Bicycle tour along the Spree River: from Nature to the Big City

By Helga Panten May 11, 2010, 12:40 GMT

Eibau, Germany - Eibau is a good starting point for a bicycle tour along north-eastern Germany's Spree River.

The stretch from the remotest point of the state of Saxony is just a stone's throw from the highest of the three sources of the Spree in the Kottmarwald forest region. And from there, the Spree flows quickly out of the hills before then slowing down in flatland territory - finally after 410 kilometres flowing into the Havel River in Berlin.

Those in a hurry will cover the route in five days.

There's a lot of entertainment along the way, for example the Eibau beer parade. Every year on the final Sunday in June, the town's 4,500 residents take to the streets in remembrance of an old dispute about beer sales privileges.

In 1693, the Eibau residents held a protest march against allowing outside beers being sold in their area. The protest march tradition was resurrected 18 years ago.

Today, some 1,500 participants parade through the streets in horse-drawn wagons, dressed as knights or on foot dressed in historical costumes, or driving old vehicles and farming equipment. Crowds of 15,000 onlookers turn out for the spectacle.

Right after leaving Eibau, the bicycle tour leads through gently rolling terrain alongside the Spree.

On the edge of the path are the painstakingly restored Umgebinde houses, massive structures combining the original single-story blockhouse style of the local ethnic Sorbs and the living quarters with the several-storied brick-and-timber style of settlers from the Franconia and Thueringia regions.

The kilometres glide past and soon there is the town of Bautzen and the Ortenburg castle atop a hill towering over the Spree. The historic old city centre, which is under monument protection, features majestic churches and spires, atop which one has a view of a landscape which is now flattening out.

From this point on, lakes and ponds dot the landscape alongside the Spree. The croaking of frogs and the quacking of ducks and great crested grebes provide the background music.

The next stage is the open-pit coalmining area of Nochten-Weisswasser. It is here that the landscape has been and continues to be revised. The open pit is now filling up with water to create a recreational lake.

On a map, the Baerwaldsee lake looks like a small pond. But in reality, the other side appears to touch the horizon and the open pit is now nearly filled. Larch trees are now growing in meadows beyond the lakeshore and in the trees orioles are chirping away.

In the background, cooling towers rise up and on the edge of the route are gigantic bucket excavators and conveyor belts, evidence of the past coalmining activity.

But then in a vision of the future recultivation of the landscape, there is the Nochten boulder park: 6,000 boulders, which were brought by the last Ice Age from Scandinavia and deposited there, dominate the hilly park landscape.

Between them, plants which thrive in the meagre soil are growing: alpine roses, heather, conifers. But the main colour is determined by the heath.

It is difficult to leave such a unique landscape. But the cities of Spremberg and Cottbus and its Branitz Park, and then the Spreewald still await. It is in the Spreewald - where the Spree river splits up into a number of small channels winding through the woods - that you get off your bike and board a boat.

This has been declared a biosphere reservation area by UNESCO and must be experienced up close.

After the Spreewald boat excursion it's back on the bicycle and on through the Brandenburg March region of sandy soil with expansive fields and the scent of pines.

Towns like Beeskow and Fuerstenwalde slide past as the tour continues. Soon, the path is filled with speeding cyclists - people heading to and from work, youngsters training for the next bicycle race.

Then you can hear the screams and shouts of bathers at the Gross Mueggelsee lake on Berlin's south-eastern outskirts and you know that the big city is close at hand.

And then the huge metropolis is there. Should you end the tour here and board a commuter train?

Better not, because continuing along the Spree in Berlin's areas of Koepenick, the museum island in the centre of the city, through the Tiergarten area and then on to the magnificent Charlottenburg Palace and its park all have their charm.