As our last hike before some serious social distancing, C chose a hike he had seen in our quarterly DAV magazine. The DAV is the German Alpine club, and I highly recommend joining if you’re mountain-active and living in Germany! Although this hike was not even in Brandenburg but in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, we were still able to get there quite easily on the RE 5 and be within the limits for the Berlin-Brandenburg ticket. The 19 kilometer hike starts in Neubrandenburg, meanders along the Tollensesee, and ends at Burg Stargard.
Neubrandenburg
The city was much more developed than I had expected. It was easy to hike from the train station directly through the center of town on Stargarder Straße. Along the way we had views of the various old city gates strategically positioned around the remaining sections of city wall. The circular town center is surrounded by a park demarcating where the old town wall used to be. After exiting through the 14th century Stargarder Tor and crossing Friedrich-Engels-Ring, we turned immediately right onto the pedestrian path Otto-Vitense-Weg. The city’s outer park lies to the right and residential buildings are on the left.
church in Neubrandenburg 
Stargarder Tor (Gate)
Tollensesee
We shortly arrive at the shore of the Tollensesee. It was a gorgeous, sunny Sunday and lots of families, joggers, cyclists, and Nordic walkers were out enjoying the spring-like weather. Heading southwards on the eastern shore of the 10.3 kilometer-long lake, we pass by several beaches, grill spots, and picnic tables.
Not too long after, the paved path gives way to dirt and the traffic subsides. There are several landmarks along the way. The first we came across is the Behmshöhe tower. It’s only open for visitors in late spring, so we weren’t able to ascend the tower. At 40 meters, the tower sits on one of the highest points in the region. We later passed a stone commemorating the 100 year anniversary of a singing club and another stone brought by glaciers from Stockholm named after Humboldt to commemorate his visit to the region.
Behmshöhe Tower 
Sangverein Stein
Klein Nemerow and Rowa
Following the horizontal green striped trail marker, we left the Tollensesee in Klein Nemerow to turn left towards Rowa. Out in the open fields, the early March wind gave us a beating. Finally in Rowa we took shelter by sitting on the side of village church, observing the actively maintained cemetery while we munched on snacks. We exited Rowa on a long tree-lined boulevard (another Stargarder Straße) which wasn’t the nicest for hiking.
Burg Stargard
At the end of the farm fields, the trail turned left into the woods. The marker was pretty trustworthy up until this point, but here the article in the DAV magazine warned us that a marker was missing. After 10 minutes of walking in the woods, we turned right blindly down another forested path, hoping we were on the correct one which would lead us to Burg Stargard.
We emerged from the woods, continuing on a street alongside a pond. Once we crossed a main road, we followed signs up towards the Burg. On the windy trail to Rowa, I began to wonder if the second half of this hike was worth it, but BOY was it worth it! I love castles, so I don’t know where this doubt stemmed from because Burg Stargard delivered!
The Burg
Burg Stargard was built in the 13th century (although the hill was already settled as early as 3000 BCE) and is the northernmost of the few remaining Höhenburgen (hill castles) in northern Germany. The castle complex upon the 90 meter hill is made up of over a dozen buildings. There’s a moat-like lake on either side of the first gate. One side still contains water and the other has grazing goats. In non-Corona times there are tours of the castle and events. You can even stay in the castle hotel. We settled with taking in the view from the 38 meter tall tower.
Pinguin Eisdiele
The train doesn’t stop often in Burg Stargard, so we had an hour to kill before the next one arrived. Heading into town, we passed several adorable half-timbered houses…and lots of people eating ice cream. As we got closer towards the train station, we saw more and more happy people with cones in their hands. When we saw the shop, the line was out the door! We knew we had to try this ice cream. Started in 1954, with the interior design to match, this ice cream place has amazing soft serve ice cream. There was chocolate, vanilla, and fruit flavored (when we visited it was strawberry), and C and I both went with vanilla chocolate twist. It’s not often you come across good soft serve in Germany. The prices here were good and the ice cream was even better! Kein wunder everyone in town seemed to be here.
The natural views along the Tollensesee, an incredibly well maintained 13th century hill castle, and some of the best soft serve I’ve had in a long time makes this trail a favorite in my book.