66 Seen Weg: starting the walk

The 66 Seen Weg

With limited entertainment options due to the measures against Corona disease, nature is one of the few things we can enjoy outside of our homes. Regulations are loosening up and slowly parts of “normal” life are coming back, but it will be a while before we’ll be able to travel freely again. That’s why I needed a project. I’m not bored, but I need to feel that excitement again that comes with exploring new places and achieving goals. So when I found out about the long distance walk around Berlin, I had to know more. Off I go onto the 66 Seen Weg.

The path of the 66 Seen Weg, or 66 lakes road, takes you in a circle around Berlin, past many of the region’s lakes and waterways. The nice thing about this walk is that even though it’s long distance, you can reach each stage by public transportation from Berlin. Therefore I don’t need to book any hotels, but I get to enjoy the comforts of home every night. It’s also easy to take days off in between because you want a rest or the weather sucks.

Start in Potsdam

So on a nice spring day I hopped on the train to Potsdam, the capital of Brandenburg, where the first stage starts at the Brandenburg Gate. Berlin was celebrating 75 years of freedom after WW2 and I was celebrating the freedom of travel. Although I was only about 30 km away from home, I felt like I was on holiday. It was peaceful and quiet and I listened to the chirping of the birds.

First the walk focuses on Potsdam, a city with many palaces and gardens. You don’t take the direct route out of town, but zigzag past some of the main monuments. Potsdam has a big garden with some famous palaces like Sanssouci. The walk gives you a little tease by taking you through the edge of the park, with a view of the palace. Then it continues to the Ruinenberg, where you can see some ruins and an old water reservoir. Since it was a public holiday, loads of people were jogging through the park. I then walked past huge houses and through the Russian colony. Of course a loop of the Neuer Garten and the Belvedere palace had to be done too. After passing the Russian Orthodox church I said goodbye to Potsdam and followed the road to Nedlitz.

Via Nedlitz to Marquardt

For a while you walk over bike lanes and a country road. My guidebook actually suggested taking the bus, but I didn’t mind this part actually. In Nedlitz I walked through a typical German phenomenon: little gardens people can rent outside of their home. In these gardens people grow vegetables or have fruit trees, but there will also be a little bungalow or a caravan, making it more like a very crowded campsite with fences. People come here on the weekends to garden and sunbathe and honestly some look like I could permanently live there.

I continued through a very nice forested land with a waterway running alongside it. Unfortunately you couldn’t see very much of it because of the thick vegetation. Then I ended up walking along small roads through the meadows with cows grazing. After a busy road there was a path next to the canal and I found more holiday house gardens. The day finished with what my guidebook called a romantic parkland. It was a very pretty park at the Marquardt mansion. In Marquardt I found the tiniest train station (basically a platform) where you couldn’t even buy a ticket. Luckily a train showed up and I was on my way back to Berlin.

Day 2 Marquardt to Brieselang

The next day I continued again in Marquardt and followed those same train tracks for a while. There was an old train station that was covered in plants. A family, young girl, mum and grandpa, came walking towards me, the mum explaining that I was also out for a walk, just like them. Then I turned away from the tracks and into the farmland. There were massive fields of yellow canola and fields with tiny plants that were being watered. Unfortunately the farmer was also watering the road and so I got a short shower too.

The road surprised me when it turned into a forest trail, then opened up into a field (where I got a little confused) and then into forest once again. The trail was so small I would have never found it without my book. And then I walked up a small ramp and stood by the side of the Havel Canal. The rest of my day was pretty much following the canal all the way to my end point in Brieselang. I was enjoying the water by my side and the quiet surroundings at first. Past Wustermark, there was no more quiet though. I walked underneath the highway. I was accompanied by the zooming sound of adults playing with remote control boats on the canal. The sun was burning in my neck and there was no shade. I picked up the pace and found a beautiful corner where some kids were jumping off a ship into the water. Close by, some forest started and a man had pitched a tent, put on some music and made himself comfortable. Then I hit the campground…

The entrance to the campground was closed off with fences and a sign said that due to corona virus they couldn’t let people pass through. I saw a guy on the other side and asked for directions. He pointed me all the way back to one of the bridges I had passed and said to walk on the other side of the canal. And so I went back past the comfy man and the swimming boys, over the bridge and… to another dead end! I ended up just googling the best route to the train station. I was so close to my destination for the day, but there simply wasn’t a scenic route.

My route went past a lonely road with some industry. A man biked by: “I’m sorry. I should have told you the campground route was cut off when I saw you earlier.” I laughed-cried. Why say that at all now? And I continued over the pavement, past traffic lights, the supermarket and the houses of Brieselang. I was grateful when I was at the train station and could sit in the shade. This stage wasn’t bad, but the end was just a bit dramatic.

The first 40,5km are done.