…fair-Cheese-are…

…far-chi-czar?

So many wrong ways to say the name of this little vacation village. Even after talking with some native German speakers in Leipzig the answer was elusive. It wasn’t until we met our host Brigit at Berlin HauptBahnhof that we were given the correct pronunciation. 

No, I did not make a recording of it. Yes, I know I should have.

The important thing to remember in pronouncing Ferchesar is the emphasis is on the ‘che’ part of the name. After that you do your best to pronounce it correctly and proceed to get it wrong every single time. 

… far-Sha-sar…

If you are familiar with the comedy show Brooklyn 99 this is similar to how Jake tries to say “Nikolaj”. Throughout the entire run no matter how he says “Nikolaj” he is never correct. It is their running joke.

Ferchesar was a unique workaway experience because our host did not stay with us. She met us at Berlin’s main train station and we all took the RE4 back to Nennhuasen. From there she drove us to Ferchesar (…fur-Tzi-shar… ?). We tried to get to know her as much as possible on the ride and subsequent dinner because we would not see her for several weeks. Brigit stayed the night with us, had breakfast, toured us around Rathenow, and then left for a vacation on the Greek Island of Milos. We had a gorgeous lakefront cottage completely to ourselves. She would not return until the day before we left for Portugal. 

Before we started our self-imposed isolation Brigit graciously drove us to buy groceries. Thankfully the Baker comes to Ferchesar on Thursday’s at 08:00 but doesn’t stay long. He pulls up in his bakery van, opens up the side of the van, honk his horn and starts selling. He had a selection of sweet and savoury breads, buns, and cakes. Once customers were done he was off like a shot to the next stop in his delivery route. If you were late that was your problem. I was not late.

…fur-She-sar…

This cottage had many of the things we needed. It had peace, quiet, slow pace, internet access, a boat, bikes, and firewood. We also had a healthy supply of beer, radlers, juice, and sparkling water. Lucky for us our host had just held a wedding party for friends at the cottage. She had purchased several large cases of each beverage and insisted we crack into them. I did my best. 

We had plenty of food to forage for around the cottage.

The village, however, lacked many of the services we needed. There were no grocery stores. The one cafe was only open on the weekend for 3 hours. The restaurant across the street only did catering. This lovely little village has basically nothing going on during the tourist off season. Why would it? No one is coming to spend their money so they went into hibernation. The residents can get everything they need from Rathenow which is only 12 km away by car (if you have one). So without grocery stores, restaurants, or banks felt kind of stranded. 

…fer-Chis-arrrr…

We eventually got used to the VBB Bus and Bahn app and realized that we weren’t as isolated as we thought. We used the bus (and train) to head into Berlin for two days of site seeing then a week later for another two day trip to Lutherstadt Wittenberg. In Berlin the main train station (Hauptbahnhoff) has a small and busy grocery store that allowed us to buy supplies. 

One small disaster we avoided occurred on our return trip from Berlin. Not only was the train delayed at Berlin station but it stopped and we were made to get off before we got final stop. Thankfully there were people who could understand the muffled train announcements and speak English. They helped us to figure out that a replacement train was coming. We would be late coming into Rathenow which meant we would probably end up missing the last bus into Ferchesar. 

…fr-Chee-sur?

This had me frantically searching for solutions. I messaged our host who had friends in town who we thought might come pick us up, but that didn’t happen. I messaged and called all the taxi companies in Rathenow but none of them answered. I looked up bus routes would get us even a little closer but none of them were running. When we arrived I even tried to sprint off the train to grab any available taxis. The platform was too crowded, I didn’t get anywhere fast. It looked like we would have to make the 12 Km walk back to Ferchesar. We had biked the route before and knew what we were in for if we had to walk it.

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I tried calling the cabs again to no avail. It wasn’t until about 10 minutes after we arrived that a taxi pulled up. It was for someone else though! I quickly talked (used Google Translate) to the driver and he promised to return. Guess what? He DID return! I almost cried. Then he drove that taxi like he stole it all the way back to Ferchesar. I gave him a health tip!

Ferchesar was great. After Leipzig (my personal favourite), Paris, the ferry rise, and Bryanston we NEEDED Ferchesar for everything that it was. Our host returned after her time in Greece and was pleased with the painting and organizing we managed to get done despite the rainy weather. She was worried that she had given us too much but the work load and the amount was good. Ferchesar while it lacked many things gave us the quiet, calm, and slow pace so we could recharge our batteries.

… fir-Chiz-ar!