Few places make a better last stop than the quiet lanes beside Potsdam's South-Western Cemetery. Stahnsdorf, a town of about thirteen thousand people, is known for its great wooded cemetery, laid out in 1909 as a burial ground for Berliners, with winding paths, tall trees and elaborate Art Nouveau monuments.
Many famous people lie there. The film director F. W. Murnau, who made Nosferatu, is buried at the cemetery, as are the artist Heinrich Zille, known for his sketches of working-class Berlin, and the painter Lovis Corinth. The place has the feel of a park more than a graveyard, with rhododendrons, mossy stones and birdsong, and an evening visit when the sun comes low through the pines is deeply peaceful. Entry is free, and visitors should walk quietly.
The label points to the Uckermark, a region of rolling hills and lakes to the north-east, about a hundred kilometres away, where the ride began, so the day ends with a long return to the south-west. The roads here are quiet and tree-lined, with smooth bends through woods and past small lakes. Cobbled sections still appear in old streets, and cyclists are very common on the paths along the Teltow Canal. In autumn the forest glows with yellow and rust.
Nearby, Potsdam is only a few kilometres away, with its palaces and parks, and Wannsee, with its big lake and beaches. Fuel, food and rooms are easy to find, and Stahnsdorf has bakeries and a few simple restaurants. A bowl of soup in a village inn after a day on the road, with the smell of woodsmoke outside, is a good end. Be careful of deer on the roads at night.