This is no longer rain! The water is pouring, pouring and pouring down from the sky, as if the "Great Lock Keeper" at the top has opened all the weirs at once. It's the beginning of October - and a pretty wet start to our autumn trip through the idyllic Uckermark. But at least we're so cosy, warm and dry in the saloon that we can relax and ponder, even when the dark ribbon of the Upper Havel outside disappears behind billowing grey veils and the old shipping town of Zehdenick, with its streaky panorama, has every hope of taking top spot on the doomsday scale at this gloomy moment. After all, the well-travelled poet Theodor Fontane already knew that "even the worst weather will pass" - and after his extensive and much travelled hikes through the Mark Brandenburg, he is undoubtedly an expert on this corner of the world.
We brave the rain at the Schiffermuseum
And so it is that, not a full hour later, we are actually shaking the last drops off our umbrella as we walk into town. When we picked up the boat at the jetty in Zehdenick Marina, we were given tips on where to go shopping ("Kaiser,s and Netto on Grünstraße") as well as another recommendation: the boat museum. This is housed in the hold of the "Carola", a restored large Finow barge weighing almost 300 tonnes.
The iron lady is firmly moored to the bulwark of the Elisabeth Mill, while the exhibition below deck tells many interesting stories: for example, of the "great times" at the turn of the 20th century, when 5,000 barges passed through the city every year and its five shipyards launched newbuildings on a piecework basis. Or the old banner of the "Einigkeit" boatmen's association from 1829, which was watched with such suspicion during the GDR era that determined members buried the hand-embroidered cloth in a secret place to keep it out of the hands of the state. Fortunately, it was remembered after reunification and was retrieved from the ground so that it can be seen in the museum today.
Berlin is built from the barge
It is said that Berlin was built from barges - and not only did most of these barges come from Zehdenick, but also the building material that they transported to the south and which literally made the metropolis on the Havel and Spree great: bricks. Clay was the region's gold: extensive deposits were discovered north of Zehdenick in 1888 and it wasn't long before they were being dug up with spades. On both sides of the Havel, the chimneys of the brickworks were now growing tall. Hundreds of millions of the fired blocks were carted out of the kilns onto the waiting barges and immediately shipped south to the restless building sites of the imperial capital.
Even though the clay dust has long since settled, the traces of this time are still clearly recognisable. We pass the numerous former clay pits on both sides of the quiet river as we slowly motor northwards in the white twilight the next morning. Long since flooded, they form a patchwork of water surfaces in the landscape. What you would hardly have guessed is that even the Great Wentow Lake in the north is of artificial origin.
Mildenberg sets the tone
Before we leave this ancient cultural landscape and immerse ourselves in the autumnal nature of the Uckermark, however, its most prominent monument is still on the programme: the Mildenberg Brickworks Park. Up until the 1960s, the state-owned company based here worked extra shifts - this time the Zehdenick bricks were intended to build socialism. But then prefabricated housing became fashionable and the site lost its importance again (even though production, which had become unprofitable, was not finally discontinued until 1991).
The Brickworks Park offers two harbour basins for visiting pleasure craft, we choose the smaller (and greener) one. Old harbour which is also home to a charter fleet, and walk along the jetty in front of the inn of the same name Alongside, where you can get an excellent impression of the regional cuisine with Perleberger Sülze and Märker Schmaus at moderate prices.
The harbour office and the modern sanitary facilities are located in the building opposite (electricity and water at the jetty, waste disposal, prices for guest berths: 1 euro/m, plus 1 euro/per person, electricity flat rate 2 euros).
It is only a short walk from the harbour to the entrance of the brickworks park; the brick vaults inside the historic Hoffmann ring kiln are used as an exhibition area and adventure museum, as are the machine halls, drying sheds and outdoor area. A lively, exciting piece of industrial history and a real must for all ages!
Golden autumn on the Upper Havel
The new day dawns clearly and autumn lets its colours play. The last wisps of mist have quickly disappeared from the shady embankments and a bright October sky stretches across the rolling hills that now lie before us. Lower the canopy and cast off!
One of the most beautiful stretches of water in the north-east now lies in front of the bow of our Linssen: over a distance of almost 30 kilometres, the Havel winds its way through the lush nature of the Uckermark in its glacial bed. Although the addition "mark" originally refers to a formerly contested, wild border region, there is no longer any sign of this.
In deep peace, the river makes loop after loop through forests and meadows. Beech and oak trees lean over and scatter yellow leaves in our wake. With this natural course, it is hardly noticeable that we are travelling on the developed Upper Havel waterway, so invisible are the bank reinforcements behind the reeds and foliage.
Sleepy locks with self-service
But every now and then a lock appears, in fact there are four on this stretch: after the confluence of the Wentow and Templin rivers (more on this later), the Schorfheide lock is the first. Like the two following barrages in Zaaren and Regow, it is surrounded by greenery. No lock keeper far and wide, self-service operation. Only an osprey keeps a sharp eye on us as we turn the request switch and wait for the lock to be opened.
Bredereiche with its (operated) lock marks the return to civilisation after three glorious hours in the autumnal solitude of the forest. At almost three metres, the lift here is significantly higher than in the first section, where only between 0.50 and 1.20 metres had to be overcome per barrage. Information on all the locks in the area (www.wsa-eberswalde.de).
The water town of Fürstenberg
Another seven kilometres and the north-west is blowing freshly across the bow again: our steel displacer has reached the Stolpsee, which now lies between us and our destination for the day - the water town of Fürstenberg. Through the short choppy waves, we head "right against" the strong blue of the Stolpsee and continue along the short stretch of the reed-lined Siggelhavel until we reach the Schwedtsee and head for the Fürstenberg yacht club's jetties on its western shore.
The club, which is beautifully located right next to the town park, is the best address in town for guest moorings - and just as centrally located. (Electricity and water at the jetty, waste disposal, prices for guest berths: 1.20 euros/m, plus 1 euro/per person, electricity 0.50 euros/kW/h, www.fbgy.de). The menu of the "Restaurant am Yachthafen" promises creative variations of regional cuisine.
Passing the baroque wing of the castle, which has been awaiting the announced conversion into an exclusive wellness hotel for several years, it is only a five-minute walk to the market square with the striking town church, the town's landmark. The yellow brick building in the so-called neo-Byzantine style was designed by Friedrich Wilhelm Buttel, a pupil of the Prussian architect Schinkel, and was completed in 1848. Shopping facilities are also on the way.
Traces of history
Today, tourism and local recreation bring most holidaymakers to the town surrounded by water; in addition to the Uckermark Lakes Nature Park (through which our cruise takes us), there are other reserves and protected landscape areas in the surrounding area. If you want to see more of it, you can go on a land tour by trolley via Lychen to Templin (www.erlebnisbahn.de).
Incidentally, Fürstenberg had other "guests" until shortly after reunification: The 2nd Soviet Guards Armoured Army was stationed in and around the town of 5,000 inhabitants. For decades, 30,000 soldiers waited here, far away from home and strictly shielded, in the middle of nowhere in the Mark Brandenburg for NATO.
Opposite the town, on the north-eastern shore of Lake Schwedt, is the memorial site of the Ravensbrück women's concentration camp. Almost 150,000 people were registered there from 1939 and the vast majority of them were murdered until the Red Army liberated the camp in May 1945. A depressing place and a dark contrast in the seemingly innocent natural surroundings. (Information and opening times: www.ravensbrueck.de)
Over the Woblitz to Lychen
We leave Fürstenberg behind us. Our course now leads us back to the Stolpsee, whose north-eastern end we are aiming for. This is where the waters of Lychen branch off from the OHW at kilometre 55. Through the Himmelpfort self-service lock, we reach the Haussee together with a water camper carrying the motorhome of a friendly couple from the Hunsrück.
But by the time we reach the beginning of the Woblitz, the somewhat sluggish pontoon boat is already a little way back. The almost three-kilometre-long Woblitz forms the natural, but navigable, outflow of the Großer Lychensee. The sun plays in the crowns of the tall deciduous forest on either side, but in its shade, down on the water, it is cool and autumnal. Despite all the daydreaming, you should not forget that the White Fleet is also travelling in the area ("MS Möwe", 28.50 m) and that you should drive carefully and with foresight, especially in narrow places.
There are three wooded islands on the Großer Lychensee: Hohes Werder, Langes Werder and Fischers Werder. Between the latter two, the buoyed fairway takes us to the narrow passage into the Lychener Stadtsee. Less than ten minutes later, we are alongside the floating jetty of the town harbour, directly below the old town with the mighty church tower of St. John (electricity and water at the jetty, prices for guest berths: 1 euro/m plus 1 euro/per person, electricity 1 euro/kW/h, toilets 3 x 0.10 euro).
Rafting and drawing pins
Lychen is located at the transition from the Uckermark Lakes to the Feldberg Lake District and is surrounded by water on all sides. In the Middle Ages, a ring wall was erected as further protection, which, despite all the military campaigns and changes of rule that the strategically located town had to endure over the course of time, has been preserved in parts, as has the early Gothic church from 1300.
Anyone interested in the history of rafting, on the other hand, which as organised shipping has long been an important and traditional industry in the Uckermark, can take a look at the small museum (Clara-Zetkin-Straße 1, www.floesserverein-lychen.de}.
A small thing with a big impact - this is how Lychen's real legacy to the world can be described: It was here, shortly after 1900, that watchmaker Johann Kirsten invented the drawing pin - only to sell the idea shortly afterwards to a local haberdashery manufacturer called Lindstedt for little money. A tragic miscalculation: while the simple makeshift pin made its new patent holder a millionaire, the watchmaker himself came away empty-handed. At least the inventor was not forgotten: today, what is probably the only drawing pin monument in the world bears witness to the ingenious idea of Johann Kirsten from Lychen.
As we stroll through the streets in the evening, we find that the windows of most restaurants are already dark - until we come across the "Gasthof am Tor", which has an invitingly warm glow from the inside. The rustic restaurant not only offers really good food, but also courtyard concerts in summer, from the sounds of the "Golden Twenties" to blues and Irish folk. A real tip! (Stargarder Straße, www.gasthof-am-stadttor.de)
We make one more detour
It's about time we made our way back to Zehdenick, but there's still one more detour on our list: Templin. The route to the "Pearl of the Uckermark" leads across the Templin waters; we had already passed its junction with the Upper Havel Waterway on our second day travelling north. First we follow the Havel, only this time down into the valley. Bredereiche passes by, then we pass through the forest locks of Zaaren and Schorfheide before turning to port into the Templin waters less than a kilometre later.
The tributary of the Upper Havel runs for a good 21 kilometres to the north-east; Templin itself is at kilometre 13. Ten years ago, the route we have now taken would not have led us to our destination - the town lock, which originally dates back to imperial times, had deteriorated to such an extent that it had to be closed due to the very tight budgets of the "workers' and peasants' state". It was not until 2005 that a new (automated) replacement was put into operation.
Muscle power counts in Kannenburg
However, the first lock on our way is not Templin, but the Kannenburg lock between the large and small Kuhwallsee lakes. A "technical surprise" of a very different kind awaits us there: all the work still has to be done by the lock keeper using muscle power, from opening and closing the gates to prising open the heavy wooden gates.
The lock chamber is designed with sloping walls due to the soft floor. However, a guide structure with bollards on the south side makes it easy to guide the lines. After crossing the four kilometre long Röddelinsee, we reach the Templiner Kanal, another navigable natural river. The reeds encroach far into the water here, and yellow leaves turn in the eddies of our wake.
Templin, the "Pearl of the Uckermark"
We receive a friendly welcome at the city harbour, whose jetty is located at the western end of Lake Templin. (Electricity and water at the jetty, waste disposal, prices for guest berths: 1.20 E/m, plus 1 E/per person, electricity flat rate 2 E/, www.bootsverleih-templin.info). A short walk into the town quickly reveals that Templin is not wrongly advertised as a pearl: The massive town wall made of field stones is the only one of its kind in northern Germany to be completely intact, and next to the baroque Maria Magdalenen Church, three town gates stretch their red-brick stepped gables into the sky.
The rectangular market square with the restored town hall in the centre reflects Prussian discipline and order, and the gilded royal eagle spreading its wings on the roof seems to glow in the low sun. Templin's chequered past is vividly told in the modern Museum of City History (Prenzlauer Tor, www.tourismus-service-templin.de). Then it's time to relax in the adventure pool at the Naturtherme Templin (Dargersdorfer Straße, www.naturthermetemplin.de), where you can enjoy the cosy warm brine water at any time of year and let your mind wander. That sounds like the perfect end to our autumn trip through the Uckermark - so what are we waiting for?
INFORMATION ABOUT THE DISTRICT
The charter company
5 star yacht charter offers its charter fleet of exclusive Linssen yachts at two bases: Berlin-Köpenick and Zehdenick on the Upper Havel waterway. Not only do the steel displacement yachts themselves meet absolute top standards, the equipment and the service offered before the cruise also deserve top marks. In addition to the Linssen Grand Sturdy 29.9 AC that we chartered, the company also offers other models from the Dutch shipyard for 2, 4 or 6 people.
Information and booking: 5 Sterne Yachtcharter, Schleusenstr. 13, 16792 Zehdenick, Tel. 03307-420 01 10. www.5sterne-yachtcharter.de
The boat
Linssen Grand Sturdy 29.9 AC Length: 9.35 metres, two double cabins, each with its own toilet and a shower at the front. Equipment: bow and stern thruster, electric anchor winch, heating, flat-screen TV, CD radio, canopy for the entire aft deck, fully equipped galley, duvets, towels, bathrobes, fleece blankets, toiletries. Weekly rates depending on season: 1600-2100 euros (90 euros discount on each subsequent week).
Distances (cruising stages)
- Zehdenick - Mildenberg 6 km
- Mildenberg - Fürstenberg 37 km
- Fürstenberg - Lychen 14 km
- Lychen - Templin 46 km
- Templin - Burgwall 24 km
- Burgwall - Zehdenick 8 km
- Total distance (travelled) 135 km
The waters
- Upper Havel Waterway from the mouth of the Havel-Oder waterway to Neustrelitz. Length: 97 km, locks: 11, maximum speed: 9 km/h (12 km/h on waters 250 m wide or more, 25 km/h on lakes and lake-like widenings outside the 100 m wide bank protection strip), water depth: 1.40 m, clearance height: 3.70 m.
- Wentow waters from the mouth of the Upper Havel Waterway (at OHW-km 24.8) to the Kleiner Wentowsee. Length: 11 km, locks: 1, maximum speed: 9 km/h (6 km/h on km 0-2, 12 km/h on waters 250 m wide and wider, 25 km/h on lakes and lake-like widenings outside the 100 m wide bank protection strip), water depth: 1.20 m, clearance height: 3.50 m.
- Templin waters from the mouth of the Upper Havel Waterway (at OHW-km 32.5) to the Zaarsee. Length: 22 km, locks: 2, maximum speed: 6 km/h (12 km/h on waters 250 m wide or more, 25 km/h on lakes and lake-like widenings outside the 100 m wide bank protection strip), water depth: 1.20 m, clearance height: 3.30 m.
- Lychener waters from the mouth of the Upper Havel Waterway (at OHW-km 55) to Lychen. Length: 7.5 km, locks: 1, maximum speed: 9 km/h (12 km/h on waters 250 m wide or more, 25 km/h on lakes and lake-like widenings outside the 100 m wide bank protection strip), water depth: 1.00 m, clearance height: 3.20 m.
Driving licence
The charter licence (with corresponding instruction) applies on the waters we sail on in the federal state of Brandenburg. Otherwise, an inland navigation licence (SBF Binnen) is mandatory for boats with more than 15 HP.
Authority
The waterways described are all within the remit of the Eberswalde Waterways and Shipping Office. Contact: Schneidemühlenweg 21, 16225 Eberswalde, Tel. 03334-27 60, www.wsa-eberswalde.de
