Friday 15th October 2004 Wergensee to Eisenhüttenstadt for winter.

Christian - the Boss at the boat club

3.7° C Grey chilly morning, breezy afternoon, rain started at 2 p.m. Off at 9 a.m. Rosy following us. Mike had to untie and do the lock by himself, as I was still having trouble bending due to my bad back. I tried taking pain killers, but they didn’t do much good. Up Neuhaus lock. Mike gave the keeper a bottle of French red wine, which he refused to take - but only for the first five seconds! Mike said he seemed very pleased to have been given a present for keeping an eye on our car in the corner of the WSA yard. Followed Rosy back up the Spiesekanal and on to the OSK. Both Mike and Bill saw a pair of cranes fly over very low, squawking loudly, at less than a hundred feet. I made lunch at 12.15 p.m. The wind was very chilly and the temperature never crept above 10°C, so I left the central heating on. As we were passing the enormous factory complex of the Ekostahl around 2 p.m. the rain began falling. There were no signs of life at the factory except for one man on a tall chimney stack. A large bucket was being lowered down from the top, the wind swinging it out from the side of the chimney by about 20°. We turned into the basin at 2.40 p.m. There wasn’t as much

Furstenberg church from the R Oder

space as when we visited by car, three more large cruisers were moored along the wall. We moored on the wall beyond the new landing stage and Bill tied on the landing by the pump out, then the two of them went to find Christian. Mike unloaded the moped and we moved up alongside Rosy on Christian’s instructions. He connected up the electricity and set up the TV. Tired, we both went for a snooze, only to be reawakened by a knock, knock. Guess who? Our friend Hans the school teacher and his little dog. Mike

Police patrol boat in Furstenberg

stood outside chatting to him and Klaus, one of the club members who speaks English. Hans said he was off on a 100 km bike ride next day. It started to rain again, so Mike said bye ’bye and he went home. Bill came round with a bottle of red wine and we sat and had a chat (Fanny stayed at home). Mike opened a couple of bottles of his favourite white wine, Erben Spätlese, and we talked about all the jobs to do while we were on our winter mooring and having an exploratory trip or two into Poland by car. 

Thursday 14th October 2004 Kossenblatt to Wergensee.

A chien viverine also called a racoon dog - was this what he saw?
Wikimedia photo by Jukka A Lang 

3.6° C Sunny and cold. Clouded over in the afternoon and the wind picked up. It was only 3.8° C when Mike set off back down the Spree at 8 a.m. I had difficulty getting out of bed as my back was still bad and I’d had a rough night waking up a dozen times or more. I decided discretion was the better part and stayed indoors again. Took Mike some tea out as we were passing the old lock. We arrived above Beeskow lock at 11.45. The lock filled and I made a sandwich as we waited for the lock to empty. We dropped down the lock side by side with Rosy and followed behind all the way back to Wergensee, where we tied up exactly where we’d been the previous morning. It was 2.15 p.m. It took 6.8 hours to go upstream and 5.7 hours coming back with the flow - an hour faster. That was surprising as the flow didn’t seem to be very much. Mike said he’d seen a herd of deer and later a large animal like a fox but the wrong colour. We looked in my French book of European animals and the only thing like it for size was a chien viverine (whatever that is!), but Mike said it wasn’t like that. He said it looked a bit like a fox with a bushy tail but greyish in colour and it had shorter legs. It remains a mystery. Peter sent an SMS to ask if we were on air just as we were about to eat. Sent one back to say OK we’d play HF a bit later. He ‘phoned to find out what was happening as Mike was erecting the pole and wire on the roof. I held the spotlight for him by the side doors. It was very dark. They had a very reasonable contact on 40m until conditions dropped. Peter ‘phoned us to say he’d lost Mike on HF in the noise. Put the central heating on overnight.

Wednesday 13th October 2004 Wergensee to Kossenblatt.

Ten years later a much safer Beeskow lock - DIY automatic

1.2° C Sunny and cold. Mike set off at 8.30 a.m. Outside temperature only 2° C. I stayed inside all day as I had a bad back and was having trouble moving. Mike had estimated our time of arrival at Beeskow automatic lock (which works on the hour whether there are any boats in the chamber or not!) and adjusted the engine speed to go a bit faster than normal to arrive there at ten. We moored below the lock at a few minutes before ten. As Rosy was coming alongside us, the lock started emptying and blew Rosy sideways. Bill swore and backed off! When the flush had subsided he came alongside. When

Aug 1999 the old 40m lock at Kossenblatt, which was closed

the gates opened we went into the chamber still roped together. I noted there was no emergency stop button to halt proceedings if anything should go wrong. Mike went up on to the lockside to look and confirmed there was no shutdown switch. Hmm. This lock doesn’t conform with the rest of Europe’s health and safety standards, and it doesn't even comply with German ones! Mike did however find some interesting mushrooms and brought me a couple of them for identification. I

Kossenblatt in 2014, a new DIY auto lock (only12m long) and weir

couldn’t say for certain what they were as they were white with white gills, so I did a spore print which was also white. No confirmed identity so we didn’t eat them, although they looked and smelled good. We carried on up the Spree with Rosy in front of us. Made lunch at 1 p.m. and hobbled down to the stern to take it to Mike and managed to steer while he went insidefor a short break. We arrived at Kossenblatt at 3.15 p.m. and moored alongside Rosy in the mouth of the old lock chamber, with our stern almost touching the old gates. Later Mike lit the coal fire and burned some of the coal he collected from the old Siemens factory wharf. 

Tuesday 12th October 2004 Große Tranke to Wergensee.

North chamber of Furstenwalde lock
with elevated track and towing mule for push-tow pans (2014 photo)

-0.5° C First dip below zero this autumn. Frost covering the roof and canvases first thing. The sun shone all day, but we still had a very cold east wind blowing. Mike chatted to two WSA men, who had come to read the water levels at the pegel by our stern end, just before we set off at 9 a.m. following Rosy. A loaded boat called Concordia came downstream and Mike called Füstenwalde on VHF and got a reply from the lady keeper, a torrent of rapid German, none of which was understood by us. The lock emptied and we went in and hung on the wall, Rosy alongside us and rose about one metre. The two ladies who

New lock at Kersdorf from 2014 - old one to right out of shot

were in charge of the lock came to talk to us, still in rapid non-stop German. One slowed down enough for Mike to understand that she was asking where we were going. She told him that there was no traffic coming off the Oder as the water level was too low at present. An empty Dutch boat, Aurora from Nijmegen - a 65m long 700 tonner, was moored above the lock. It was wild and windy as we went along the river Spree. I made hot sandwiches for our lunch and fed buns to Mike one by one so that they wouldn’t go cold. We arrived at Kersdorf at 1 p.m. Mike called on VHF and an elderly couple came out on to the lockside and opened the gates on the left hand chamber. We went in and rose three metres with Rosy alongside us. Mike had another long chat to the keepers in very limited German. On to the summit level at 43m asl. Now we were on a true canal section of the Oder-Spree-Kanal. Again the keeper had said to Mike that there was very little water in the

Neuhaus lock (2014 photo)

Oder. Three cranes flew over, trumpeting loudly. They were flying north - wrong direction chaps! Africa is south of here! A man operating a digger from a Polish Transbode tug from Wroclaw, was loading rocks into a pan called Lucie. Rosy was in the lead and we followed, turning right into the Spiesekanal down to Neuhaus lock. On the bank we passed more evidence of wild beavers living in the vicinity - a half gnawed through tree trunk. It was 2.35 p.m. when we arrived at the lock. No signs of life. We lashed alongside Rosy on the landing for the lock and Mike went to find the keeper. The lock was already full, so he came out and lifted the bridge, then we went in and dropped down about a metre. While the lock was emptying Mike moved the car from the public car park to the WSA yard, after he’d asked for permission to park it there from the keeper. At 3.15 p.m. we tied up by the tiny (12.6m long by 3m wide) lock down on to the river Spree. There was just enough room for Rosy on the lock landing, we winded and put our stern next to the other side of the wooden landing, roping our bows to some old wooden posts in the river bed. I took the camera to photograph the unusual manually operated lock with sideways sliding gates. Fanny came with me and sat waiting for me to throw a stick for her (ever ready

Wergensee lock - too small for us!

Fanny waiting for me to throw a stick

to play as always) so I took her photo too while she was sitting still. Bill lit his coal range in his back cabin. 

Thursday 23rd September 2004 Schmöckwitz–Müggelsee–Schmöckwitz, then three days off.

Thursday 23rd September 2004 Schmöckwitz–Müggelsee–Schmöckwitz.

View from a 'plane of Seddinsee (bottom left to middle)
Wikimedia photo by Ralf Roletschek

9.1° C Brief sunny spells, windy and showery. Set off at 8 a.m. up the Seddinsee with the pins in and the washing machine going. I’d already shovelled tons of tree seeds off the roof before we set off, they were covering the front deck too and all over the carpet (which took ages to vacuum up). Saw Police launch N° 22 - we’ll get the full set yet! Turned into the Gosener Kanal and emerged into the little round lake called Dameritzsee, where we immediately turned left into the Müggelspree channel. I changed loads in the washer and went to sit outside to admire the holiday homes along the banks of the little river. Noted that the residents have no love for the local airport as lots had large banners in their gardens saying “No to the extension of Schönfeld!”

Schonefeld airport in 1990 - Wikimedia photo by Ralf Manteufel

Oh dear, Bill’s friend Veronica was going to use that airport! But I don’t think they’ll be closing it just yet! Several channels off to the right lead into a maze of tiny canals in Neue Venedig, but although the waterway looked wide enough the sharp bends would probably stop us, so we gave up on any plans for exploring them and thought maybe we’d try it another day. A fishing enterprise had two boats with trawling nets and an old Berlin tug (small Dutch styled) to tow them. The ironing called, it

Gosener kanal - Wikimedia photo by Biberbaer

must be done while the electricity is being generated. The Muggelsee, a large round lake with a buoyed channel (which all motor sports vessels must adhere to), was very choppy as the wind had picked up quite considerably. Several commercial boats were engaged in sand dredging on our right hand side and they were being surveyed by an anchored police boat. We also noted there was now another buoyed route, not on our chart, which went southwest across the lake to a factory at a village called Rübezahl. Into the sheltered river Spree at Friedrichshagen. The washing had finished and I’d almost finished ironing as we arrived at the boatyard where we’d bought Bill’s gasket. Meanwhile police boat N° 52 had come alongside Rosy and asked for Bill’s papers. I turned

 Dämeritzsee - Wikimedia photo by Ralf Roletschek

my iron off and tied the boat up. Mike left the engine running and I finished off the ironing while he helped Bill come alongside, then they both went to see Lutz. He’d got an expansion tank for Bill (and wouldn’t have any money for it). Bill went back into the workshop to ask if he’d got any hose and came back with a rolled length of tubing. Mike fed 1€ in the slot machine and we refilled with water before we set off again up the Dahme back to Schmöckwitz. It started to pour with rain as we went past the Regatta course. Its score board was lit up with the message that the practice would start at 2 p.m. for the Berlin Youth Olympics. Poor kids, we didn’t envy them practising in that foul weather, the rain was

Neu Venedig (New Venice) canals
 - Wikimedia photo by Andreas Steinhof

bouncing off the surface of the lake and visibility was poor due to the mist it was producing. The area was devoid of craft except for a couple of kayakers who must have gone out before the rain started in earnest and a couple of coxed fours whose middle-aged crews looked like drowned rats. Even with the brolly swivelled towards the direction of the prevailing wind Mike was getting wet. He’d turned the bottom edge of his waterproof green biking jacket up as the rain was running off it on to his legs. I looked down and noticed he’d got a lake in the turn-up, he looked down and it spilled over, all down his leg and down his sock into his deck shoe. We laughed so much we nearly fell off the back of

Neu Venedig (New Venice) canals
 - Wikimedia photo by A Savin

the boat. N° 22 went past again, heading downstream, they waved again. There were no boats on the mooring again at Schmöckwitz. We moored in the corner, but this time Rosy went on the inside and Bill turned the boat round so his bows were pointing at the old landing stage. It was easier for the dog to get on and off, plus we’d got a view of the lake. It was 3 p.m. and the rain had eased off. Later a hireboat came in to moor in front of us.

Friday 24th September 2004 Schmöckwitz.

9.7° C Grey, windy and chilly.

View of Muggelsee from restaurant at Muggelort
Wikimedia photo by Lotse

Rain showers. Bill wanted to go to Ikea. We were going to go to Spandau, but Mike phoned the MBK shop and the bits for the moped hadn’t arrived yet, so I looked in the Ikea catalogue and found there was a store close by to where we were moored. We called at the post office in Eichwalde and collected the mail from Glyn. Ikea in Waltersdorf was busy, lots of people were shopping in the megastore. We went to look at the blinds. Bill got the folding chair he wanted (for BBQs etc) and we bought a roller blind for 18,50€  (£12.40). I had also seen a small folding table which was reduced from 12,99€ to 9,99€ so we bought one of those too. Called in the DIY shop Toom to get the fittings to install Bill’s new expansion tank. Mike got a 6.8mm drill for tapping. I bought some acrylic gloss paint in 125 ml tins (for decorative painting - roses and castles) and bought a piece of dowelling for the bottom edge of the window blind. When we got back Bill gave me a chopping board - he’d bought a pack of two and only wanted the smaller one. Baked some buns for Mike’s lunch while I did chores. Lunch. A picture postcard of Schwanstein castle in Bavaria came in the post from Glyn, it

Muggelsee - Wikimedia photo by Lienhard Schultz

was from Hans and Marianne on three weeks’ holiday. Bill called to see if Mike was about, he’d just woken up so he went to have a look at Bill’s newly installed expansion tank. I noticed that the booklet I’d picked up in Ikea had a price written in small print at the top. Waah! Shoplifting! I thought it was the same as their catalogues - free. Mike rang Sky to cancel our subscription, but got cut off by the call back service whose message said we’d run out of credit. Wonderful! They’re at it again. He tried ringing the call back number - it wouldn’t ring back. Bill tried ringing them, but his ‘phone wouldn’t work outside as the battery was flat and the signal strength wasn’t good enough for it to work inside on his charger. Give up. We fitted the new blind above the

Kopenick - Muggelspree
Wikimedia photo by Lotse

kitchen sink. It only took a few minutes and it looked really smart. I got Mike to take the roll outside and I sprayed the fabric surface with Scotchguard to keep it looking smart. At 8 p.m. Mike used Bill’s ‘phone (battery recharged) to call WWT and asked them to find out why his call back wasn’t working and ring him back. Debbie rang back at 8.30 p.m. to say they’d sorted it out. Mike asked what was wrong, had someone pressed the wrong key on the computer? She said no, it was a technical problem. We bet! I made potato wedges and chicken saté in the oven for dinner which we ate late at 8.15 p.m.

Saturday 25th September 2004 Schmöckwitz.

10.5° C Sunny spells, rain in the evening. Mike and I went back to Ikea in Waltersdorf to get another blind for the other window in the galley. It was even busier than the day before. We

Regatta course at Grunau. Langersee
Wikimedia photo by Mfranck

also called in Toom again and I got some more little pots of acrylic paint. Mike bought some coax plugs and some fender string. When we got back to the boat Mike took Bill to get diesel from an Arral garage in Schmöckwitz. Lunch, then Mike took Bill to get a second load of diesel. Bill bought him an ice cream and a crate of beer as a thank you. Mike returned to the boat with an ice cream he’d brought for me - a Magnum choc ice - I hadn’t had one of those in years! I cleaned the boat windows with some windscreen cleaner while they were away. Mike fitted the other blind. It seemed very light and airy without the curtains. Bill came over for a look. We had a transport café special for dinner, chips with beans and fried egg and spam.

Grosse Krampe - arm off the Langersee
Wikimedia photo by Andreas Steinhoff

Sunday 26th September 2004 Schmöckwitz.

8.8° C Chilly, wet and miserable day. Mike got up early to watch the first ever F1 Grand Prix from China, Shanghai. Schumacher had a disasterous race. He spun and only managed 19th position for qualifying. Started from the pit lane, spun again, then had a puncture and didn’t finish in the points! Barichello won with Button second. I got up just as the race had finished and Mike was going back to bed. Lunch. Bill asked if we wanted a log for the fire. The “log” which had floated down the side of Rosy was a section of tree bole that we doubted all three of us could have lifted - Mike gave it a shove with our short boat shaft and sent it out towards the middle of the lake. Bill had got a visitor. He said he’d see us at 8 p.m. and he’d bring a bottle of Sekt. Bill came over at eight and asked if we wanted to be in a documentary about alternative lifestyles - not really! The visitor was a cameraman who wanted to make a film and was going to try to persuade a producer to fund it. He would be visiting Bill again when we’re at EHS. We drank Bill’s bottle of Sekt and a bottle of our Erben Spätlese and chatted until Bill and Fanny went home at 9.30 p.m. 

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!

Friday 17th September 2004 Mitte N° 5.

9.5° C sunny but breezy. Woken at 8.15 a.m. by the sound of strimmers. The WSA men were back to continue the clean up along the bank by the boat mooring! Mike got up and went out

Footbridge to Reichstag - Wikimedia photo by Joseph Renalias

to make sure they didn’t break the windows - we’ve had trouble before with waterways men with strimmers, ie stones and broken car windscreens. The hotel boat had gone and the men were doing the other bay first. Thankfully, they cleared alongside our boat with shovels and didn’t use the strimmer. Bill was getting ready for his cycle tour of the city. He ran Rosy’s engine for an hour before he went out at ten. The trip boats started moving again shortly after that. Mike went out on foot to buy some bread. I tried ‘phoning the F1 hotel in Calais again and 

The Bode museum - Wikimedia photo by Calflier001

got a message to say it was an invalid number. I took Fanny out for a wander around the greenery along the path above the quay. A young woman was sitting on the quay by the steps. She said something in French as the dog went past so we had a short chat in French, which made a pleasant change! I’d just returned Fanny to Rosy’s back cabin when Bill returned. He came back with some interesting postcards of the war damage to the city centre and the “Wende”, the night when the wall came down. No sign of

Trip boats by the Bode - Wikimedia photo by De-okin

Nefertiti - he said she must be at Charlottenburg. Mike ‘phoned the F1 hotel in Birmingham - their number worked and the girl who answered gave him the number for Calais. He went off to post a film to be developed and I ‘phoned Calais. The new number was an automatic booking service, so I followed the prompts (in French) and booked us a room for the 1st November. The wash from the fast passing traffic ripped one of our tyre fenders off and, of course, it sank! Mike tried 

More trip boat by the Dom - Wikimedia photo by Telecasterman

searching for it with our boat pole attached to one of Bill’s long shafts (the water was over 3m deep) but there was no sign of it. Not surprising really considering the amount of sploshing about that the water does. Peter sent a text to ask us to see if we could make contact on HF radio and to try 40m. We put the pole and wire up. It was very noisy, couldn’t hear much. Came to the conclusion that we were getting lots of local electrical interference. Peter gave up and went to play at finding portals on 2m repeaters. A hireboat managed to squeeze into the gap in front of our bows, it was attached to the 

TV tower (fehrnseturm) from Dom -
Wikimedia photo by Andreas Praefcke

dolphin in front of us about halfway along its hull. The boat moored behind us had been playing very loud bumpty-bump pop music all evening. Mike went out to start up our genie (which is very quiet, suspended inside the engine room with an exhaust through the pigeon box on the roof) and had a staring match with the bloke off the boat behind us (a middle aged man not a twenty-something pop addict!) who was sitting on the top deck. The volume went down after that. 

Thursday 16th September 2004 Spandau N° 1 to Mitte N° 5.

Rosy in Charlottenburg lock

9.1° C Chilly. Sunny, clouding over in the afternoon giving a few short showers of rain. Set off at 7.30 a.m. A commercial overtook us and went into the new Charlottenburg schleuse. The gates closed behind him as we turned right to go to the old locks, which are now used only for sport boots. Not today! We’d heard a voice on the tannoy say something as we passed the waiting place for the new lock but took no notice as we couldn’t understand it. The old locks both had two red lights - not in use. We winded and went back to the new lock. A man on a bike came down the towpath waving and smiling, pointing in the direction of the new lock. While we were waiting for the big lock to empty Bill hatched up a plan to get a

Old warehouses due to be converted into luxury flats

mooring in the city centre. If there was space at mooring N° 3 one of us would occupy it while the other went on to see what space was available at N° 5. If there was space at N° 5 we’d call to say come and join us, if not we’d return to the space at N° 3. (N° 4 now had signs saying no mooring - the blue mooring signs which had been turned round so they faced the flats, not the cut, had gone). If VHF didn’t work, due to the height and number of the intervening buildings between N° 3 and N° 5, a system of rings on the ‘phone was organised.

Beyond the old warehouses.

There were just us two narrowboats to go up in the new lock. I took ‘photos as it was the first time we’d been through the lock. After leaving the chamber we turned right heading for the city centre. A WSA tug passed us, then a crane boat, which made us wonder if there was a stoppage on the old locks for cleaning or maintenance today. If so, they should have put a bag over the sign below the new lock which said all sport boots turn right for the old lock! The trippers started moving as we arrived at N° 3 mooring. There was space there, so Mike suggested to Bill that he should stop and we would carry on to N° 5, which he

New footbridge across the river Spree to the Reichstag

did. We carried on into the city centre. Two police officers on horseback, a man and a woman, waved to us from the path which ran alongside the canal on the right bank after Lutherbrücke. We found out later that the German Chancellor’s office was located there. The bridge, Lutherbrücke, was made of red sandstone and covered with stern faced Prussian heads and eagles. Work was still going on by the canal junction to rebuild the station. It was very quiet on the navigation as we went past the Reichstag. Success! There

Reichstag from the Spree

were only two bays between dolphins at mooring N° 5 and one bay was free - the other occupied by a large square cruiser, which we took to be some sort of hotel boat. We moored and called Bill to come and join us. As we tied up the trippers started up, seven of them were milling about by the museum insel and a Connoisseur Cruisers hire boat added to the mayhem. It was 10.55 a.m. A team of WSA men were cleaning the narrow quay alongside and beyond the moorings, removing the litter and weeds. They had their two work boats moored to the bank while they finished off their cleaning - they then left. Bill arrived with Rosy forty minutes later and tied alongside us. A chap leaning over the railings above the boats told Mike and Bill that the trippers average fifty passages an hour where we

Map of the Berlin moorings from the Wassersport Berlin-Brandenburg '99 magazine

were moored (there aren’t fifty boats, there’s about half that number). Made some lunch. Bill went to try again to look round the Bode and he left his keys so I could take Fanny out for a pee, which I did at 3.30 p.m. Bill returned as we were going back to the steps down to the quay. He told me that the Bode was closed, all year, so he had looked round the other two museums and had been in the cathedral shop (they charge to go in the cathedral, so he said he wouldn’t bother). The next day’s mooring to aim for was Köpenick, or further if that was occupied or unsuitable. Bill came over later to say he’d changed his mind and would like another day in Berlin to have a cycle round to the museums at Tiergarten. That’s OK with us. I called Diana at WWT, direct to USA (ouch). She said yes it had just been done, two minutes ago - try it now! Mike did, so he ‘phoned his Mum and Dad and had a 40 minute chat, then I called Peter and we also spoke for about 40 minutes! Well, that little session put the ‘phone bill up! 

Monday 30th August 2004 Treptow through Berlin city centre to North of Spandau.

Winter at Unterschleuse on Landwehrkanal
Wikimedia photo by Lienhard Schulz 

14.4° C. Sunny spells and clouds before we set off, heavy rain showers all morning and evening, sandwiched between was a pleasant sunny afternoon - after we’d tied up. Bill went to get some groceries before we set off at 9 a.m. Passed a WSA boat in the Urbanhafen, mooring N° 9, where a hire boat had tied up overnight. The fish restaurant was still there, but the theatre boat was now derelict. Several trip boats went past, their crews cleaning and polishing, getting ready for the first passengers of the day. I made some tea just before the rain started pouring as we entered the heart of the city centre. Through the Tiergarten with the Zoological garden on our left and we arrived at the lock under the S-bahn. The gates were open on the

Houseboats in the weirstream by Unterschleuse
Wikimedia photo by Lienhard Schulz 

Unterschleuse, but the red lights were on. Mike brought the boat alongside the sport boat waiting area and I pressed the button for the lock. The red light almost immediately turned green. Just us two narrowboats for the drop of 1.3m. Below the lock there was still a long line of wooden floating sheds (houseboats) in the weir stream by Charlottenburg gate. We arrived back at the junction with the river Spree having completed a circle of the city centre. Crossed the river heading north on the connection canal, the Charlottenburger Verbindungskanal. A commercial was catching us up, it overtook Rosy as we turned right on

Junction R Spree & Landwehrkanal
Wikimedia photo by Lienhard Schulz 

to the Westhafen canal and  it overtook us as we approached the docks, where a tug with two empty pans had just set off and turned south on the Hohenzollern kanal. We turned left under a bridge and joined the same canal, but heading north. The moored ex-working boats turned houseboats were still moored on the corner, although some of them were now looking a bit dilapidated. Just the two of us again for the next lock, Plötznsee. The keeper leaned out of the control cabin window in the lockhouse and waved. There was a short lull in the rain as we worked through the lock. I made a cup of soup as we went along the Spandauer Schiffahrtkanal. A couple of cruisers going in the opposite direction passed by. We turned left at the end of the canal, on to the Spandauer

Westhafen docks - Wikimedia photo by ThoKay

Havel, went under one bridge and moored at the new moorings opposite Spandau new town. The long mooring had a trip boat landing stage in the middle. The concrete topped piling had a small wooden landing stage for us to tie to with lots of bollards. A path for walkers, cyclists and joggers was separated from the river’s edge by a low concrete wall and, from the land beyond it, by a high, patterned concrete wall. The ground behind the big wall had been leveled into several different sized rectangles ready to build more houses, probably like the blocks of flats

Spandauer See Brucke
Wikimedia photo by Alexrk2

on the opposite bank. We dried off. The rain stopped and the sun came out. Planes were taking off from Tegel airport and flying directly overhead. I made some lunch. I got on with the chores and Mike went for a nap, as he’d decided to leave the car for a couple of days at Treptow, where it should be OK parked by the flats. Bill and Fanny called to find out what time we were starting next day. Mike opened a bottle of wine and we chatted for a while, then he showed Bill the video we’d got of Eisenhüttenstadt as someone had told Bill when we were moored at Treptow that EHS was not a good place to stay for the winter as it was “un-reconstructed”! (Whatever that’s supposed to mean! Probably means it’s not been tarted up!)

CLICK HERE for a map of today's trip through Berlin

Tuesday 24th August 2004 Spandau to Berlin N° 4 mooring at Mitte.

14° C Hazy cloud, breezy, rain later. Mike was up early (6 a.m.) in case the delivery of

New lock at Charlottenburg - Wikimedia photo by Biberbaer

heating oil came first thing, I didn’t get up until 7.30 a.m. The fuel man arrived at 7.45a.m. We had 409 litres at 46,90c (+VAT) = 54,4c per litre. Mike collected our empty gas bottle from the car and we set off, downstream to collect some gas. We each had a bottle to refill. Refilled the water tank too. Bill went in to pay and came out having paid 15,60€ for the two bottles. We think he was only charged for one bottle. Bill also bought two Camping Gaz miniature blow lamps - he gave one to Mike. Winded the boats, went back up the Havel and turned right on to the Spree. A loaded boat called Saale

Old lock at Charlottenburg - Wikimedia photo by Biberbaer

overtook us as we went past a Polish Bizon tug and pan moored at the entrance to the docks on the Ruhlebener Altarm. By the arm to the power station there was an old, part-converted Luxemotor mouldering away. Shame. Another Bizon tug was moving a pan of coal from the right bank to the left to be unloaded at the power station. A small yacht overtook us as a trip boat went past heading downstream. The arm into the huge Siemens works had been cut off and the canal had been straightened leading to a brand new lock at Charlottenburg, which was for commercials only from 8am to

Reichstag dome from the river.
Wikimedia photo by Alex Wacker

8pm. All pleasure craft have to turn right and use the old locks. A Crown Blue Line cruiser was coming down in the right hand chamber. The yacht, which had overtaken us earlier, was tied on the waiting place, so we hovered in the middle of the lock cut. We followed the yacht into the chamber and Rosy came alongside us while we rose 1.1m. Rosy lead the way through Charlottenburg. The Dutch barge Reserve V was moored by the Schloss at N° 2 mooring. Trip boat Luna was loading passengers and another, called Sansouci, was coming downstream. We followed Rosy on to the winding section of the Spree, with Berlin suburbs Moabit to the north and Tiergarten to the south. Two small cruisers overtook us as we passed mooring N° 3 which was completely occupied by two large cruisers. Two more large cruisers went past heading downstream. A tripper called Elfe

Front of the Reichstag
Wikimedia photo by Norbert Aepli

overtook us at Lessingbrücke and Luna overtook us before the low arched Moabitbrücke. He went very slowly through the bridge as the boat squeezed through with inches to spare. Under the railway bridge with trains coming and going from the main line station at Bellevue, which was on our right. Under another brick arched bridge, Lutherbrücke and found Rosy drifting on a wide sweeping bend while Bill had nipped inside to get his lunch. A large cruiser, called Blue Chip, went past heading uphill and a tripper called Pankow came towards us downhill, he did one long and three short hoots, then winded directly in front of us causing Mike to put the boat engine into reverse. Bill said over the radio “What a prat!” – there was no real need for that! A tripper, called Brasil with a wide flattened bow, overtook us as another one came past heading downhill. Suddenly there were trippers wall to wall. The prat Pankow was at the mooring outside the House of World Culture and set off as we were passing, so Mike stopped to let him out - then speeded up to get out of the way of three more which were coming up behind us. The building site at the canal junction by the Reichstag was

Pergamon museum - Wikimedia photo byNikanos

getting smaller and a new station complex was being born on the left bank, new buildings and a futuristic footbridge crossed the canal. We went under the Marschallbrücke and entered former East Berlin. Trippers were everywhere! A tug pushing an empty pan came through the railway bridge by Friedrichstraße station with a tripper overtaking it. There were four cruisers on mooring N° 5 - it was full! Waah, we were going to stay there! The largest cruiser, called Kleopatra, at the downhill end of the mooring, decided to leave as we hovered by the mooring. The ropes came off and he went into reverse, crashing hard into the dolphin behind him. He’d got a big dent in his swimming platform and some white paint missing - it was on the old piling dolphin! The space he left wasn’t big enough for us or Rosy, so we went to the upstream end, beyond the mooring signs, and Rosy tied to the bank and we went alongside. It was 1.30 p.m. We’d gathered quite a cro

Nefertiti - Wikimedia photo by Nina
currently in the Neues museum Berlin

wd on the walkway at the top of the quay, watching us knitting ropes to tie up. Shortly afterwards Reserve V came past us and went up the lock. He came back a little later, mooring N° 6 in the weirstream of Mühlendamm lock was full, so he tied on the wall beyond us. Mike and I both voiced the opinion that the WSP would be along shortly and tell us to move after the Dutchman had further extended the impromptu moorings. At 3.45 p.m. as predicted police boat N° 24 arrived. Its two man crew, plus lady steerer, first shifted the Dutchman, he winded and went back up the lock. Then they came and told us we couldn’t stay there as the trippers turn round there. Which was true, but we weren’t causing them any problems. Nevertheless, they said we could moor at the former N° 4 mooring by Marschallbrücke, but only overnight. We said we’d have to wait for Bill to come back - he’d gone to the Pergamon museum looking for Nefertiti. Another cruiser had left, so we were waiting on the crew of a large hireboat moored in the other half of the gap to return so we could get them to shift, then we’d have the space between two dolphins for the two of us to moor side by side. No such luck. They didn’t return and a small yacht came and occupied the half space. When Bill returned he said the queue outside the museum was a long one, so he had a walk

Brandenburg gate - Wikimedia photo by James F

down to the Brandenburg gate and back, then went straight into the museum. But there was no Nefertiti! We moved the boats down to the old N° 4 mooring (the signs had been turned around) where there was bags of space, at least four times the length of N° 5 - no idea why they weren’t using it as a mooring any more. We singled out and staked the boats down. It started to rain. It was 5.50 p.m. We’d got a view of the dome of the Reichstag behind us and Friedrichstraße station in front. The trippers continued up and down like yo-yos until late into the evening. Thunder rolled around twice and then the rain really poured down. Did a few chores. I was too hot and tired to cook. Later I made sandwiches.