Berlin Boat Tours
Sightseeing Boats Ply the Waters that Cover 7 Percent of the City
Berlin traffic can be terrific. The buses, crowded. So how do you manage to see the sights?
Take a boat.
A half dozen companies offer boat excursions, ranging in length from one hour to all day. Boat tour schedules vary with the time of year. While many tours are offered from the middle or latter part of April through October and operate daily during peak tourist season, others run on specific days of the week.
Among the shorter trips, a two and a half hour ride along the River Spree and Landwehrkanal passes under more than 40 bridges and goes through locks that date back to the Middle Ages. While many of the bridges are no-nonsense spans, others are ornate affairs that keep art students sketching.
The boat stops at several docks along the way which are close to major sightseeing attractions, so passengers can exit and board a later boat.
Choices, Choices, Everywhere
One of the most delightful all-day tours goes between the Greenwich Promenade at Tegel and Potsdam. The trip provides a passing panorama of waterside life – tiny weekend cottages on postage-stamp lots, fishermen standing or sitting on umbrella chairs along the riverbanks, marinas, small hotels and campgrounds. If you choose one of the tours that includes the palaces at Sanssouci, you’ll get a history lesson as well.
If you want to take a shorter version of the trip, catch the Wannsee Potsdam train (usually platform 3 or 4 at the Zoo Bahnhof) for a 10-minute ride to Wannsee. Exit the station and turn right. The boat piers are down stairs to the right a short walk ahead. Begin your excursion at least an hour before the boat is scheduled to leave, since German trains – unlike those in Switzerland – are quite often late. If the train’s on time, you’ll be able to walk along the lake or sit on a waterside bench until the boat weighs anchor. There’s also a snack kiosk nearby.
Going East
Board boats at Hafen Treptow (S-Bahn Treptower Park) for excursions through waterways in what was the former East Germany. Several of the trips cruise on the River Spree to 1,900-acre (7.7 square kilometer) Muggelsee; Berlin’s largest, and through other lakes such as Langer See, Seddinsee, Dameritzsee, Flakensee and Mollensee..
Another interesting trip that originates at Hafen Treptow follows the Teltowkanal southeast to its junction with the River Havel and proceeds up the Havel to Spandau before returning to its point of origin.
Drifting and Dining
Although light meals and snacks are available on most excursion boats, refreshments are the main event on restaurant boats. However, most of these watercraft stay docked at their moorings while diners gaze out on the water and its passing parade of boats. Among them, the old barge Van Loon is anchored in the Landwehrkanal in Kreuzberg. Two other choices are the Capt’n Shillow (much farther west on the canal in Charlottenburg) and the Ars Vivendi in Kopeneck. There’s also a theatre boat, Mephisto, on Planufer in Kreuzberg.
One of the newest dine-while-you-cruise attractions, The Breakfast Boat “Adele”, leaves its moorings in front of Radisson SAS Hotel am Dom in Liebknecktstrasse at 8 a.m. weekdays (9 a.m. weekends). For an hour, the boat glides past such sights as Museuminsel, the Reichstag and Haus der Kulturen der Welt, while passengers partake of a European-style breakfast buffet. Hotel guests pay the hotel’s usual breakfast price; the trip costs about $34 (26 Euros) for non-guests.
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