The next day it has lightened slightly so we decided to go up another series of lakes for 30km and see what we could see. Unfortunately 5 minutes into the trip, the motor spluttered and died. It was a fuel problem. We retired starting and it sort of went and then spluttered out. After 5 minutes of trying we got it going again and had no more problems. A bit of dirt in the fuel we thought. But to be sure we weren't 30km from nowhere with a boat that didn't go we stopped in another lovely lake (there are hundreds and hundreds of such lakes!!) about 1km from a major marina with a repair service. 
Sure enough the next morning after 5 minutes, the engine conked out again. Once again we restarted it after trying for 5 minutes and continued on our way through lake after lake to the town of Neustrelitz, where we had stayed on the way up.The weather was clearing now after 2 weeks of grey weather and we stopped for two lovely days in Neustrelitz. We went for a bike ride in the woods, painted one side of the top part of the boat and generally relaxed in the lovely weather.
Neustrelitz is not an old town (1800's) but built in a very grand fashion with lovely (what we would call Georgian) houses. It has an air of prosperity unlike many of the other former East German towns.
The weather had broken clear now and day fater day it was becoming sunnier and hotter. Today it is 34c. Not a cloud in the sky and by late afternoon we are strarting to feel very hot. In this weather you experience what the Germans call FKK or freikorperkultur or literally free body culture or what we would call 'naturalism'. All along the lake sides in small boats and large, there are people relaxing, fishing, swimming, eating, chatting in the nude. Finding people with clothes on is a rarity. Mind you it so hot that it seems an inherently sensible attitude.
When the engine stopped again the next morning we decided we needed to get it sorted out and so we stopped at a hire boat base in Furstenberg. The base said they could help but decided in the early evening that they didn't have time so contacted another person who turned up about 8pm to help. We had figured by now that the most sensible strategy was to simply change the fuel filters (3 of them) before doing anything else. Our engineer tried to unscrew the filters but they wouldn't budge. So he agreed to come back the next morning - Saturday. In East Germany Saturday is pretty sacred unlike in West Germany, and generally everything is closed except for the odd large supermarket.
Next morning he came back with the mother of all oil filter wrenches and quickly replaced the filters and started her up. The problem didn't re-occur and hasn't since so all is well.
Whilst we were in Furstenberg we visited Ravensbruck, the concentration camp where women and children were held and worse, during the war. It was a very moving experience. We were virtually the only people there. The actual camp was turned into a Soviet Army base after the war so there is very little of the actual camp left, but there are many exhibits and the area of the camp is preserved as a memorial. We were surprised to see plaques describing the role of Siemens in the camp as they used forced labour in their electrical factories which were situated next door. A statue by the entrance to the main camp caught our eye. 
Women who were considered uncooperative were given a yellow triangle to wear so that they would receive greater punishment. The statue has one of these triangles.
From Furstenberg we decided to spend the weekend anchored in the Grosser Lychensee. Lovely quiet calm moorings with boats coming and going and hot - very hot. 
We did some more painting and applied some teak restorer to the main deck but it was generally too hot to do anything. We have some ice cream in the freezer which we are fantasizing about for after dinner tonight. We will add some advocaat, stewed rhubarb and wild berries and make a refreshing sundae. The fridge is not coping well in this heat but we do have cold beer. We know of the bad storm in Auckland over the weekend. There couldn't be more of a contrast with the weather here now. It looks like it will last through this week at least.
