Berlin: Off through Mitte! - Cruise through the capital

We are right in the middle of the engine room of power! Or as they say here: right in the middle. Okay, not quite - we're standing outside on deck under a blue sky and instead of the pounding of the pistons and the hissing of the valves, there's music in the Berlin air. It comes from a man in a frock coat and top hat, who elicits it by cranking his barrel organ - sorry - his organ grinder. An Asian couple take a selfie and ask the title of the song in English. Do you understand the answer? "Bolle recently travelled to Whitsun".

At the navel of Germany

As we know, however, the destination of Bolle's trip was Pankow, not Mitte. Never mind, that was a long time ago. The hordes of tourists streaming across the Spreebogen today have arrived at their destination: In the heart chamber of democracy, at the navel of Germany, or whatever else you want to call the country's political pole from the outside. The city itself certainly doesn't give a damn.

The euphoria is also somewhat limited among the countless school classes that have found their way here from all corners of the country. Nevertheless, every opportunity for Insta and Tiktok is utilised. A women's tour group from the Rhineland is all the more enthusiastic: in the Wilhelmsgarten, against the backdrop of the Federal Chancellery, there is a souvenir photo with a Merkel diamond.

Bratwurst and flowing hair

But despite the holiday mood, appearances should not deceive: It's Monday, a working day in the capital too, and the cogs of political life are turning like clockwork: a large party from Bavaria is handing out sausages at an advertising stand, while a well-known MP from the same federal state, but of a completely different parliamentary colour, hurries past with his hair flowing and hurries towards the Paul Löbe House, his jacket under one arm, a pile of files under the other.

The summer sun, which is already low in the sky, doesn't let itself be outdone and really gets going. Fortunately, we don't have to let ourselves be infected by the "janzen Jewühl". Because our charter trip through Berlin has only just begun. It is the first day, the first shore leave, and even though we are already framed by reflective façades, everything had started in the green in the morning.

Cruise starts in Potsdam

So let's turn the clock back a few hours and we're in Potsdam marina. We picked up our boat here on the Havel, a very comfortable Linssen Grand Sturdy 35 AC that is perfectly suited to the area. Her name could hardly be more fitting: "Sanssouci". That could be the programme.

The former royal seat is one of four bases of East-West Charter, ideally located to realise the plan for the coming week: Our Berlin tour will take us clockwise along the Havel, Spree, Dahme and Teltow Canal. The focus will be on the centre of the metropolis, first in the west, then in the east. So, off through the centre!

We cast off shortly after nine o'clock. "Sanssouci" is heading north. Yesterday there was a lot of Sunday traffic, today the Havel is still empty. Our destination for the day is the public 24-hour mooring on the Bundesratsufer. We have about 30 kilometres ahead of us, plus the Charlottenburg lock. We reckon it will take us about four hours.

On the Kladower Seenstrecke

The sky is already blue in the morning. Via the Neue Fahrt, we pass the centre of Potsdam with the imposing dome of the Nikolaikirche and arrive at the Tiefen See. Then the Glienicke Bridge, where spies were exchanged during the Cold War. The Iron Curtain ran through the middle of the river here. This will not be the only encounter with the former border.

The Jungfernsee is now ahead, wide and empty, including the striking Heilandskirche church in front of the wooded shore on the port side. A long banner advertises a sports boat service in a few weeks' time. After the narrows, the Kladow stretch of lake follows, stretching up to Spandau in the north. There is no sign of the nearby city. Wooded hills adorn the banks, with pretty little castles peeking out here and there.

Now we are Berliners

At the Pfaueninsel, the Brandenburg state border turns westwards; we are now in Berlin territory and will remain so until the last day of the journey. Kälberwerder now passes to starboard and shortly afterwards the wide entrance to the Großer Wannsee with its villas. We stay on the Kladow side with its sailing harbours and boathouses, while the heights of the Grunewald forest stretch along to the right. A fisherman crosses our stern. We see the first sail of the morning ahead of us.

It's eleven o'clock when our steel displacer reaches the end of the Kladow lake section and enters the Spandauer Havel. It slowly comes to life: with walkers on the banks, two very sprightly pensioners in sea kayaks and a dinghy with a relaxed contemporary right in front of our bow. Harbours, houseboats and arbours on both sides of the canal. Where is it, the metropolis of millions?

Relax in Spandau

Very close! The Freybrücke bridge carries Heerstraße, one of Berlin's major axes. And the first industrial buildings with mountains of scrap metal are already coming into view. The White Fleet is moored on the shore, with the "Havelglück", "Havelblick" and others still at rest. "Entspandau mal!" advises a spray-painted slogan. The district's town hall is covered in scaffolding and the S-Bahn rolls overhead. We have arrived in the city.

Our Linssen leaves the Havel and turns to starboard into the confluence with the Spree - and thus into the Spree-Oder waterway. Grabs, excavators and chimneys rise out of a cloud of concrete dust into the blue. At the hungry Reuter West cogeneration plant, a barge with an empty lighter is just casting off, but the next load of coal is already waiting in the fairway. We moor up in front of the new Charlottenburg lock, wait for the green light, and shortly afterwards we can relax and move upwards by about a metre.

The city centre Spree

Exit, straight ahead into the Westhafen Canal. This is dead straight, flanked by sheet piling, with warehouses, administrative offices and car parks, a contrast to the Charlottenburg connecting canal that follows. Its clinkered embankment dates back to imperial times and is overgrown in many places.

Shortly before one o'clock, we come to the city centre Spree, which has been allowed to retain its natural course and winds its way through the city in four large loops. You can see old buildings, but not only, especially on the New Viking Embankment: accurate concrete, modern living and working. On the ground floor there is company yoga, a large gong in the room.

Happiness on the Bundesratsufer

Finally, our destination comes into view behind sprawling willows, the public 24-hour mooring on the Bundesratsufer. The tension rises - and then relief: only one other charter boat is still moored here, the crew already seems to be on shore leave. In the high season, you need a lot more luck. Meanwhile, joggers are out and about on the promenade. The first autumn colours in the leaves all around.

We are right in front of the Lessing Bridge, the perfect starting point for the short stage tomorrow. This is because the special navigation regulations for the next section of the Spree-Oder waterway begin at the bridge: the next six kilometres to the Mühlendamm lock are closed to pleasure craft without a VHF radio between 10.30 am and 7 pm - including us. It's a good thing we're already here, otherwise we'd have to leave even earlier.

Ready to go ashore!

Ready for shore leave! The sights follow one after the other on our zigzag route through the west of the Mitte district: first along the riverbank and over the Luther Bridge to Bellevue Palace, then on winding paths through the Tiergarten to the Great Star with the Victory Column, at the top of which Victoria shines in golden glory.

A little way along Straße des 17. Juni before we turn left again into the undergrowth to return to the water - and to the beginning of this history at the Spreebogen: the Haus der Kulturen, the wasteland of Platz der Republik, and finally the Reichstag, this immortal block of German history and the present. If the mass of people were a measure of interest in democratic participation, there would be no need to be afraid.

Sundowner in the Spreebogenpark

However, our tour of the countryside doesn't end in Wilhelmsgarten between the Paul Löbe House and the Chancellery, between the smell of bratwurst and the sounds of an organ grinder, but a little further on, across the Spreebogenpark, on Ludwig-Erhard-Ufer in two folding chairs at the Capital Beach Bar. Chill out with ice in your long drink and an unobstructed view over the river, while the low sun beats glistening sparks on the cubist glass façades opposite.

We wake up to a calm, warm and cloudless morning. The plan is clear: a mooring at Schiffbauerdamm, just three kilometres away. How crowded will it be? We'll see. We cast off at a quarter past nine. There's not much going on, the city still seems to be rubbing the sleep out of its eyes. Only the police are already at the start.

A great spectacle

The few kilometres that follow are some of the most spectacular that Europe has to offer for inland skippers. We now experience yesterday's landmarks from the water: From Bellevue Palace, in whose garden the marquee for the citizens' festival at the weekend has already been erected, to the Chancellery, the Cube and the main railway station, to the point where democracy crosses the river and not only symbolically unites West and East.

This refers to the passage between Paul Löbe House and Marie-Elisabeth Lüders House, connected by a bridge. Both buildings are used by the Bundestag. The ensemble is all the more significant because the city, the country and the world were also divided at this point in the heart of Berlin.

Eight warning crosses

The eight white crosses on the bank below the Reichstag are easy to miss if you look at the surrounding architecture: the memorial commemorates the people who died here between 1962 and 1989 while trying to escape. There were 15 in total, five women and ten men, murdered by their own state, most of them shot. The first victim was 21-year-old Dorit Schmiel in 1962, the last was Chris Gueffroy, aged 30. He died nine months before the fall of the Wall.

At 9.50 a.m. we moor at the public 24-hour jetty on Schiffbauerdamm. We're lucky here too: there's still a free choice. We take the box seat right at the front and get ready for the second part of our exploration of Mitte. This time it's the east. We start within sight of our berth at Friedrichsstraße station and the Tränenpalast, the former check-in and departure hall, and stroll along Friedrichsstraße towards Unter den Linden.

The sound of the big city

The magnificent boulevard is flooded with sunlight and the sound of the big city hovers over everything. A sharp contrast to the shady silence inside the Neue Wache. On to Museum Island to the now all-dominating palace with its monumental facades. The long-disputed reconstruction, which only opened in 2020, seven decades after the original war ruins were blown up, definitely remains a statement. The last building to stand here was the similarly sober, geometric Palace of the Republic of the GDR, derided by its own people as the Palazzo Prozzo and Erich's Lamp Shop. It is also a thing of the past. Wind of change!

Continue eastwards, across the Spree to the Marx-Engels-Forum, unfortunately a cordoned-off building site, until we treat ourselves to a break and spaghetti carbonara (as a sundae) at the foot of the TV tower in Café La Luna, surrounded by wasps. Then to the World Time Clock on Alex and through the Nikolai Quarter, this quiet oasis in the centre of Mitte. And because a second break never hurts, we treat ourselves to another one, this time under the green parasols of the Georgbräu brewery on the banks of the Spree.

We walk into the tourist trap

Time to head back along Leipziger Straße, a canyon of prefabricated buildings flanked by cheerful traffic lights. Once to Checkpoint Charlie, and then via Wilhelmstraße straight to Pariser Platz and the Brandenburg Gate, where we come full circle.

For the evening, we are drawn to Hackescher Markt, where we end up in a tourist trap, are addressed by the waiter in English and are served a dried-out broiler. But the walk back to the mooring via the now deserted Museum Island leaves a lasting impression. In the light of the lanterns, the bullet holes from the spring of 1945 are still visible in the colonnades of the Alte Nationalgalerie. A little further on, on the steps to the entrance of the Bode Museum, a young Ukrainian woman is playing Brahms.

Centre is passé

At nine o'clock we vacate our berth on Schiffbauerdamm and the space is immediately taken over by a happy newcomer. Because the pier is full. The aroma of coffee and fresh bread rolls from a riverside café drifts across the water as we continue along the Spree, following in the footsteps of the previous day, until after the Mühlendamm lock we are no longer bound by the time limit. The journey through Berlin continues, only Mitte is now passé.

To be continued

Precinct information

Our boat

We travelled on a Linssen Grand Sturdy 35 A C Intero from EastWest Charter (see below): Length: 10.70 m, width: 3.40 m, beds: 4 (in 2 double cabins with shower and WC). The steel displacement vessel is very extensively equipped, including bow and stern thruster, chart plotter and WLAN with unlimited data volume. The hire price is from €298 per day for a minimum stay of seven nights. An inland boating licence is required for the boat and area.

Charter

The boat belongs to the fleet of EastWest Charter. The company has a total of four bases in north-east Germany: Zehdenick, Potsdam, Kröslin and Rechlin. They offer various Linssen models in different sizes and with different numbers of berths. East-West Charter is a member of the Linssen Boating Holidays association. Contact: EastWest Charter, Waldstrasse 10, 16792 Zehdenick, Tel. 03307 4218045.

Nautical literature

• Planning map "Waterways Berlin": Potsdam to Scharmützelsee. Edition Maritim: coloured folding map (scale 1:65,000), ISBN: 978-3- 667-12161-5, 24,90 €.
• Cruising guide "From Berlin to Müritz. With Mecklenburger Kleinseenplatte". Edition Maritim: 96 p., hardcover, ISBN: 978-3-667-12182-0, 34,90 €.
• Inland map atlas 3: "Berlin and Brandenburg". Card yard: 30 internal maps at a scale of 1:40,000, 19 detailed maps at a scale of 1:25,000 to 1:20,000, format: A3, ISBN: 978-3- 944082-00-4, 49.90 €.

Public moorings

The greater Berlin area has an excellent commercial nautical infrastructure that fulfils all requirements. There are also 16 public moorings for pleasure craft. Their use is mostly free of charge, but there is no service and use is limited to 24 hours.

There are big differences in terms of location and connections. In the Berlin-Mitte area described above, they are the only option for an overnight stay. However, you can easily reach the city centre from other parts of the city by public transport. We used the following two moorings: Bundesratsufer (Spree-Oder waterway, km 11.9 RU, below the Lessing Bridge) and Schiffbauerdamm (SOWkm 15.3 RU, above the Marschall Bridge).

Inner-city Spree

From 1 April to 31 October, daily between 10.30 a.m. and 7 p.m., navigation on the Spree-Oder waterway between km 12.01 (Lessing Bridge) and km 17.8 (Mühlendamm Lock) is only permitted for vessels equipped with a registered, approved and operational VHF radiotelephone. This also applies to pleasure craft. All other boats must pass outside this restricted period. Mooring at the Schiffbauerdamm jetty is permitted.