Trip to Spreewald and Berlin

We had planned a trip to Berlin during the second weekend of August to visit Nora, Simon and Holger (or Hølgær as he is sometimes known). And they had a great suggestion - let's take a trip to Spreewald - the home of the gerkin! Where you can hire a canoe and paddle around miles of canals in lovely sunny weather. Yep, my perfect idea of a weekend away! But we would also get to see Berlin (we love Berlin). We arrived Friday evening, and had a lovely catch up over good German beers, before setting off on Saturday morning to Spreewald. The train trip was a little over an hour, and we picked up Holger on the way. We were staying in a lovely apartment in a GDR-style building (oh so new for us, but brought back a lot of childhood memories for Nora and Holger), just a 5-minute walk from the town centre. On Saturday we did the important things - went food/drink shopping and book the canoe trip for Sunday. We managed to get a 5-seater canoe, so this was going to be a fun Sunday outing along the numerous canals, meeting at various intersections, and the possibility of following several routes along the way. 

After a fun evening of playing Sagaland (I won't go into it! Let's just say everyone had their own tactics, and we were all ruthless), eating homemade pizza and drinking beers, the next morning we picked up our boat at 9.30 and set off on an "adventure". The surroundings were beautiful: cozy houses and restaurants sitting along the river bank, which we stopped off at on the way. And at other times it was just the five of us in our canoe - pure silence apart from the noise of nature - wonderful!

On Monday it was time to leave Spreewald, and head back to Berlin - or from one lovely place to another! We met up with friends of Simon and Nora, ate ice-cream, relaxed in a lovely park area (which used to be an airport/runway!), and simply enjoyed the lovely sunny weather. And we finished the evening off with a visit to the beergarden - well, when in Rome :) Looking forward to the next trip to Berlin already (which is in November for Nora and Simon's wedding!)