Past week

The time seems to be flying by and up dating blog goes to back burner.
Last week we set off along the Mittellandkanal, a long 300km stretch across Germany, only 3 locks ( but BIG ) this is the main highway for shipping across Germany so we are mixing it with the big boys.
We are taking it slowly , giving ourselves time to exploe surrounding areas that we didnt have time for 2 years ago when we came across.
Getting water in Haldensleben .This is not as easy as one would imagine. Because we are too large and heavy to go into most marines we dont have access to water easily. We had gone 5 weeks without being able to top up water tanks, however once we got onto Mittellandkanal we can use the water points for the commercials, just a matter of getting the correct swipe card and topping up with money. A distinct advantage that Knud is fluent in German.
Last night on board for Jennyfer & Colin, we arrived to Wolfsburg earlier that day. In background you can see the circus tent set up for summer at the Autostadt,( VW 's amusement park / expo/ vehicle promotion place)
Sadly Jennyfer & Colin must leave , heading back to Oz, been a great time with them on board.




An evening spent at Autostadt, Knud had a wonderful time looking at wizz bang car displays I was happy wandering around looking at the street performers , gardens etc. Saw some fabulous circus acts, one in particular, 70 minutes of top class performers, Canadian group called Cirque Éloize, breathtaking acts had us on the edge of our chairs, at one point it began raining and raincoats were distributed to everyone! Thats Gernan efficiency for you.
Knud's brother Torben, Jette and Josefine joined us in Wolfsburg and are continuing with us westwards for a while.

Das Wasserstraßenkreuz Magdeburg

So our journey begins westwards, first the Elbe Havel Kanal, about 50km long , we then come to the Elbe River which we cross over via way of an aquaduct.

This aquaduct first began construction in the 30's , never got finish because of WW2 , then this part of Germany under Russian occupation up until late 80's and nothing done to complete it. It wasn't until the reunification of Germany that the project started up again in late 90's and completed in 2003. It spans 662mt and is one of the longest in Europe.

The old lock that took boats from the Midland Kanal down onto the Elbe was in operation from 1938 to 2013. After being closed for a couple of years it is now operating again ( with a bunch of enthusiastic volunteers )as a tourist attraction.This is a 'bath' style lock, boats go into bath cart, doors shut and bath cart lowered down, gates open boat drives out.
Look very carefully and you can see boat that has entered bath cart. Way over in background you can just see aquaduct
Look again carefully, and you can see noat has gone down

Obviously this old lock not large enough for the large commercial traffic of todays wsterways so another large lock built . This one interesting because the water empties into holding tanks over to one side, when it needs to fill again it takes water from these tanks and fills lock

Now I've seen everything

We have begun our journey westwards, leaving my beloved Berlin behind and the gorgeous lakes.
Our first canal was Elbe Havel Kanal a stretch of about 50km before joining the Midland Kanal which will then take us about another 320km straight across Germany.
We had gone up our first lock and proceeded along canal, till we got to the next lock where we had a bit of a wait. To our amazement the strangest vessel also waiting for the lock. We had a long wait so naturally we got chatting.
No points for working out it is a home made job, for the petrol heads amongst you it has a Trabant 2 stroke engine with paddle wheel attached, plus with the fantasy of trying to look like a tractor. ( looks like it was designed by a committee )

Sunsets

Have been some amazing sunsets , cant help trying to take the perfect shot.

Potsdam
Jennyfer on deck enjoying sunset


on Midland Kanal near Elbe aquaduct

Spandau , Berlin

Been a couple if weeks since we have had enough internet to load up photos or been anywhere that has had free internet so finally a catch up. As usual it will be best to do a few phots at a time so the whole thing doesn't go pear shape.

We were thrilled when Anders & his cousin Jesper drove down from Denmark for a quick visit
Next visitors were Mel & Paul, they joined us in Challotenburg. Off to explore the palace gardens one glorious Sunday afternoon then how lucky were we, we found a music/beer festival going on so of course had to stop & help support it
Early Monday morning we set off cruising through Berlin, a magical time to see the city awake , here Mel sits up on the front of Linquenda enjoying the city sights
Monday and finally after 13 months we saw Kaj again. He travelled fown from Narvik to be with us for 5 days. We picked him up in Köpernick south east of Berlin and cruised an hour or so to a gorgeous bay, then lay on anchor. Have all just been for a swim, now about to have a BBQ.
Next day we cruised back into Berlin and onto the Landwehrkanal , stopping at Kreuzberg for the night. Love this area of Berlin. All too soon time to say bye to Mel & Paul, been a fabulous few days together.

Fürstenberg to Spandau

Kerry & Ross joined us in Fürstenberg, they had been 'on the road ' for 3 weeks by now and looking forward to a little rest and some time away from the saddle.
We had a lovely cruise down from Fürstenberg to Spandau, weather a mixed bag. First evening gorgeous warm & calm so out on anchor, swimming, eating up on deck

time to get the anchor up and head south towards Berlin
love this area of Germany
coming into 'civilization ' the weekenders just out of Spandau
all too soon our great week together over, decided to ride with Kerry & Ross some of the way north.
interesting sculptures by the banks of the Havel.

time for us to say goodbyes & turn around.
decided on our way back to explore a bit more of the Berlin Wall, or rather where it had been. Over the past couple of years we have cycled a fair bit of it but had not cycled the Spandau to Mitta bit. Endlessly facinating we are both getting a bit obsessed with 'the wall' passed through all sorts of areas, residential, forests, cobblestones, sand, dirt. Theses sand dunes were a surprise, something one would not expect to see in a city. By the time we got back to Linquenda we had done 90km! A tad more than what we had originally planned but fantastic. And yes I was stuffed.