The Spreewald by water

It seems like I end up in the Spreewald once every summer, but never had I explored it on the water. When my team was planning a day out, I took the lead and booked some canoes. It was the last week of August and after some really hot weather, it seemed like fall was on its way. The weekend had been dreary and this morning clouds were hanging over Berlin, with about 19 degrees. But the forecast for the Spreewald looked better. So we packed layers, but also sunglasses and made our way to Lübbenau by train.

While one guy explained the route to us, another put the 2 canoes in the water. We were ready to go! Close to Lübbenau we saw more canoers and kayakers leaving for a trip on the Spreewald’s waterways, but since there are so many options, it quickly spread out and at times we had the whole road ahead to ourselves. This may be a good thing, because we had to get the hang of it first. We zigzagged from the left bank to the right bank and back, trying to get coordinated. It was hilarious. Some ducks passed us, neatly swimming in a row.

The first part of the trip was a wider river, but later we turned into some smaller canals that connected to the main waterways. Especially in those smaller canals it was so beautiful. The reflections of the trees in the water was amazing. And even though it was the end of summer, everything was incredibly green. The sun had come out and I was comfortable in a T-shirt, stopping at times to take a cup of ice tea and feel the warmth.

The first half of the route took us the village Leipe, where I’d planned a lunch. The stretch took us a fair bit longer than expected though. It didn’t help that part of the route that was drawn on our maps had a “don’t enter” sign. But underneath the sign was a short explanation that small boats could pass carrying their boat over land. So my group took the left turn anyway. The others though… were confused by the message and turned around. I saw some construction and thought we were at the restaurant, so my colleagues started singing “we are the champions”, so happy to arrive and have some food. But we got to a lock under construction and had to get out of the boat to carry it to the other side. From there we continued to paddle for a little bit before seeing our real destination: the Froschkönig restaurant.

We happily dragged our boat on the shore, singing we are the champions once again. We sat down in the beautiful garden, enjoying the sun and ordered a well-deserved drink. All we had to do was wait for the others to arrive. I went to check at the canoe parking if there was any sign of them. Later my colleague went to check. We tried to call, but reception was poor on the water. It was starting to take very long. We didn’t know they’d turned around at the sign, so when they finally arrived we were so relieved. It was already 3.15 pm and we were finally ordering lunch.

After a delicious local meal, mine was stewed cucumbers with mince and potatoes, we hopped back in the boat. I was fearing we had another 2,5 – 3 hours of paddling to go, at least at the pace we were going. But surprisingly it went super fast. As we left Leipe we saw a beaver swimming. A man on a bridge yelled not to go so fast. We passed another biergarten. And then we hit the second lock. The other boat had come this way and said someone had helped them get through. This time there was nobody around and we had to figure out the self-service lock ourselves. I stayed in the canoe and felt us slowly going down with the water level.

On the other side of the lock it was quiet again. Well, apart from us. The others were in front of us and at times I could hear their laughs. My colleagues behind me got the energy through singing Beyonce and we got into a nice rhythm. We seemed to fly over the water and did the stretch back to Lübbenau in about 1,5 hours. It was great to be out of the city again, into the green and being active. My hands and arms were happy we’d arrived though. It had been a fun, but long day. In the train home we were all pretty quiet.