st. marien.
the town of plau am see is about 20 kilometers west of malchow and was our next day's destination. it's situated at the plauer see - the third largest lake in mecklenburg-pomerania! the name plau derives from the word plawe - which means rafting in polabian ( a western slavic language spoken once in the northeast of germany around the elbe river between the 7th and early 19th century ). rafting is defininitely a thing that you do in the mecklenburg lakelands and when plau am see was first mentioned in 1235, it was a village of fishermen & raftsmen, thus absolutely ringing true to its name. it's a rather interesting thing knowing that the northeast of germany has slavic roots, something i feel some sort of kinship over. all the north eastern states of germany, including lower saxony, schleswig-holstein, brandenburg, saxony, saxony-anhalt & thuringia had ties to the western slavs, this ethnic group most certainly informed their histories during the dark ages. after they got assimilated into the holy roman empire of the germans ( with great difficulty as the western slavs were quite strong-willed about keeping their independence and religion - slavic paganism ), their culture and language slowly started disintegrating and would eventually die out completely. i like to think that some traditions and beliefs still survived to this day, but of course that probably only happened because there's been a resurgence & greater interest in the cultures of the past. i always thought that the spring / autumn equinoxes we celebrate in germany had some slavic origins, and while some traditions actually do stem from it, most of the celebrations we have now are more influenced by christian beliefs. for me, when i look at these celebrations, i'd rather focus on their pagan aspects, as i do not believe in a human god. pagan mythology involves a lot of nature and i feel most comfortable paying homage to mother nature than a dude whose dictums were misused by organized religion. so when we burn easter/may fires or celebrate walpurgis night ( or rather, beltane / night of the witches ) and go on lantern processions in autumn or celebrate christmas with caroling, i personally always am most drawn to the pagan aspects of them, the burning of the seasons, the planting of new seeds, the celebration of life and nature, bringing light into dark days, welcoming light after dark days. celebrations can be simple enough, i believe, they don't need to have religious meaning or worship saints & gods. they all were fallible anyway.
aside from mythology and traditions, it's also noteworthy to me that a big part of modern germany was slavic once. which time and time again makes me draw the conclusion that assimilation and genocide has been going on for milleniae, since the dawn of time and human evolution. so when someone like a nazi says that they are proud of their heritage and want the old times back, do they truly know what they are saying? what if their ancestors were slavic people who got violently assimilated into the old german reich under barbarossa ( rightists are very proud of their barbarossa ) and other of his colleagues? would he still say he wants his reich back, knowing he lost his real identity in the thick of many cruel crusades? even when you look into modern times, some slavic tribes have survived and remain a minority in germany, the sorbs and silesians, don't they serve as reminders of those unprecedented dark ages back then? how can you be ever sure that you were once a purebred german, when there has always been these shifts going on in history and even when we go way back further, when all of humanity started somewhere in africa? i think the conversation about identity and being proud of your nation is super difficult to maintain, we were always as humans subjected to assimiliation and adaptation, whether it was due to evolutionary processes or manmade conflicts. many a times the manmade conflicts should actually make you reconsider the 'pureness of a nation'.
anyway, to get away a little from the deep musings, let's get to know the town of plau a little more.
we were greeted by the 800 years old church st. marien. this church mostly doesn't look 800 years old anymore since it underwent many reconstructions during its existence, most of the buildings has a neo-gothic appearance.
the church is a westphalian type hall church, which typically has a large open space inside with three naves and flat ceilings. apparently, around 1000 people can fit into this church.
these cute timber-framed houses and big linden tree were direct neighbors to the church. they were once the rectories of the church ( built around 1760 ).
the belfry has 120 steps to the top and one can climb it to have an overview over the town and the surroundings.
i love the fieldstone foundations a lot, it creates a beautiful contrast to the brickstone facades. in general i think it's very lovely to use undressed stones in construction, it's such a charming element.
looking up the belfry. there are 3 bells inside, one from 1522, one from 1722 and a very big and heavy one from 1963. you can listen to their chimes here ( under 'glocken - freud und leid' ).
the church was heavily reconstructed between 1877 and 1879. parts of the north and south walls are still romanesque, they say, but you have to really know your shit to detect the older parts of it.
an almost entire length view on the church. it wasn't that easy to take photos of 😅 especially since new-age modern gadgets and equipment sometimes disturbed the overall idyllic looking church. here you can see pretty well that the roof was once much higher up ( burned down in 1756 ) and the belfry probably looked a little different, too - it also burned down, but in 1696 and had to be reconstructed. you can already guess by my mentioning of all the burning, that plau went through many fires in its history! it was 8 fires that ravaged plau considerably, which in my humble opinion is quite a lot ( for a city that is located so close to water ).
we left the grounds of the church and moved on further down towards the elde river.
i marvelled at all the sweet timber-framed houses on our way there. the little overgrown one is from the 18th century and sometimes called 'hexenhäuschen' ( witch cot ). it's of course a dream house for me!
the charming waterway streets are streets that connect the higher up districts of the old city with the lower lying districts right by the elde canal. always striking: the typical architecture of the müritz region - a mix of timber frame/ brickstone/ fieldstone construction.
down by the river, a feeling of having been thrown into an amsterdam gracht scenery arose in my perception. the elde feeds many lakes in the müritz region, the plauer see is one of them. since there are few differences in the elevation throughout its watercourse, locks help to navigate boats and little ships into 'new waters'. here, at the lock of plau am see all the water vehicles have to overcome an ascent of 1,20 to get into the plauer see. in the background you can make out the 'hühnerleiter' ( chicken ladder ) - a footbridge over the lock and the river.
little boats and small yachts were anchoring on each side of the canal. the elde river is actually the longest river in mecklenburg-pomerania, with 220 kilometer length! it spans around the whole müritz region, connecting basically all of the bigger lakes of the mecklenburg lakelands and eventually flows into the river elbe way west from its origination.
oh overgrown houses, you have all my heart! this beauty was formerly an old spinning mill.
plau also had a little jewish community, this was their synagogue ( built in 1839/1840 ). it was only used until 1904, then it was closed down because the community stopped exisiting ( the reason for this was mainly a rural exodus into the bigger cities of germany, but also partly to america ). from 1920 to 2003 it was used as a catholic church and of course a lot was rebuilt and changed inside the synagogue because of that. today, only the matroneum and parts of the torah ark are still preserved for posterity. it is now privately owned, but apparently there aren't any plans to use it for some cultural determination.
a dreamy house in front of the synagogue 😍
a building that stuck out amongst all the timber-framed houses was this one - a restaurant called 'zeisler's esszimmer' ( zeisler's dining room ). it's a fine dining restaurant offering regional specialties and was opened by stefan zeisler, a guy who worked under celebrity chefs and in other exclusive venues in germany. i liked the purist minimalism in this building and the wooden facade cladding.
further down the elde you will encounter this interesting industrial relict, the 'hubbrücke' ( lift bridge ) from 1916. until 2021 this bridge was manually lifted by the lock keeper who was operating from within the little wooden shed, now it is maintained remotely. boats have to call the operators and they will lift it via some sort of remote control. the brige can be lifted about 1,60 m for bigger boats.
the view down the street near the hubbrücke, on the left side a little boarding house - 'das alte fischerhaus' ( old fisherman's house ). in the back there are some fish smokehouses and fish vendors.
it was such a sweet, idyllic place to be by the river and watching the boats pass by! on the other side there's a restaurant called 'fackelgarten' ( torch garden ).
we watched the boats pass underneath the bridge, which was lifted according to the height of the boats. i remember the bridge making loud screeching noises! somebody really needed to oil that baby 😅
many people loved to stand by the railings and watch / listen to the spectacle. i remotely remember the bridge operator being present, too, watching it from the sidelines.
cars could also pass over the bridge! ( the width of the bridge is about 6,40 meters, length is 12,10 m )
i really adored this little nostalgic bridge with its operating shed. the yellow building in the back is another boarding house with attached restaurant ( café flair ).
we continued our stroll towards the lake and passed by the smokehouses where you could buy everything fish-related. i think we bought some fish buns, which is a must anyway and anywhere in the north of germany.
underneath another bridge - a modern one that leads the traffic of the bundestraße 103 over the river. we saw a row of swallow nests here, and despite me taking a few pictures of this little phenomenon, all shots turned out horrible 😅
a little rain front came closer and would give us a little shower! passenger lines will also operate from plau am see and offer you many tours over the lakes! the fahrgastschiffahrt wichmann is one of the most important operator of such tours in this region.
these boat sheds were so cute! i could totally see someone turning some of these into little accommodations with the possibility to rent a boat.
kinda liked these houses! they felt very GDR architecture-like. turns out they weren't exactly built inside this era, but shortly after the fall of the berlin wall. maybe the architect ( peter andrees ) was still heavily inspired by the architecture of this era. they all belong to the holiday complex 'an der metow'.
these cute cottages also were part of the whole complex. those are the kind of houses i would totally move in. they aren't too huge, perfect for happy singles or a couple that doesn't need much room! unfortunately appartments like this never really go into the residential market, they'll probably always be holiday appartments.
finally the rain started to fall and turned everything into a moody grey. here's the entrance to the lake for ya!
if you look close to the left you can see a little lighthouse!
thankfully the rain shower was only of a short period of time and the sun soon enough came back to illuminate the surroundings again!
getting closer to the lake...
and there the lake was spreading out in front of us! the passenger ships always went out, no matter the weather conditions ( though i think they won't go out when it's too stormy ).
to get to the lighthouse you have to cross a little bridge, and on top of this little bridge you get a pretty sweet view over the plauer lake. the lake spans 57 kilometers of shoreline, and has a surface area of 38.4 squarekilometers. the average depth is about 6,8 meters. one part of the lake - the northern shore - is a protected landscape that gives home to plenty of wildlife like otters, kingfishers or snipes.
picture perfect postcard motive! the lighthouse from 2012 ( and seems to be another one of architect andrees' ) is only 13,5 meters high, but it's still a picturesque little building! you can climb up to an 8 meter platform and enjoy the view from there, too, but we didn't.
just loving the glittery waters over the lake and the wide view.
even spotted a grey heron on one of the shores!
when we walked back to the town we discovered a mute swan family! i fell in love with the plushy fluff cygnets ❤ did you know that cygnets need a very long time to mature into adult swans? they approximately need 120 to 150 days until they count as fully matured.
another interesting fact about swans is that they mourn if they lose their partners or children, which is very rare in birds. i find that very touching, to be honest. it reminds me of the heart-wrenchingly beautiful song by the east german band karat: 'schwanenkönig'. now that i have relistened to it and heard the lyrics again i was reminded of recent grief and love and heartbreak... and am thankful for a song that can describe it all so well, but also it still stirs up my heart with the most complicated feelings.
and here's the lyrics in english translation:
a swan king bowed his neck to the water
his plumage was as white as on the first day
pure like a dream of sirens
and in the sparkling of the morning sun
he looks into the mirror of waves
and with breaking eyes he knows
this will be his goodbye.
when a swan sings the animals remain silent
when a swan sings the animals listen
and they murmur, and they murmur
and they quietly whisper and they quietly whisper
it's a swan king who dies in love.
and the swan king began to sing his last song
under the weeping willow where he had lived his life
and he sings in the most beautiful tones that one has ever heard on earth
about the beauty of this earth that he was so undyingly beguiled with.
and the swan king sings his whole last day
until the evening sun flees quietly into a deep red
silently the weeping willow lowers its leaves like lances
quieter and quieter the notes until the last light dies down in the song.
and still throughout this whole process, new life is brought to the world constantly, and that makes me hopeful that some of the pain will end.
the swan family all together.
these rods are important for the fishing industry in the mecklenburg lakelands, i think they are used to stake a claim on a particular spot.
looking back towards the town, and the klüschenberg, the house hill of plau am see ( 91 meters height ).
there's actually a little tale that is attached to the hill, of a princess that had to hide in a tunnel underneath, after enemies came into town to loot and maraud everything. she was protecting the treasure of her family until she turned into an old woman and eventually everyone spoke of her as a witch that could influence the weather. much later in history some men tried to find the treasure again that was supposed to be hidden still, and they started to dig and excavate all over the hill until an old woman appeared and warned them to not disturb the peace of the klüschenberg. they did not listen to her and continued their corrosion until suddenly a bad storm began to brew in the sky and moved up the elde river. it began to pour with rain, so much so that the ditches and tunnels the excavators had begun to dig, broke and caved in over them, burying and drowning them. the citizens of the city wondered why the witch had created such wild weather that day and then discovered hollows and pits all over the hill. since then, no one else ever tried to find the treasure and where the pits and hollows are you can only sometimes find an old woman picking berries.
this image makes me long for lakes and nature again!
back in town. the restaurant plawe is not in operation anymore, but when we visited, it was still open. i liked the blue struts of the building, it had a little art deco character.
can't say no to a good timber-framed house!
returned back to this building ( in front of the synagogue ) and i loved it even more up close!
another tiny house i absolutely adored! today, a practice for holistic therapy found its home inside it, but back when we visited i can't remember it being anything but a charming abode!
details of the front door! just love how inviting it is!
a glance at st. marien!
near the 'hühnerleiter' footbridge you'll find this gorgeous building - the water mill from the 18th century. the gabled dormer and the hipped roof with eybrow dormers are especially notable, but also its terracotta limework! these days the house is used as a residential building.
a look up the street reveals more similarly styled houses.
now imagine a big water wheel as well, and you'll have a nice image of what the mill maybe looked like back when it was used as one. the modern construction in blue is part of the hühnerleiter water lock.
the footbridge once actually looked more like a chicken ladder for a long time - hence the name. it was built after 1945 - after the first turning bridge on the spot was destroyed during the war. the steps were only nailed on top as wooden strips, but now nothing of that is visible anymore as in 2003 the bridge was completely built anew. from the top you can watch the passage of the ships inside the lock.
the view down the elde canal.
another view towards the mühlenstraße, with the water mill on the left and st. marien church on the right. i loved the ochre-coloured general view of this scene!
most beautiful blue door with flower ornaments 😍
the yellow building with the pyramid gable was very interesting. it doesn't seem like it is a listed building, though, so it might be more modern than it looks.
back to st. marien, we concluded our little trip to plau am see there! i am sure this little city has even more places and spaces to explore, but we were kind of tired and decided to return to malchow to rest up a bit.
i loved this facade front! so 'backstein-gotik'!
there is even a little additional windmill on top - a so-called fantail. you can visit the windmill inside, too, there are some exhibitions about its history and construction inside and another one about the prehistoric times in and around malchow. sadly, it wasn't open the day we visited.
the flap wings are not original but were added during the renovation in 1995.
the surrounding buildings offer a little shop from the local ceramics circle and i would have loved to have a gander at it, but it wasn't open that day either.
moving on for another nice, less maintained building - the old dairy. it is very abandoned, but as you know, i absolutely adore abandonment like this! the building itself is listed as a monument, but there is absolutely no other information available on it out there. all i know, judging from some lettering on the facade, is that it has been a music club once upon a time, too! and of course that prior to that it's been a dairy producing factory that was in operation perhaps from 1889 until 1979.
bashed in windows and nice old brickwork.
loved all the rusty colours and contrasting blues.
as mentioned before, the old dairy must've been a music club or a shop for music equipment for a little while. during which time that was, i can't follow up on at all. i sure think this is a great venue for cultural things and it would be nice to see this revived as such.
i was in love with the blue tiles of the building, it's not often you see tiles used as a facade cladding. it was a little sad to see the big windows all walled up, but i sure hope this will be remedied in the future and there will be light inside the interiors of this old building again.
very charming old door situation 😍
slowly overgrowing stairsteps.
our final stop was at the town's lido, which is situated at the junction of malchower see & fleesensee. we would spend some time there later on, as the days got more sunny and warm. to swim in a lake is such a good experience, much better than swimming in an artificial pool. you are surrounded by wide views, nature and the occasional boat or ship passing by ( if it is a waterway lake ) and it just feels so peaceful watching the goings on at land from the water. it's like you are floating detached from all the woes and tribulations of the world, and for me, personally, it feels some sort of meditative. when i was young i would refuse to leave any body of water until i was shriveled up or freezing, i felt so at home there. even now i do feel that sentiment still lingering in my nerves. lakes, the sea, rivers, all of them still never fail to attract me magically.
a few swimmers were doing their rounds inside the lake, though it was still a very fresh evening and the water quite cold in the blowing winds. talk about hardening up!
there is also a diving platform installed for a good old splash into the waters!
i loved the view over the fleesensee! the lake spans about 11 kilometers roundabout and in some places it's up to 26 meters deep!
i don't know when the lido was first used as one, but i think it's safe to stay that it might have been already in the late 19th century, when a lot of public lidos were popping up all over germany during a time where people discovered spending their free time outside in nature more and physically moving it for better health. even for people just wanting to have a 'sommerfrische', which was often a very privileged vacation for the richer folks. this lifeguard tower looked very GDR-made to me, and though it wasn't used anymore, i still liked how very much it added some character to the beach! i read recently that the lido was renovated, so now i kind of suspect that it was torn down to make room for more tourist and family friendly things like playgrounds and other amenities. sometimes i am quite glad to have documented something that might not exist anymore and preserve it for the annals of humanity. that sounds quite cocky for a little online diary with barely any readers, so maybe i should stop that thought right there 😂
loved the cracks in the paint, looking like tiny lightning bolts.
overlooking the lido premises. you probably had very sweet view from up there!
the whole design of the structure was very spartanic and functional, a telltale proof of socialist design principles.
found this sweet spot underneath a willow tree.
with a blanket and a picknick basket in tow this would be a very cozy spot to spend the evening in.
and just around the corner you had another access to the lake, though it was a private jetty. still, what a pretty view, right? it would be nice to ship and boat these lakes one day, i'd totally dig renting one like the small one on the right and go on a water road trip with it. maybe one day...
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