Depressing charm of villages east of Berlin. Part 1

<p>The famous painting &ldquo;<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Gothic" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">American Gothic</a>&rdquo; by Grant Wood depicts a grim farmer holding a pitchfork and his daughter standing near their old-fashioned house. I haven&rsquo;t seen this artwork live but seems I experienced a similar effect recently. On a grey winter day, roughly 30 kilometers from Berlin, I discovered the&nbsp;<em>German Gothic.</em></p> <p><img alt="" src="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:700/1*nM-_DWXej8TgVxT_NMtWyA.jpeg" style="height:350px; width:700px" /></p> <p>&copy; All photos by&nbsp;<a href="https://www.instagram.com/garni.hatynky/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">Slava Shestopalov</a></p> <p>It was overcast and chilly (+2&deg;C), but I didn&rsquo;t want to procrastinate the whole day glued to the phone screen. So, I grabbed my bike and took a train to Strausberg Nord, the line terminus. Although it was the closest station to the &ldquo;Brandenburg Switzerland&rdquo; Nature Park, which I initially planned to visit, I still had to ride 13 kilometers to it.</p> <p><a href="https://medium.com/5-a-m/brandenburg-switzerland-ea3a36039508"><strong>Website</strong></a></p>