I woke up to someone whistling a hilarious and relaxed ditty while the other two were talking quietly. I rubbed my eyes and looked around. We wee driving on a country road now. Sure it was still flat but there was no trace of desolation. Left and right mighty trees slid slowly past us behind which were fields and small forests and clearings every now and then intersected by a small wooden bridge crossing a stream and above all the blue sky. We passed through quiet villages and passed small groups of cyclists. It was as if nature had created a lovely park on a whim. “This is beautiful…” I found myself saying.

“We can take a Spreewald boat tour or canoeing on our own, do some hiking, get to know the Sorbian life style, go cycling all from our location in Lübbenau…” said Katya. She sounded happy.

So far I had refused even to think about the details of this little vacation but suddenly I was sure that even if we only did a fraction of the things Katja had listed we would not be bored for even a minute. In front of us was the promise of sweet relaxation and surrounding us was the magic of a fairy-tale landscape.