This year, International Women’s Day (March 8) fell on a Monday, which was excellent because Berlin celebrates it as a public holiday. Berlin is, believe it or not, the only state in Germany that stipulates Women’s Day as a bank holiday. Then again, it’s also the state with the lowest number of public holidays in the whole country.
Anyway, public holiday + gorgeous weather = perfect conditions for a hike. Since there are no mountains in Brandenburg, though, we had to make do with a trek along the river Spree. J and I started in the most populous town in the Oder-Spree district of Brandenburg, called Fürstenwalde, and made our way to a small town in the same district called Hangelsberg. We covered 16 km in total, but there’s probably a shorter route connecting the two towns. They’re also well connected to Berlin by regional trains.
Fürstenwalde boasts an impressively large cathedral, a pigeon tower (didn’t know it’s a thing), and a lighthouse that used to be located by the Baltic Sea.
After exploring the old town a little bit, we headed for the river Spree and unpacked our sandwiches by the water, the sun shining on our faces.
Fürstenwalde has a lovely promenade by the river called the Spreeufer, which lies between the Spreebrücke (Spree bridge) and the Stadtpark (city park).
For the most part, the path is paved and wide enough for both pedestrians and cyclists.
We spent a significant amount of time walking along the river bank but surprisingly saw only a few cyclists, perhaps because the weather was still quite chilly. Saw a few boats, though.
We wanted to merge into the 66-Seen-Wanderweg but couldn’t find any signs that mark the hiking path, so we ended up relying on a good old physical map and the ones in our phones (before mine died halfway through the walk).
Since reading Peter Wohlleben’s The Hidden Life of Trees, I have grown more curious about trees. Unfortunately I still can’t figure out if a tree is ill. This one appears to have some tumour-like growth on the trunk, but maybe they’re just wounds that have healed?
Another tree has shell-like fungi all over its bark, but could the creatures have developed a mutualistic symbiosis?
A third way through, we came across a rest area, a bridge and a lock called Große Tränke. A few cars parked here and there’s a public toilet which could come in handy when you’ve walked a long way. We strolled across the bridge but promptly turned around to remain on the northern side of the Spree.
For a few kilometres, we strayed off the official path to remain close to the river.
More interesting trees off the beaten track.
We took a break to enjoy our flask of hot tea approximately halfway between Große Tränke and Hangelsberg.
The spot was flawless.
From then on, the hike towards Hangelsberg was not as scenic as we would’ve liked it to be. The path stopped following the river and the tarmac is much more well suited to bikes than the human feet. At the end of the day, though, I was glad to have made the most use of the sunny day.
See more photos from the hike in the video below.
