According to the old adage, a real Berliner never leaves their “Kiez”. I wonder if they know that it’s so beautiful out there that you can hardly bring yourself to return to your Kiez. Take, for instance, the Uckermark town of Lychen. Surrounded by seven lakes, a New Zealand artist and his architect wife have created the perfect country retreat, a little enclave of good taste that should fit the budget of even the least commercially successful performance artist. It took the couple a few years of painstaking work to transform the former Lychen courthouse into a beautiful Bed and Breakfast, complete with lovingly restored heirloom furniture. Combine that with the lake view, the yummy breakfast, the relaxing garden, the ready-to-use canoe and being gently woken by a cuckoo instead of squabbeling pub-crawlers, and there are very few reasons left not to get out there this summer.
Lychen House, Kirchstr 3, 17279 Lychen; map
Viviane Stappmanns is a journalist who moved from Melbourne to Berlin in 2011.
Published in Cee Cee #59 on 31.5.2012
