To get out of the heat of the city I spent the weekend at this idyllic spot 45 mins north of…read moreHamburg. It is an old mill building that has been chopped and changed through the years, eventually emerging in its current incarnation as a small family run hotel. The place has something magic about it. It's ideal for fans of the 1990s TV series Dawson's Creek, as there's a beautiful white painted wooden terrace where you can spend a summer's evening enjoying the breeze from the lake. We swam in the lake, which is pretty unspoiled, and when I got bored of that, I took a swim in the hotel's pool followed by a sauna. Next to my bedroom (number 1) there was a little private terrace facing a little stream behind the building where I was able to hide myself away totally undisturbed with my books, before taking a surprisingly sophisticated dinner on the Dawson's Creek Terrace. I returned to Berlin relaxed, blissed out and fully recharged. I'm curious to come back in winter, when I'm told the lake freezes over and the surrounding fields will be covered in snow. There's a big rambling lobby with lots of nooks and crannies, where I can imagine tucking into some books by the fire in winter, possibly while listening to Schubert's 'Winterreise' on my ipod. Despite the intimate, family run nature of the place, I got the idea that the staff are pretty worldly, this would definitely be a place where same sex or mixed race couples would feel totally at home, with or without young kids.