More to do in Spreewald

There is more to do in Spreewald than boats tours. Of course you can canoe but you can explore on land as well. We didn't go hiking because we went swimming in the Spreewelten Bad in Luebbenau and visited the Penguins. It's a fun swimming pool with a wave pool, stream channel, giant slide, sauna village with many different saunas outside and penguins, Yeah real ones. From the water outside you can see them behind a glass and twice a day they get fed. I don't know why but penguins really look cute.

                       Look at these penguins :-)

We also had a look at the Cucumber museum (Gurkenmuseum). It's small but cute and showing the traditional old style and some information about Spreewaelder life and cucumbers.

 Gewuerzgurken

 Senfgurken

A Boatstour in Spreewald

Last weekend we went for an outing to the Spreewald. We drove the Berliner Ring A 13 direction Cottbus taking the exit Luebben. From Berlin Wilmersdorf it takes less than an hour.
Luebben -at the heart of Spreewald - is a cute little town offering diverse cultural and leisure activities.

Schloss Luebben (castle)

We reached our hotel and then later went to the harbor in Luebben. Very near the museum castle Luebben. At the entrance of the harbor we took a boats tour - the famous "Kahnfahrt" in the many canals of the Spree. You can go in traditional boats and take different tours, even a tour at night. We went for a round trip for two hours but they also offer longer tours. Our boats driver was very talkative -probably they all have to be- and he mostly seemed to complain about the tourists renting canoes. Often they don't know how to canoe probably and give the boat drivers like him a hard time ... at least according to him. We were lucky to have nice sunny weather, and not too many mosquitoes. It was also busy in the canals and some boats with young guys obviously had a lot too drink and were rocking the boat. Their poor driver had to balance the boat


We enjoyed our boats tour. It was very calming and relaxing.

The boats can "park" on the side at the stalls for a rest and taste of traditional pickled cucumbers

 You can see a "Heuschober"

A box to keep the fishes cool especially at the time when there were no fridges

We stopped at Lehde for a small break but only to get eaten up by mosquito However there is a museum where you can learn about Spreewald history but we didn't have enough time to visit it.


Back on land:
Near the harbor there is a small traditional market selling hand made baskets, pottery items and of course various pickled cucumbers.

 Bread baked in a wooden oven   

                                                                                                All the famous Spreewald specialties on sale

Most famous is the pickled cucumber in vinegar (saure Gurke) but the cucumbers are also pickled in mustard  (Senfgurke) or garlic (Knoblauchgurke) or Chilly or pepper (Pfeffergurke) or other herbs.

Optikpark Rathenow

From Berlin Wilmersdorf to Rathenow it takes less than 1.5 hour by car. Rathenow is around 80 km from Berlin and a very worthwhile outing for a weekend. At least we really enjoyed it.

Rathenow - 800 years old city- is also called "Stadt der Optik" because it has been known for its optical industry in Germany. It also lies in the beautiful Havelland and offers nature and beatuty.

Here some pictures from our fun day at the Optikpark Rathenow

Guelper See in Brandenburg, nearby Berlin - A Bird Sanctuary

Recently on the long weekend we've been to the Guelper See. The lake is around 70 km west from Berlin (district Havelland) and 660 ha big. It's a nature reserve, a bird sanctuary. Lots of birds are migrating there. There are also many different types of ducks which we never heard of before. Although we're not that much into birds, I really enjoyed hearing birds chirping just all the time.
We made a nice cycle tour and enjoyed the nature, just being in the country is so relaxing. I slept well and felt rested well. We also saw some other animals like horses, sheep, butterflies, mosquito. Yeah, well next time we'll go near a water body should remember to take some mosquito repellent. Of course like usual, the weather in Germany always keeps changing, but luckily we had almost no rain. Basically just on our way home.
Here some pics from our adventure on the cycles:

Near this area you'll find many storks. There were a few too and here's a Stork nest. We happen to see a stork flying to this nest. But we were too far to take a good picture.

Some more impressions of the trip: