From Fürstenwalde to Leipzig

Not only did we have trouble with the ventilation and other things that somehow didn't go to plan, but we still managed to enjoy a few lovely days in Fürstenwalde.

We enjoyed the occasional slice of apple cake in various flavours (many thanks also to Frank's mum, who baked plenty of it), we tinkered with the website, made new plans and thought about everything else that was important before we packed up and left Fürstenwalde.

The second Farewell

After what felt like an eternity, both driving licences finally arrived in the post; otherwise we would have had to have them sent on to us somewhere else. We used the time to sort out a few more things in our “rented room” at the Erdmanns' and to stock the “Peasure_Van” with everything we'll need in the near future. Hopefully we haven't forgotten anything 😱. Along with the sense of setting off came a renewed sense of anticipation for all the things we'd still get to experience and enjoy.
We made the most of the lovely weather to mark our second farewell. Frank's parents suggested setting up the fire pit and organising a barbecue evening. It really created a cosy campfire atmosphere.

Full of pride and anticipation, we were also able to show off our now-finished Felía straight away. At last, the interior panelling was in place, all the cupboards fitted, and the cosy lighting created just the right atmosphere. We would have loved to spend the very next night in it.

Fürstenwalde to Magdeburg

And so, after the final frantic packing session in the afternoon - having said goodbye to Frank's parents, all of us with tell-tale tears in our eyes - we climbed into our “Pleasure-Van”, started the engine, waved until we turned the corner, and were then on the motorway.
Andrea was absolutely over the moon as soon as it really dawned on her that it was time once again to:
Embark on a huge adventure, finally set off, be free and drive wherever the road takes us. And to be able to do whatever we like, however we like, look at things when we feel like it, or simply go for a walk in the countryside. And if the weather isn't on our side, we can always sit down at the website again and write a travelogue.
Andrea's emotions were constantly swinging between laughter and tears of joy, and Frank, as the driver, had to keep pulling himself together as he had to watch out for the traffic! Somehow, we both felt like simply shouting our happiness out to the world at the top of our voices, just like in “Ronia the Robber's Daughter”. So, grinning and full of contentment and happiness, with eyes shining, we drove on to our next destination. We may have been trailing leisurely behind the big lorries at 90 km/h, but that didn't matter at all. After all, we've got plenty of time! And the journey is the destination.

Caputh

Just past Potsdam, near Geltow, we found a nice spot to park, though it soon became clear that we must have ended up in a village “in the middle of nowhere”. During a short walk into the village, we realised that all the supermarkets had already closed by 6 pm. It was just as well that we'd already done some shopping at a supermarket on the way there, otherwise our evening meal would have been very meagre.

After a peaceful night's sleep, we first drove to Caputh Castle. Although we were far too early for a guided tour, the early bird catches the worm. Instead, we were able to explore the castle gardens in the light of the rising sun and take in the view across Lake Templin.

Magdeburg

From Caputh, we carried on to Magdeburg. As our attentive followers will already know, we'd actually been to Magdeburg quite recently, as you can read in the post “Short Trip with new Car Paint”. We hadn't managed to see everything on that occasion, so we wanted to make up for it now.
Even on the journey to Magdeburg, we arranged to meet up with a friend of Andrea's for an evening out.
In Magdeburg, we headed straight to the Elbauenpark with the Millennium Tower, which we were keen to see.
The park is beautifully designed and you can tell it was built for the 1999 Federal Horticultural Show. As such, it's a brilliant recreational area for the people of Magdeburg, who have a wide range of leisure activities here - such as a climbing wall, playgrounds, a lake-side stage and much more - to enjoy whilst they're there.
But the highlight is definitely the Millennium Tower. Once again, we wouldn't have thought it possible to spend so long in a museum. Apparently, we're extremely interested in everything and examine everything very closely 😉. The Millennium Tower takes you from the bottom - the ancient world - up to the top, into the modern age and the future.
Along the way, Andrea spotted a picture hanging from the ceiling between Galileo Galilei and Johannes Kepler, which really excited her. She asked one of the museum staff if it was an “Andreas Cellarius”. Unfortunately, the friendly gentleman didn't know, but added that it wasn't labelled as such either. Curious as Andrea is, she quickly googled it and lo and behold: she was right. It was indeed an astronomical illustration by Cellarius.
And who is that? Andrea probably wouldn't know either - Frank was certainly stumped - had it not been for the fact that her father had spent a great deal of time studying this gentleman as a hobby back in the day, as he still wanted to study astronomy in his retirement (unfortunately, a stroke meant that was no longer possible). And so, back then, the entire stairwell was adorned with these beautiful pictures.

Conclusion: We think the Millennium Tower is definitely worth a visit, and €9.00 for the Elbauenpark, including admission to all sites inside, is a real bargain.

After soaking up so much knowledge, our heads were spinning, so we were ready for a break. We headed to the butterfly house to swap all those thoughts swirling around our heads for colourful butterflies swirling around them instead. (Yes, that was totally intended. 😁)
However, as the Butterfly House is at the other end of the park, we wanted to take the Elbauen-Express. Unfortunately, we'd missed it by a few minutes. So we enjoyed the lovely park grounds on a leisurely stroll. As we walked, we realised that the park was already preparing for its winter break. All the cafés and stalls were closed. It wasn't until we got near the Butterfly House that we found a small bistro where we managed to get a drink, even though it had actually already closed.
When we arrived at the Butterfly House, we were in for a surprise: our tickets were invalid and the turnstile wouldn't let us through. What? Had it not been included in the admission price after all? Unfortunately, it wasn't possible to book access to the Butterfly House via QR code either, due to a technical fault. Oh, what a shame. We were at a loss as to what to do. So we walked all the way back to the entrance to complain at the ticket office. We'd specifically mentioned that we also wanted to see the Millennium Tower and the Butterfly House.
The lady at the ticket office was a bit confused herself. She explained that apparently a system update was being carried out on the turnstile system (right in the middle of opening hours) and that several other people had already experienced the same problem. She told us to simply slip under the turnstile and, if the glass door didn't open, to knock on the window at the side. Unfortunately, she#d already tried to get hold of some colleagues at the Butterfly House by phone, but that hadn't worked either.
As she didn't want to refund the ticket price, we had no choice but to walk all the way back and try again. We'd almost tried crawling under the turnstile ourselves, but in the end we were simply too well-behaved.
As we'd been given permission, we went ahead and were absolutely delighted that the glass door opened too!
And then we were completely overwhelmed and fascinated by the many beautiful butterflies. This more than made up for all the hassle, and we forgot our frustration at having been rushed through the park, given that the Butterfly House was due to close soon anyway.
Now we were really happy, almost euphoric, that we were able to see these wonderful and colourful creatures in such abundance after all - simply beautiful!

To round off the day, we met up in the evening with Andrea’s friend from Magdeburg for dinner; she'd met him at the rehab centre and had even played music with him there. We chatted about all sorts of things and, sadly, the time flew by far too quickly.
So we headed off to bed and processed our experiences in sweet dreams.

Magdeburg to Halle

We got off to an active start the next morning. The staff member at Kieser Magdeburg recognised us straight away and was delighted to welcome us back.
And then it became clear once again just how much of Kieser is in Andrea. During the training session, Andrea suddenly suspected that one of the clients might be from head office, as he looked familiar to her. So she let reception know. But they were able to allay our concerns. It turned out to be a local client. So there was no incognito service check after all.

Calbe

“Refreshed”, we carried on towards Bernburg. A “brown sign” on the motorway advertises the little town of Calbe as the “Town of Roland”. Without further ado, we turned off the motorway and made a short stop. In the market square, we found the Roland statue by the town hall; Till Eulenspielgel is also said to have once been up to mischief here, but otherwise, it seems that a bit more needs to be done to boost tourism here - with restaurants, cafés and the renovation of the houses - as it was actually evident that the little town had once been quite pretty.

Bernburg

After this brief interlude, we drove on to Bernburg. There was considerably more going on here, and we were able to see a lot more. From the car park, we made our way through the “Bergstadt” - the older part of the town - to the castle that gives the town its name, with the Eulenspiegel Tower. The bear enclosure at the castle still exists, though it is no longer home to a bear.
The walk continued behind the castle, down to the River Saale and across a bridge into the “Talstadt”. It was easy to imagine what it must be like in fine summer weather, when the cafés tempt visitors with ice cream and cake and the streets are bustling with people.

We also treated ourselves to a slice of cake in one of the cafés and bought some delicious, fresh hemp bread. To make sure we had a proper dinner, we popped into the supermarket before setting off to find a place to park for the night. We wanted it to be near Halle, our next destination.
We quickly ruled out the first spot, as the app unfortunately didn't mention a disco there. Sure, we could have livened up the disco, but somehow we were actually quite knackered. The second spot was also a let-down, as the car park was closed. But as they say, the third time's the charm. And so, on our third attempt, we found a nice, quiet spot for the night.
Given the cool temperatures and the brisk wind, we decided to have our first meal at the table in our Felía. It worked out really well and was lovely and cosy.

Halle

In the morning, we set off for Halle/Saale without having breakfast, as we weren't hungry yet. We'd planned to have our snack on a park bench in the city centre. Unfortunately, however, it was quite chilly, so we decided to spread our things out on a bench in the nearby “Ritterhaus” shopping centre, which also houses office buildings. It was cosy and warm there.
Now it was time for some sightseeing in Halle. It was just a shame that nobody seemed to expect early birds like us, as none of the museums or churches were open yet. So we strolled through the beautiful old town, wandered across the market square with its church, walked on to Moritzburg, admired the lovely courtyard there (we didn't want to go into the art museum housed there), and then continued on our way back towards the Beatles Museum.
Yes, we hadn't known that either. What's a Beatles Museum doing here? Interestingly, this is probably the largest museum dedicated to the boy band - which was formed in the 1960s - with the most exhibits spread across several floors, compared to other Beatles museums. Music by the Beatles was playing constantly in every corner.
And as we wandered around, we explored not only the history of the lads but also the vast array of merchandise available featuring the four of them. These were even sorted alphabetically in one section, so that there was corresponding display material for each letter, such as C for Christmas baubles, M for mugs, and so on. To round things off, we treated ourselves to a hot drink at a surprisingly reasonable price whilst listening to Beatles music.
Our route then took us past the birthplace of George Frideric Handel into the city centre. Here we climbed the church towers, which were once again connected by a bridge. Whilst the view over Halle wasn't all that exciting, we did learn in the tower about the history of the watchmen, who used to be responsible for warning people of dangers such as enemies and fire.

Climbing up and down the towers and the long stroll through the city had burned off quite a few calories, which we now wanted to replenish. So we were looking forward to the delicious Hallorenkugeln at the factory of the same name - Germany's oldest chocolate factory.
There, you receive a free Hallorenkugel when you pay the entrance fee. Or you can join a guided tour straight away; then, as well as a Hallorenkugel and lots of interesting background information, you also get the chance to sample other things you wouldn't otherwise be able to try. So we opted for the guided tour, as it was due to start in a few minutes anyway.
We learnt a lot more about the chocolate factory than we would have picked up from the display boards alone. However, as there wasn't enough time to have a proper look at the exhibits and displays, you get the chance to do so on your own after the tour. So we were able to stroll through the premises again and find out all about the history of Hallorenkugeln.
There's a café by the entrance where you can enjoy Halloren ice cream. You can also make your own chocolate bar or pralines there. Naturally, we wanted to give this a go and created our own little pralines.
We used the waiting time whilst the pralines were cooling to have a look around the factory shop. To our surprise, we kept coming across stalls where we could pick up some tasty samples 😉.

Halle to Leipzig

Zwochau

We headed to the tranquil little village of Zwochau for the night. Right on the outskirts of the village, there is a spacious car park next to several horse paddocks. From our parking spot, a path led through a nature reserve. There are several lakes here, and a nature trail runs alongside the walking paths. The signage is very well done, explaining that this is a former mining area that has been restored to its natural state.
As well as the spacious paddocks, where several horses and ponies were grazing but also had plenty of room to gallop, there's also a way featuring various boulders - described and displayed - that were carried here from Scandinavian countries during the last Ice Age.
On top of that, the cackling of geese lured us towards the village. On the way, we came across several apple trees where we could have picked kilos of apples. A warm hello to Frank's mum at this point - would you have fancied some? 😂 Then we passed by the geese. It was a farm that, as well as geese, was home to sheep and various cattle. They were surprisingly curious and let us stroke them and feed them apples.
As it unfortunately became very windy and rainy and the temperature dropped significantly, we headed back to our Felía and decided to have a day in the office. This gave us the chance to finally document the past few days. We also worked on the website, finishing reports, uploading photos and checking emails.

The day flew by surprisingly quickly and, despite the cramped 4 m² space, it was really cosy and comfortable in the “Pleasure-Van”. Outside, the wind whistled and shook the Felía quite vigorously. And the patter of rain on the roof was somehow, hmmm… romantic.
Before turning in, we finally tried out one of the new games we'd recently bought at the medieval market in Magdeburg. Despite the attackers' numerical superiority, the defenders managed to get the king to safety every single time. We're amazed.

Leipzig

In the morning, we arrived in Leipzig, the trade fair city. We had planned to explore the old town, parts of which are well preserved. The weather looked quite promising at first, but ended up playing tricks on us after all. The strong wind felt icy, and we were repeatedly caught out by light showers. Nevertheless, we persevered and strolled - with an umbrella when necessary - through the alleys and streets.
On the market square, we walked past the Old Town Hall, right through the heart of the old town, to the New Town Hall. This is housed in a castle-like building. Not far from there, we also passed the Federal Administrative Court before heading back into the old town.
By now, we were thoroughly frozen through and frustrated by the weather. So we retreated to a café with power sockets and Wi-Fi and worked on our next travel report. It really did need to be finished at last.

For the next night, we headed on towards Altenburg. We found a nice place to sleep on the outskirts of Windischleuba. We felt really safe here, as several lorry drivers with heavy bridge components were also using the spot to spend the night.