Spreewald

 This is going to be a short entry, but the last one had so many pictures I thought I should make them separate. I also had such a short time in the Spree Forest that I didn't have time to see much. But is a biosphere reserve because of its unique natural environment that included wooded areas, wetlands, and natural canals. They call it the Venice of Germany because people use boats to get around, a lot like in the canals of Venice. There are several cities you can go to in order to reach the forest, and I chose Luebbenau because it seemed like the closest.

Given my short amount of time, I figured the best way to see as much stuff as possible quickly was to do a boat tour. There are also hiking trails and bike trails, which I would have loved to see if I had time. But the boat tour was pretty cool too.  So most of the rest of this entry is just going to be pictures of the water and plants and stuff.

This is Luebbenau. It is a nice, small, "quaint" town. It was the only place so far where I have had so much trouble with the language barrier. The people at the train station spoke English, but the woman at the tourist information office said outright "no" when I asked her. Or rather, she said "nein". That is pretty rare, especially for someone who deals with tourists all the time. Usually people will say they speak a little bit, which usually means a lot more than my version of a little bit. I was able to ask her for information about boat tours and understood what she said, which made me proud of my slowly growing German skills.

 I think all the other tourists on my boat were German (the boatman only spoke German, so I had no idea what he was saying the whole time). None of the boatmen spoke English, but the guy at the counter for the ferry service did, so I was able to find out which boat was for the short tour.

There are many boats, both tour boats and privately owned boats

This is the kind of boat I went on, but not my actual boat

And off we go

houses on the water

The tour I took was the shortest at 2 hours and included a half hour stop in the traditional village of Lehde, which has an open air museum showing some of the customs of the people who live in Spreewald. I didn't go to the museum because I was more interested in lunch at the time, but I hear it is nice.

Anyway, I told you this would be a short entry. But it was still a fun side trip, despite its brevity.