After so many glitches this season that could all have been avoided with proper use of modern technology, I could not wait to see what might go wrong during my last concert with BSK this year.
As it happened, there were no glitches on the part of BSK, at least not in the first part of the daytrip.
This time, I myself had neglected to do my homework.
First of all, in my monumental ignorance, I had not realised that Kostrzyn was destroyed during two world wars, so everything there is to see there has been reconstructed and is totally fake (including the fortresses, a guided tour of which formed a major part of the trip). So already there, my interest was gone.
Secondly, I had not paid attention to the concert programme, so – again not until we were on the way, did I realise that the quartet we were going to hear consisted of …. four guitars. And that one of the pieces was by my pet aversion of the music world (apart from guitars) – Mozart. Sitting still in a confined space listening to Mozart is already like Japanese water torture, but played by four guitars – I don’t think so.
It would have been just as painful to hear two of my favourite composers in the programme: Witold Lutoslawski and Iganicy Jan Paderewski destroyed in that way. I am now back home listening to the real thing as we speak :-).
Anyway, when we got to where the guided tour started (before lunch and the concert) I decided to make my way back to Berlin, so I walked about half an hour to the train station in Kostrzyn. A bit of an adventure, since the bridge that crosses the river Warta in order to get to the station is being replaced, by what looks to become a beautiful modern sight for sore eyes eventually. The walk also led past an area that would have been ideal for swallow photography – had I had my birding lens with me ….. Typical.
Bonus info: There is barely any staff at the station in Kostrzyn, and those that there are are less than informative, but the info you find on google maps is quite reliable, although somehow it might not look that way if you compare with the info available at the station, which is in any case pretty deserted except for some unsavoury types hanging around so I was glad it was broad daylight when I was there,
If you have a Deutschland ticket, it is not valid from Kostrzyn to the border, obviously, but if you catch the regional train to Lichtenberg, there are slot machines on the train where you can buy a ticket for the first two stops to Werbig. Here, you can also change to another regional train to Eberswalde if it suits you better to return to Berlin that way.
