Bothmar house - a train - a missing key and more rain

After breakfast and a short debate whether to head the short distance to the next door village of Klüz or further afield to Schwerin, we opted for the short tour. Here is an amazing ‘English Manor House’ complete with park gardens right in the middle of deepest darkest Meklenburg Vorpommern! We got there just in time for a go on the historical skittle alley. After a wander around the garden we met one of the staff who said there was a treasure hunt around the grounds for kids - so the boys did that while Sonja and I looked through the house. The story is amazing - with the man behind building it Bothmer - an advisor to the first Hanoverian kings of England, George the 1st and 2nd. He made a fortune - but couldn’t buy land in the UK. So late in life he bought up a huge amount of land here in Meklenburg-Vorpommern and had the house built. He never saw it, as he died in London, but it seems that setting up an inheritance for his heirs. This he managed in style - as well as being an ancestor to a surprising number of current European monarchs. The house was an old people’s home after the war, and has now been somewhat restored, in a simple way - but nicely done. 

The other curio in the Schloss is an important piece of natural history - the first ‘arrow stork’ or Pfeilstorch. Before people understood animal migration no one knew where summer birds went in winter - there were many outlandish theories. This poor stork bought with it evidence of its voyages. While in Africa someone had tried to kill it with an arrow or small spear. This had gone through its neck, but not damaged anything ‘important’ so it continued life with this new adornment. It came back here in the summer and was observed to be different to the other storks. I don’t know if it died or was killed, but someone interested enough realised they had something worth investigating. The arrow was identified as being of African origin and the first pieces of evidence for long bird migrations began to fall into place. 

The plan after that was to go the the narrow gauge railway for a train ride through the country. It was at this point that the day ‘derailed’ somewhat as Hannes realised he had lost his bike key. He could find the key-ring, but not the key, and the spares carefully kept in a box at home. E&Y and I went for the train ride anyway while S and H searched for the key. All to no avail. The rest of us joined the hunt. After many hours we looked for a plan B - and struck gold with the local bike shop / frame builder who had a proper bike cave. He cut the lock of for the princely sum of 10 euros. 

We then rode home, found that the local eatery was really  canteen for the holiday village and so opted to ride out once more to find somewhere nicer in Boltenhagen. This we did and after a nice ride home in the dark collapsed into bed! 

Sea buckthorn in all verities for sale in the local farm shop. It was an important source of vitamins during the Communist times, and is still grown. 

Lights on for the ride home!