Sailing at Wannsee

It is an easy walk from the S-bahn station in Wannsee to the water down below. There are a few old houses on the way down. When we get to the lake there are several pier from where the different tour boats will depart – there is a ferry as well which you can actually take for free if you have bought a one day ticket for all of Berlin transport which is only around 7.7 €. We decide to go for a two hour cruise around seven lakes.

The cruise departs one time an hour – but unfortunately the next cruise is departing just as we are waiting in line to buy tickets at the ticket booth. So we have to wait an hour for the next cruise. Fortunately it is sunny and this is Germany so obviously there is the option to buy a good German beer from tap and enjoy it in the sun while we are waiting for the boat to depart.

After finishing the beer it is about time to head down towards the boat and wait in line so we can get good seats on the boat. The boat comes to the pier and we wait for the other guest to leave the boat and then we can get onboard and get some good seats on the front deck where there are great views of the river and the lakes.

We start sailing and there is commentary on the boat but it is in German only so it is only useful if you have at least some knowledge of German. We sail down a river and you cans see some of the richer people of Berlin probably live out here along the river in some big houses which all seems to have a boat out in front.

We sail around the river and lakes – the lakes are actually just the Havel River getting a bit wider so it appears more like a lake than a river. We sail under many low bridges which make sure the traffic of the area can go smoothly.

We spot a large tower which used to be key for the telecommunication between West Berlin and the rest of West Germany back in the day when the country was divided. Without this tower it would have impossible to make a telephone call between Berlin and the rest of the western world without the consent of the Soviets.

On the side of the river we spot a little section of the Berlin wall. We might be pretty far from the center but Wannsee must have been the western sector of Berlin furthest from the center of the city. there is only a couple of slaps of concrete still surviving of the Berlin wall so you don’t get much of an impression of what the wall used to look like just a marking of where the wall used to be.

We continue the sail along the river and then we get to the area close to Potsdam. Out here are many castles and we sail by a nice little castle which must have an amazing view out across the river.

We sail across another couple of lakes before we make it back to the pier where we boarded the boat about two hours ago. The tour is advertised as two hours but it is actually only 1 hour 45 minutes. I guess we don’t miss the last 15 minutes too badly and are happy to arrive at land a bit early.