Zarrentin sits at the southern end of the Schaalsee, and the town's whole personality is turned toward the water. A path runs along the shore past a small beach, a boat landing and a row of cafés, and on a warm day it is as close to a seaside promenade as you can get in the middle of the country. Reeds fringe the edge of the lake, ducks and swans patrol the shallows, and the water is clear and cold, a reminder of how deep this lake is.
Zarrentin has a long past that is easy to miss. In the thirteenth century Cistercian monks founded a monastery here, and its ruins and some of its buildings still stand beside the church, with a gentle, grassy character. The brick church, with its high roof, can be seen from some distance across the water. After the Reformation the monastery was turned into a ducal residence, and later the area fell under Mecklenburg, which is why the place has a different feel from the Schleswig-Holstein towns just across the former border.
That border is the dominant fact of the recent past. Until 1989 the lake was split between East and West, and Zarrentin was on the eastern side, so people here could not freely travel to the western shore a few hundred metres away. Today you can wander freely along the lake, and information boards tell the story of the divided shore. It is a quiet, moving thing, set against the cheerful sound of children splashing in the water.
For a swim, the lake beach in town is the straightforward option, though in cooler months it is for looking at rather than entering. The roads to Zarrentin are good, and the approach from the west runs through rolling country with the lake glinting between trees. The town is small, around three thousand people, so there is food and a shop or two but not much more, and the nearest place with proper fuel and supermarkets is Wittenburg, about twelve kilometres away. Gudow, in the opposite direction, is a smaller village. A drink on a terrace by the water in the late afternoon is the best use of an hour you could think of.