The family-run Dorotheenhof lies in the quiet, attractive village of Mescherin, in the most northeastern corner of Germany, where the Polish border northbound moves away from the Oder river. It is near the road to Gryfino (German: Greifenhagen).
The Dorotheenhof has a restaurant, a large garden adjoining the river and offers apartments and spacious rooms. Hint: Try to pick a room with views over the Oder, if possible in the southern part of the building, away from the bridge over the river and Kutscherkneipe gastro-pub.
The breakfast b
Breakfast buffet at Dorotheenhof in Mescherin.
uffet was well stocked, in a light-filled room with access to the gardens. Our room was spacious, clean and had a good sized, bright bathroom. All the windows were fitted with fly screens. In the corridor above, there was a large refrigerator for guests, from which one could take drinks (to be paid at check-out).
The pension gardens and two landings on the Oder are quiet locations, inviting to linger, the landings have ladders if for those who want to dip into the Oder. Some guests were fishing here in river.
View from the first floor room to the Order river.
The village of Mescherin
The influx of Polish Families makes Mescherin a pretty and lively village. The Mescheriner mountain offers beautiful views over the village and the Oder valley up to Gryfino and beyond. There is now also an observation tower just north of the L113 main road, to see the nature reserve and the reeds. For dinner, we felt very comfortable in the “Altes Zollhaus”.
Pension Buntspecht is on the Radfernweg “Tour Brandenburg” at the Schorfheide, in walking distance from the train station Chorin and close to the famous Cistercian monastery. Located in the historic village of Chorin, where family Weise inhabit a traditional house with on a long, stretched plot that once used to border onto the former Choriner lake. Behind their traditional red-brick house the Weises have built a very pleasant, modern bed and breakfast. From the community and breakfast room with double height ceiling one enjoys the view
through large glass windows into the beautiful, natural gardens. In the garden you will find sun lounger, chairs and a hammock to relax. Chorin, only half an hour from Berlin by train, is a place of stress relief. Not only life moves slower here, but the Internet, too. Visitors can leave their big city and television behind.
Hammock in the gardens of Pension Buntspecht bed & breakfast in Chorin
Pension Buntspecht was built with lots of wood and wooden furniture to modern, high standards and it is pleasantly decorated with great attention to detail. Our bedroom was well tailored and practical, with a modern bathroom. The beds had comfortable, firm mattresses. One window had a mosquito net, and we had no problems with insects.
The rooms and common areas were all perfectly clean.
Breakfast
Kerstin Weise pots a lot of effort into a personally prepared, rich and varied breakfast. Many ingredients are organic and locally. We enjoyed it very much. Frau Weise also helped us with boiling water to make tea in our thermo.
Breakfast room at Pension Buntspecht in Chorin
Walkers and cyclists will welcome the fridge in the common area, stuffed with with soft drinks and beers; guests just mark the drinks they take on on a list.
Attractions
The former Cistercian abbey in Chorin is a major visitors attraction. But Eberswalde and its Paul Wunderlich House, the Demeter Ökodorf Brodowin, the Schorfheide, the shallow, warm Lake Grimnitz and elongated, deep Lake Werbellin are worthwhile destinations, too.
Pension Buntspecht is a new, cyclists friendly B&B. During our visit they were building a new covered bicycle shelter, which already offered our bikes protection.
Service
Kerstin Weise is very friendly and helpful in a modest and reserved kind of way. She is also very interested in the region and its history. Ask and she will help you plan your excursions.
New, small inns in remote, quiet places live on recommendations. We felt at home at Pension Buntspecht and enjoyed our two days stay and hope that you will enjoy yours. We definitely recommend the B&B to visitors seeking peace and tranquility.
The retired Master Electrician Neidigk created in the buildings of his former business, located in Großkühnau, on the bike path left of the river Elbe, near Dessau, a ADFC (German cycle Club) Bed and breakfast (catering for about 2000 overnight stays per year). At first glance it does not look like anything special, but after two nights I can confirm that Pension Neidigk is a very good choice, because the welcoming and enterprising Mr. Neidigk, who always strives for his guests, has rooms, ours was actually a small apartment, thought out well:
Mini kitchen with a kettle, two hot plates, sink and a refrigerator, containing beer and water at a price which must be very close to his cost.
Double bed, about 1.80 metre wide.
Large wardrobe.
TV etc.
Plenty of electric sockets, so that the modern bicycle travelers can charge their electronics entrained again.
Ideal location, just 300 metres from a beautiful lake.
Lockable shed for bicycles.
Large garden, where we enjoyed our breakfast in the morning sun.
Swing chair, where we enjoyed our tea on a rainy late afternoon.
A spacious double room with shower and mini-kitchen cost € 50 including breakfast.
One can not recommend Pension Neidigh enough. We will be back!
The Külsoer Mill is a place with a special atmosphere. A cozy courtyard, with large vines, a beer garden set in the meadows by the mill pond, a nature experience playground, picnic areas, quaint bars, party rooms and more, make this restaurant and garni a popular destination.
We had a spacious double room with a modern bathroom, plus two beds for children in an area with restricted height due to the sloping ceiling in the area behind the bathroom.
During our stay on a Sunday night, there were no events at the mill. After the delicious dinner in the beer garden, we went to bed early, enjoying the silence of the night in the countryside, 12 km north of the center of Wittenberg.
The clean room had to make even longer stays pleasant: from a TV screen windows with flyscreens, to a shoe closet, as long as the guest cope with the abundance of decorative objects.
The traditional German breakfast with bread rolls, brown bread, jam, cold meats, coffee etc was served in the quaint old tavern (with lots of dark wood furnishings and an old tile stove).
In this family-run hotel and restaurant you can feel the dedication and hard work of three generations. We paid for one night, including breakfast, a very fair 28 € per person in a large double room with en-suite.
The family has received us warmly and served attentive and was always helpful. They have created a very special little hotel and Garni, one can not recommend it highly enough.
Friends booked us for a group weekend into Schloss Wahlsdorf, ideally located at the crossroads of the Flaeming-Skate and various cycling routes which reach out to the Elster river, the Elbe, the Mark, the Spreewald and the Flaeming. The Ewald family, who stand behind the company operating “Castle” Wahlsdorf, requested pre-payment for the total price for 3 nights and breakfast. That was good for the Ewalds, because otherwise we would have moved to
Dorfladen Wahlsdorf mit Café und Frühstück
any other accommodation near the Flaeming-Skate right after arriving.
After reading the very restrictive house rules the suspicion grew that we had sunk about € 70 per night for a double room in a not very hospitable hostel.
Reception
We arrived at the “Castle” Schloss Wahlsdorf on a Thursday at 18:00 hrs, after a long train and bike ride and found it closed. Under the mobile phone number displayed on the entrance door, we could only reach a voicemail. An off duty employee , pedalling past the “castle” by chance, approached us and managed to get hold of a colleague with keys to the so called castle. When this on-duty employee arrived, she let us into the manor through the side entrance, where we could, for the first night, safely park our bikes in an old school gym. The following two nights, the gym was unfortunately closed and the staff absent, so that our bikes stayed as obstacles on the side gate (I never saw the main entrance door open).
The €58 for the night (without breakfast) in the so-called double rooms do NOT include towels or bed linen. As cyclists we only had towels with us and paid an additional €5 per head for bed linen. The overburdened employee first gave us small bed sheets, which she then changed for the right size.
We were first shown a room the the Ewalds declare and sell as a double room, but which fell well below the 12 square metres norm for a double room: By this time our expectations had already dropped, but this still took us by surprise and we asked cautiously for more space. Thereafter there was a larger room, with a 1.40 m narrow, queen size bed, two shelves, eight hooks and two windows, a couch, a chair, a table and a single, lonely hanger. Unfortunately, one of the two windows went to the county road, where cars and trucks thundered past during the night. The blinds worked only on one window and screens did not exist, so that we had mosquitoes feasting on us for the three nights .
WARNING:
The basic rate of 58 € (per night, without breakfast) for the so-called double room does not include a private bathroom, no wardrobe, no bedding and no towels, but a lot of youth hostel “charm” of bygone days. The communal showers and toilets were located on the other end of the manor, recently refurbished and clean in the early mornings, but the rest of the day and night they smelled like communal toilets smell…
Breakfast
The breakfast buffet for 5,50 € (per person per day) offers coffee and tea, cereals, yoghurt, milk, bread rolls, brown bread, some meat, margarine and butter substitute, jam and Nutella, one hard boiled egg for each a and canned fruit; it is basically the breakfast you would get in a German youth hostel, though I have certainly had better breakfast in some youth hostels. Alternatively, there is a shared kitchen for self-catering, which reminded me of halls of residence. The communal kitchen was used by three families and was also let to builder squads accommodated in the hostel.
“Castle” Schloss Wahlsdorf lacks all attention to detail. The landlord also run a beautifully situated family hostel in a forest nearby. In addition, the outdoor swimming pool a few hundred yards away, which has been touted by the staff, is also run by the Ewalds. Unfortunately the staff of castle “Schloss Wahlsdorf” have to staff the outdoor pool, too, which means that often there simply is no service at the so called “Castle”.
The restrictive house rules from the so-called “castle” Schloss Wahlsdorf can only be as effective as the people who enforce them, who are sadly lacking. According to house rules a curfew applies from 22 clock, except that on Friday night a large group was celebrating with loud music until Saturday morning, disturbing our sleep.
CONCLUSION
Despite the grandiose name ‘castle Wahlsdorf’ is no more than a cheap hostel with the worst price performance, which I have ever experienced in Germany. After three more nights in the surrounding area, I can confirm that there are much better options for less money. Therefore, I strongly urge those interested in the Flaeming Skate, to book elsewhere.
The former Hanse city of Werben is Germany’s smallest city, with just 800 people living within the city limits by the river Elbe.
Arriving after 21:00 hrs on a a 111km bike ride from Berlin to this historic, half timbered house on Werben’s market square, the friendly owner Gunter Zwinzscher opened the door and first helped my bike, luggage and me into the
gated and covered bike parking, where there were a few bikes parked as well as displays about local attractions plus some locally produced art.
View from the kitchen
Gunter showed me the breakfast room, ‘communal kitchen’, where he offered me a welcome drink (I took a beer for rehydration) and my double bed room with table and modern bathroom. The room’s two old, single glass windows lead straight onto the cobble stone laid market square, but fears of traffic noise were unfounded. There is no traffic in Werben,
Germany’s smallest city of 800 souls. The B&B Roter Adler and the old Hanse city of Werben offer a surprising mix of history, nature and calm. I very much recommend this place.
The room, bathroom, welcome drink and generous breakfast cost €30 (for one person, please pay in cash). I even could fill my thermo with tea for the next 170km stage of my bike ride.
