Saturday 18th September 2004 Mitte N° 5 to Schmöckwitz.

Muhlendammer schleuse - Wikimedia photo by brokenshpere

9.1° C sunny. Set off at 8.00 a.m. just as a pusher and two pans appeared behind us. I’d sorted the washing ready for Mike to put the pins in when we got to the lock at Mühlendamm. Mike said if we’d got to follow the commercial we couldn’t do the washing - we couldn’t go fast enough for Markon generating! Paused below the lock and I spoke on the intercom to the lady keeper. Didn’t understand what she said back though. We followed in behind Andrea, a scruffy old tug pushing two pans loaded with building rubble, into the left hand chamber - there was just enough space left for us behind him, one on either side of the chamber. Meanwhile the

Oberbaumbrucke - Wikimedia photo by calfier001

right hand chamber emptied off for a lone tripper, also going uphill. The lady keeper came out to chat and ask questions of Mike while we came up in the lock. The tripper in the right chamber, Elfe, was up and gone before we got out of the left chamber following the slowest, smokiest tug in all Berlin. Loud pop music at nine in the morning? It was coming from a long low building on the left bank just before Schillingbrücke. An all-night rave or a weekender? There

Spree at Kopenick- Wikimedia photo by orderinchaos

were a few teenagers wandering about outside. A little further upstream there was another party going on aboard a converted barge called Eidelweiss, where there was more loud music and loads of teenagers milling about. Around 9.15 a.m. we met the first of the trippers on the move. An ex-police boat called Tremor went past heading downstream at Oberbaumbrücke. I made tea and cooked some buns. Two planes went overhead, a biplane and what looked like a powered glider. Following the pusher the water was swirling and it was too slow for running the washing machine. A big tanker boat was plying to and fro, emptying the toilet holding tanks for the trippers moored at their “nest” at the Weissflot harbour. I said that might count as

Molecule man - Wikimedia photo by George Slickers

one of the 21st century’s worst jobs, but Mike said Tony Robinson wouldn’t agree as they didn’t actually have to handle the effluent nowadays, they pump it out through hoses, they don’t have to use buckets and shovels! Still bound to pong a bit! The pusher turned left, heading for one of the quays on the Rummelsburgersee. Hooray! Mike put the pins in and I started the washing. Several little boats went past but there was very little else moving as we trundled on up the Spree. The washing finished at 11.10 a.m. and Mike took the pins out just as a Berlin tug pushing two pans loaded with brown coal came round the corner at Köpenick. We turned left into the bay by the town centre to have a look at their public mooring place. There was a short pier sticking out at right angles from the bank, where there was a grassy area with trees and then a busy road. The two sides of the pier were occupied by two largish cruisers. Full! We winded and twiddled past a string of fishing nets on poles back into the main channel, looks like it will have to be Schmöckwitz after all. Mike put the pins back in and I did another load of washing as we continued down the Langer Dahme, the left spoke in a series of lakes which l

Rummelsburgersee- Wikimedia photo by beek100

ooks like a trident. I made a cup of soup. The wind was picking up and it was very chilly. There was a race going on at the regatta course. A large electronic score board gave the results of the 200m one-man kayak race as we went past. The two-man kayaks were lining up ready to do their race. A couple of coxed-eights went past us and beyond the racing course the river was very lively with all sorts of pleasure boats, including an apricot coloured cruiser which had a web site on its side and called itself a solar powered craft. Further on there

Oberschoneweide -  Wikimedia photo by lotse

was a sailing regatta taking place. An 80m loaded commercial travelling along the buoyed channel let out one deep booming hoot and the sailboats parted and left him a large space. A speedboat went in front of the commercial making sure the yachts kept out of the barge’s way as it went past Großer Rohrwall island. We ate lunch on the move just in time to tie up on the quay at Schmöckwitz at 1.30 p.m. There was just enough space for us to go side by side behind two cruisers and a yacht which had occupied the rest of the quay. Mike and Bill got secateurs out and trimmed off the overhanging tree

Langer Dahme - Wikimedia photo by Lienhard Schultz

branches by the sterns of the boats. Mike asked Bill if he wanted to go with him to play trains and fetch the car. He said no he’d got a few jobs to do. I went with Mike as I couldn’t pass up an afternoon playing trains, especially as I’d got new shoes for walking. We walked to the S-Bahn station in Eichwalde and paid 2,60€ each for the trip back to Spandau. Changed trains at West Kreuz. Got on the S75 to Spandau and got off at the station at Stresow, by Ikea, when Mike recognised the familiar townscape. That saved us a long walk back from the Rathaus. I suggested that we drove back through the city centre as that was the most direct route, but we got as far as the

View from mooring at Schmockwitz
 Wikimedia photo by orderinchaos

island with Golden Else (the 222 foot high Siegessäule, or Victory Column) arriving there just as the police were stopping the traffic to let thousands of cyclists whiz round the corner and head down the Unter der Linden into the city. They closed the road behind them and weren’t allowing traffic into the city via that route, so Mike went all the way round the island and took the road into the Tiergarten, followed the Landwehr canal, then headed south on the 170 through Britz and on to the 96a, which tried to take us back into the city towards Treptow, so we had to turn round to find the road back to Schmöckwitz. We were home by 6.30 p.m. not bad, three and a half hours. Bill told us that his friend and postlady Veronica had been searching the net for cheap airflights and had found one for £14 to Berlin Schönfeld, which is very close to where we are moored at present. The trick is finding a similar priced ticket for the return journey!