Fläming Skate Villages and Forest · short arc

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Fuel stop near Storkow

   Storkow's castle, rebuilt after years of decay, stands by a canal that links the Storkower See with the waterways towards Berlin and the Scharmützelsee. The town is small and quiet, with a church, a market square and a lock where boats wait to pass. It is a gateway to the Dahme-Heideseen nature park, a region of lakes, forests and heathland south-east of Berlin.

   Read the complete Fuel stop near Storkow write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Fläming Skate Villages and Forest is where the day begins. Next is High point near Dahme.

2. 2. High point near Dahme

   Dahme/Mark sits at the eastern end of the Fläming, where the low hills meet the lowlands of Lusatia, and its castle ruins and old town walls hint at a more important past. The town is small and quiet, with a church, a market square and a park around the ruins of the castle, which burned in the early twentieth century. The surrounding landscape is a mix of forests, fields and small villages, with gentle hills that offer views over the plain.

   Read the complete High point near Dahme write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   You top out here; the road stops climbing. Next is Scenic stretch near Brück.

3. 3. Scenic stretch near Brück

   The wet meadows west of Brück are one of the last places in Germany where the great bustard still lives. These heavy, turkey-sized birds, among the heaviest flying birds in the world, strut across the fields of the Belziger Landschaftswiesen, and conservationists have worked for decades to protect them, with observation towers where visitors can watch them display in spring. Even if you do not see one, the meadows, with their big skies and wide horizons, are worth a pause.

   Read the complete Scenic stretch near Brück write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 145 km into the recorded legs you reach Scenic stretch near Brück. Next is Photo stop near Rhinow.

4. 4. Photo stop near Rhinow

   Human flight has a claim to begin in the hills above Rhinow. On the Gollenberg near Stölln, Otto Lilienthal made many of his glider flights in the 1890s, launching himself from the slope in his bat-winged contraptions, and it was here in 1896 that he crashed and died of his injuries. The hill is now a memorial and a popular site for paragliders, and in a nice twist, in 1989 a large Interflug Ilyushin airliner was landed on the grass airfield at its foot, where it now stands as a museum and wedding venue.

   Read the complete Photo stop near Rhinow write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Photo stop near Rhinow, about halfway. Next is Food stop near Gramzow.

5. 5. Food stop near Gramzow

   A ruined gable of red brick is all that remains of the church of the Premonstratensian monastery at Gramzow, founded in the twelfth century and one of the oldest in the Uckermark. It stands alone on a rise, framed by trees and sky, a striking reminder of the medieval colonisation of this land. The village around it is small and quiet, and it also houses a museum devoted to the small private railways that once crisscrossed the region.

   Read the complete Food stop near Gramzow write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Food at 338 km, roughly 6 hours into the riding. Next is Berlin motorcycle escapes.

6. 6. Berlin motorcycle escapes

   This is the Lower Oder Valley National Park, the only floodplain national park in Germany, and one of the wildest corners of the country. In spring the river floods the meadows, turning them into a shallow, glittering lake, and the dykes become islands. Birds arrive in huge numbers: cranes, geese, white-tailed eagles, black storks and corncrakes, whose rasping call is heard on summer nights, and beavers have returned to the channels.

   Read the complete Berlin motorcycle escapes write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   The route ends here after 484 km.