Tom`s travels: Perleberg & Pritzwalk (12/12/2021)

On a rainy weekend, Ania and I took a day trip to visit a couple of towns northwest of Berlin. We left at a decent hour in the morning and with a regional train got to the town of Perleberg. From the train station, we then walked towards the city center, passing by the DDR History Museum, located in the western suburbs. Walking northwards we then passed a series of large buildings which were once built by the Soviets when the territory was under their control after WWII. Not far ahead we then crossed over the narrow Stepenitz river and reached the old town. We walked through the mostly empty streets, constantly under a light rain, and admired the nice architecture and burgher houses some of which were timber-framed. Shortly after we reached the main square, the Großer Markt, where the main landmarks are set. On the northern side of the square was the statue of the Perleberg Roland, the typical statue of a knight with a drawn sword, signifying the town privileges of a medieval city, common in many towns throughout Germany. This one measures 5.5 meters and despite originally dating to the 15th century was remade in its current stone form at the end of the 16th century. To the south of the square was the town hall, first built during the 14th century and keeping its originally Gothic western facade with the rest rebuilt in Neogothic style during the 19th century. Just to the west of the town hall was the church of St Jakob with its large 13th-century Gothic structure which was unfortunately closed. Just next to the church was a nice timber-framed house considered the oldest house in Perleberg and dating to 1525. From there we then walked around the rest of the town and then headed back to the train station from where we took a ride to the nearby town of Pritzwalk. After getting off at the station, we then walked towards the city center composed of a mostly orderly grid plan of straight streets and low houses. Many were quite interesting to see, some of which also with timber framing. We passed the small main square at the center of town marked by a beautiful and tall Christmas tree and then the church of St Nikolai. Dating to the 13th century in a Gothic style it featured a tall neo-gothic spire from 1882. Unfortunately, the church was closed so we decided to continue on reaching then the northern part of town where the Museumsfabrik, the local museum hosted inside the former Draegersche cloth factory, is located. Nearby, heading back to the city center we passed by a section of preserved medieval walls which also featured one of the round watchtowers. We then continued touring the nice city center and after a bit decided it was time to head back. We reached the city center and from there took a train back to Berlin, having to switch to the nearby town of Wittenberg. We left Pritzwalk just after 2pm and took the train from Wittenberg at around 3pm. After a bit, the train stopped in the middle of the countryside close to the station of Friesack. We stayed still for quite a while and then it was announced we had to head back and reach the station of Friesack and wait there. Apparently, a fast train in front of us had malfunctioned and was stuck, thus blocking the way for us to continue on to Berlin. After another long wait, we were told the train would head back to where it came from. We went all the way back to Wittenberg and after switching were told the next train would go to Berlin. We got on it but after reaching Friesack once again we had to stop. At that point, we were told to get off there and a bus would then take us to the next station, bypassing the blockage on the rails, and from there get a train onwards to Berlin. It was already 7pm; more than 4 hours had passed since we had originally left Wittenberge, and no bus had come in the 1 hour and a half we had been waiting in the cold (it was just above zero) and rain. The station was in the middle of nowhere, with the building inaccessible, with the town of Friesack a few kilometers away. What was even worse was that the next regional train coming from Wittenberge had arrived dropping off another hundred people, coming to join us in waiting for the promised bus. That really bothered me and got me angry as I thought the train conductor should have warned the next train not to come and let people know that if they did arrive there they would need to wait. At one point I decided to get on that train and head back to Wittenberge and from there get another regional train which would take another route, a longer one, but at least be sure to arrive in Berlin. Eventually, we managed to get home after midnight, 8 hours later than we were supposed to. The moral of the story was that even after filing a complaint of not only having our tickets refunded but getting some kind of compensation for the outrageous wait in the cold and rain, we were told that as our ticket was the Lander ticket which does not have a fixed time and choice of the train we were not going to receive the compensation.