Schwerin Castle looks like a fairy tale that got out of hand. Golden domes, turrets, bay windows and gilded ornaments crowd a small island in the middle of Lake Schwerin, joined to the town by a bridge, and at dusk the whole thing is reflected in the water in a way that makes people stop their cars. The building seen today is largely a nineteenth-century neo-Renaissance reconstruction, made for the grand dukes of Mecklenburg-Schwerin on the site of a medieval fortress, and it now houses the state parliament of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern as well as a museum. The castle and its gardens are part of a World Heritage ensemble inscribed in 2020.
The castle even has a resident ghost, the Petermännchen, a small friendly spirit said to haunt the cellars and guard the castle's treasures. His likeness appears on souvenirs around town. A short walk from the water, the old town has brick Gothic churches, the cathedral with its tall tower, and the Schelfstadt district, a quiet quarter of baroque half-timbered houses laid out in the eighteenth century. In summer the lakeshore fills with strollers, sailors and ice cream sellers, and boat trips cross the water to small islands.
Riding out from Schwerin is easy and relaxed. The city is the capital of a region of glacial lakes, rolling farmland and long avenues of old lime and chestnut trees, which make a green tunnel overhead on warm afternoons. The roads are quiet and mostly flat, with few severe curves, but with plenty of pleasant gentle bends round the lakes, past manor houses and brick churches with squat towers. The area is dotted with Herrenhäuser, manor houses built by the landed gentry, many now hotels or museums, and with fields that glow yellow with rapeseed in late spring. Wismar, the old Hanseatic port on the Baltic, is about thirty kilometres north and makes an easy and rewarding target.
Schwerin is a city of nearly a hundred thousand, so fuel, parking and meals are no trouble, and the cafes around the old market square are good for a rest. Be careful on the avenues, where tree roots can lift the tarmac and deer cross at dusk. Look out for smoked fish, regional specialities such as Mecklenburg duck with red cabbage, and in summer the cold fruit soups. In autumn and spring, mist rising off the lakes is beautiful but can be slippery, so ride gently until the sun has dried the road.