August 2022 – Part 2
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After finding a great mooring along the Speicher Promenade, part of the Schweriner See, and a brief exploration of our immediate surroundings, we settled easily into Schwerin for the night and had a good night’s sleep, ready to explore the town the next day. We ended up staying five days here as it seemed to have a lot to offer, and as the heat was becoming unbearable it was a perfect spot for plenty of dipping into the lake for us all, and for the dogs in particular a small area nearby provided access into the cooling waters to play.
Next morning we left the dogs on the boat (it would have been far too hot for them to be dragged around the town) while we walked into the town, which was a pretty place, full of interesting looking buildings, and took a little journey on the sight-seeing train to see as much of the area as possible, then strolled around the town a little more until the heat beat us into submission and we headed back to the dogs, the boat and the beautiful cool water. Rather than take the dogs for a walk we took them into the water with us (although Casper was pretty freaked out, and that rubbed off on Pip quite quickly).
Day two in Schwerin and we headed off to visit the Schloss – we thought we had to buy our tickets at a nearby museum so hung around there for a while waiting for it to open, until we realised that maybe if we headed to the schloss we could get them there, which turned out in fact to be the correct ‘museum’ for buying the tickets. Once inside, we had a fantastic time following the audio-guided tour around the various rooms, some of which were literally breathtaking and needed to be seen to be believed.
Leaving the castle grounds, we walked into the town to grab a coffee and have a sit-down to recover ourselves, choosing a corner café where a local piano player turned up nearby, set up his collapsible piano and started playing some lovely tunes that apparently he had composed himself.
Moving on, we walked through the cobbled streets, finding some quirky and interesting little spots along the way.
We spent our last evening with Kai and Marjam on their boat, and left the next day (in the rain) to retrace our ‘footsteps’ and begin our journey to Hanover in readiness for the arrival of our next guests, Jane and Bob. The rain cleared up as the morning progressed, and our first stop was back in Garwitzhaven at Matzlow, an almost eight hour journey, where luckily I had been able to pre-book Shensi in for the night so we were sure of a berth at the end of this long day, and able to re-fill our water tank and prepare for the next leg.
Once again we were up early (for us) and 8.30 saw us waiting in lovely weather at the next schleuse for its 9am opening but despite our early arrival, it was still forty minutes before we exited the schleuse out the other side. Now on the Muritz-Elde Wasserstrasse, which was extremely quiet this time round, we cruised for about six hours until we came across a place to stop for the night which had a good clearing for the dogs to enjoy, and where we had a nice quiet evening.
Our destination the next day was Plau-am-See, and although busier than the previous day, there was very little traffic on the river and we made good time to Plau, arriving at the same little jetty that we had used before. Now that we knew the area (slightly) we were able to shop quickly and later to give the dogs a decent walk along the riverside.
Because we were on a mission to get to Hanover, we were only making single night stops for now, so we left Plau am See and pushed on to Muritz Lake (apparently the biggest lake in Germany, and the second biggest in Europe), anchoring a way from shore where there was a big wooded area, ideal for the dogs to race around, but less so for us to have any sort of walk. During the night the wind blew up quite strongly, but fortunately the boat stayed in place (obviously due to good captaining expertise). Unfortunately, although the anchor came up easily enough, the additional weights at the side were more of a challenge and we became grounded for a very short while until we could resolve the problem.
Another long cruising day, with a couple of hold-ups at locks along the way, took us into the next lake, Labusee, and once again we anchored up for the night. Lucky for me, I was able to row the dogs to land for a couple of walks during our stop-over, and Nicki got to stay behind and guard the boat from any marauding pirates. After a nice evening and peaceful night, we were up and preparing for our departure – up-anchor and clean it off, stow the inflatable, all our final checks, and we were ready to go. The weather had turned a little cooler, but was still lovely and hot as the day wore on. From Labusee we moved into the Muritz-Havel Wasserstrasse where we encountered delays again at the various locks, but had a good journey otherwise and arrived at our target of Schleuse Brederiche.
From Schleuse Brederiche we headed onto the Obere-Havel Wasserstrasse, aiming for Burgwal – a little town that we had visited previously and enjoyed. This time round however, in addition to the nearby little sandy beach we found a forest a short distance away that surrounded some old gravel pits – seemingly perfect for nude bathing, as well as a great walk for the dogs. Our mooring was immediately next to a water hose (so we took the opportunity to top up our tank) and under a damson tree that was full to bursting with fruit so we relieved it of its burdens – not too much but enough for us.
With the weather still very, very hot, we moved on along the wasserstrasse to Zehdenick, to an easy mooring in the town so that we could stop for a little bit of food shopping. We noticed several unusual metal bollards outside of some entrances, all seemingly the same style and image
Shopping completed, we carried on and joined the Malzerkanal and at this point the weather became muggy and then suddenly a full-on thunder and lightening storm began – just as we were approaching our last schleuse (Schleuse Liebenwalde) of the day. Locked in, with Nicki feeding the ropes at the bow, the heavens opened – thunder, lightening, rain – and we were absolutely drenched within minutes. Still, our hoped-for destination on the other side of the schleuse was free and we very quickly moved onto it to tie up for the night. The rain continued most of that afternoon and evening, so the dogs didn’t get out for a decent walk even though we opened the door for them to investigate on their own.
We had intended to only stay in this spot for one night, but with the poor weather and a little bit of apathy creeping in, we ended up staying for two nights – we were pretty sure at this point that we were making good time to Hanover and had some space to breathe. Yet again, we came across fruit laden damson trees nearby, along with some apple trees, so spent a little while picking more fruit for stewing and freezing. Waking up on our final day here, with the weather much more pleasant after the storm, we carried on to our first schleuse where we had two disappointments – annoyingly, we managed to burst a fender as we approached the waiting area, and once tied up we realised that we would have to wait over an hour and a half for the schleuse to open its gates for us. However, in the end it was only about a 45 minute wait and we were on our way again. Now we could really crack on, and we were making reasonable time when we arrived at Schleuse Spandau on the Spree Oder Wasserstrasse and settled on the waiting area for the schleuse to open for us. But then disaster struck when a very kind boater steered across to us to advise that the schleuse was closed (*) until early September – now we would have to take a different (longer) route to get to Hanover and we had already used up our one day contingency at Schleuse Liebenwalde. (* Due to the excessive heat and lack of rainfall and the subsequent low water levels, Berlin had taken the decision to close its major schleuses from mid-August until early September (or maybe even later, depending on how things go) to try and to retain its current water levels, as it is possible that they will be losing around 1cm of water a day from the town supplies soon and they are trying to now conserve all they can.) Frustrated and annoyed, we turned around and found a mooring spot where we could work out what to do and how to move forward, which seemed to take the form of very, very long travelling days from hereon in. Along with this major disappointment, we had previously arranged to meet up with Caro in Branderburg the next day, where Catherine had kindly reserved us a berth with them in their marina for the night, but we no longer felt that we would have the time to achieve that destination, and even if we did, we would probably be far too tired to socialise, so we had to postpone our catch-up for another day/season.
With time at a premium, we were up and running at 7.20am (unheard of, especially for Nicki) and today we joined the Havel Oder Wasserstrasse, stopping at a bunker station along the way for a fuel and water top-up (diesel 2.40/litre).
We eventually arrived at the lovely stretch of mooring at Potsdam, having travelled for seven hours, and both we and the dogs were ready to leave Shensi and stretch our legs for a while, so we headed off towards an area of parkland that I had cycled through with Amy on our previous visit. On our way there we passed information boards that gave some fascinating history of the area – after World War 2 there used to be a waterway border control on this stretch of the waterway, which was achieved by closing it off with barges moored across the river, and where German officers checked every vehicle that wished to pass through. Attempts were often made to cross through the barrier undetected, including one where one brave sole made his escape in a homemade diving suit, swimming through the holes in the rusted barges!
The park itself turned out to be vast, and contained some real treasures – the beautiful Cecilianhof Schloss (where the leaders of the time, Truman, Stalin and Churchill, met for the famous Potsdam Conference) with its very ornate exterior; in the grounds, an interesting old building – a grotto built in the 1700s built by a Prussian king and used as a hidden retreat for dining and tea drinking, but now awaiting restoration.
Leaving Potsdam the following morning (8am start) the water was a murky green as far as you could see – which wasn’t that far as there was a very heavy mist across the water, and both had disappeared by mid-morning. Our more-than-nine hours of cruising took us though lakes and rivers which were all reasonably quiet, until we found that night’s mooring at Seedorf, a quiet berth along the Elbe Havel Wasserstrasse.
Last day of August, and we are now travelling on the Mittelland Kanal, having started off at 7.15am in lovely morning sunshine. Aside from two schleuses (one with a rise of 18 metres) we had an uneventful day with good weather for the whole of our ten hours of cruising, stopping at the end of a commercial quay at Calvorde.
So that’s the end of August and the question remains …. will we reach Hanover in time to meet up with Bob and Jane on 3rd September? Next installment will provide the answer.
