among those who campaigned to save it in the nineteenth century. Today it hosts a well-known summer concert season and has a gentle, almost romantic air.
The surroundings are part of the Schorfheide-Chorin biosphere reserve, one of the largest protected areas in Germany. The landscape here was formed by the last glaciation: moraine hills, kettle lakes, beech forests and peat bogs. It is unusually hilly by Brandenburg standards, so the roads actually rise and fall, curving between lakes and through cathedral-like stands of beech. Cranes, sea eagles and beavers live here, and in autumn the sound of migrating geese fills the sky.
The riding is relaxed rather than demanding. Many minor roads are avenues lined with old trees, beautiful but unforgiving if you run wide, and some village streets are still paved with cobbles that get slick in rain. Agricultural traffic and cyclists share the roads. A few kilometres east, at Niederfinow, the ship lifts raise barges up the edge of the Oder valley; the old 1930s steel structure and the new lift beside it are an engineering spectacle worth a short detour.
Chorin itself is a small village, so for fuel head into Eberswalde, the nearest proper town, which also has supermarkets and bakeries. Near the abbey there are cafés catering to visitors, especially on weekends and concert days. Park, walk under the brick arches, and enjoy one of the quietest corners within an hour of Berlin.