Asparagus is a serious business in Beelitz. Every spring, from April to late June, the sandy fields around this small Brandenburg town southwest of Potsdam produce white asparagus, Spargel, which Germans adore, and roadside stalls, farms and restaurants all over the area sell it fresh, served with butter, hollandaise sauce, potatoes and ham. The season ends traditionally on 24 June, St John's Day, and people come from Berlin just for the asparagus.
Beelitz is also known for the Beelitz-Heilstätten, a huge sanatorium complex built in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries for tuberculosis patients from Berlin. In the First World War it served as a military hospital, and a young Adolf Hitler was treated there after being wounded in 1916. Later it was a Soviet military hospital, where the East German leader Erich Honecker was briefly treated in 1990. Many buildings were abandoned after the Soviets left, and their ghostly ruins became popular with photographers. Today a treetop walkway lets you look down on the overgrown rooftops.
For a swim, the lakes around here are the answer. The Seddiner See, near Michendorf, and the larger Schwielowsee near Caputh and Ferch, both have bathing areas and clear water, and on a hot day they are full of Berliners. The water is clean and warm by midsummer, and there are cafes and beer gardens along the shores.
The riding is gentle and green, with flat or slightly rolling roads through pine forests, fields and villages. The roads are generally good, though some village streets are cobbled, and you will meet cyclists, tractors and the occasional deer. The A9 and A10 motorways run nearby, but the backroads are more pleasant. The landscape is quiet, with big skies and the smell of pine resin in summer.
Beelitz has fuel, shops and places to eat, and in season, of course, asparagus everywhere. From here, the way back to Berlin runs through Potsdam, with its palaces and parks, including Sanssouci, the summer palace of Frederick the Great, which is worth a stop if you have time, before the final stretch into the city.