2025-03-12 52 14

Location

Corner of a field next to the rail line, in the Rosengarten district of Frankfurt an der Oder.

Participants

Plans

Ooh, a new rail line for me and a chance to make progress towards a subdivision geohash achievement for Brandenburg. RE1 to the Rosengarten station, return train about an hour later leaving the perfect amount of time to walk to the point and back.

Expedition

It's a gray day in Berlin, cooling off after a warm sunny weekend. I notice afternoon rain in the Berlin forecast, and more in the Frankfurt forecast, so decide sooner is better. By late morning I'm also hungry, so I buy food at Berlin-Ostkreuz before catching a train.

Birdsong near the church

An hour later, I ascend from the Rosengarten station platform and soon enter a new world of sound: the trees in the village, though bare, are absolutely full of songbirds. The grayness, nearly a fog, is calm. I try to capture the scene on video, and also compose a photo of the church for the sightseeing achievement.

Just past the church, I navigate onto a simple road, with some nice homes and a meditation center, which becomes non-driveable as it passes through a small forest. I emerge near a roundabout, take sidewalks past some light industrial facilities, then walk on a high-speed but low-traffic road through a larger forest. Each time I dive out of the way of oncoming cars, I take note of the soft ground.

At the edge of the forest, the tracks come in view, carrying what looks like a Polish EuroCity train eastward. I recognize the bridge guardrails from Street View, and thence choose to cross some tall plants at the edge of the field rather than tackle trees closer to the tracks. I discover a stone-topped berm, with a drain down to the tracks that almost looks like a staircase. No trains go by until I'm almost back to the forest, then it's an ODEG train (like mine) each way, these ones skipping the Rosengarten stop.

As the church comes into view again, I start hearing a few raindrops. I'm 10 minutes early back to the platform, where there's a handy shelter. Some rain falls on the train. Back in Ostkreuz, I buy a warm drink.