Canoe Trip to the Meierei

Overall it’s been a cooler summer, so we’ve done a lot less swimming at the lake than the past two summers. In the two weeks of interminable heat, we mostly stayed home because a) it was so hot we didn’t want to walk all the way to the lake and b) we were working on integrating the new kitten into the household. Instead, we rented a row boat for a couple hours most weekends, as the mild summer weather and lazy breeze was great for rowing. A few weekends ago the summer boat traffic had thinned enough that we got a bit more adventurous and went further up the Havel than we had before:

One of our favorite places in Potsdam is the Meierei, aka The Dairy. It’s an old dairy which now operates as one of the small number of local breweries in Germany. The beer is decent, but really, it’s the atmosphere you go for. It’s just outside the picturesque Neuen Garten, full of follies and small royal palaces, and lovely wide expanses of pathways through trees, and it sits on the edge of the Havel river and Jungfernsee. Most of the time we sit outside, even without Covid, so that we can watch the boats and birds on the water.

Because of the pandemic, we had not made it out to the Meierei all summer. At first, things were closed, then when they opened we were fairly certain that the Meierei would be quite busy, and we’d either find ourselves among more people than we wanted, stuck waiting a long time for a place, or turning back after a long trek there (45min walk) to go home still thirsty. Our experience a couple weekends ago gave us an idea though – now that river traffic was a little less, we could go to the Meierei by water! It would be a fun adventure, and the crowds should be a bit thinner there than at the height of summer as well. If we arrived nice and early, we would have no problem getting a beer and some fries before heading back.

We were planning to rent a kayak instead of the rowboat. The rental rowboats only permit one person to row at a time, and are definitely the sturdy, stable, but not speedy, kind of rowboat. So unless we wanted a long, slow, trip to the Meierei, we needed something that let both of us pitch in at the same time. Unfortunately, their kayaks were at their other location last Saturday, but happily, they did have a decent canoe. So that’s what we got!

We had a wonderful trip up, with minimal traffic on the water, and not too much wind. We had a little adventure arriving at the Meierei. As we approached, I couldn’t see any open spot on the park shoreline to pull up the canoe. The park is (understandably) trying to keep the shoreline intact, so I didn’t want us to have to drag the canoe through the grasses along the edge.

Just past the brewery I could see a sandy space with some boats at a small pier, and other canoes pulled up. This looked like a good spot, so we headed for it, passing up a gap in the park shore grasses that became visible as we approached. But when we started pulling our canoe out of the water, it became clear this was private land with the arrival of goats! We’d pulled up in somebody’s little farm yard. We beat a quick retreat and paddled back to the park and the little beach we’d seen.

We arrived around 12:30, and they only opened at 12, so while there was already a decent number of people, there was also still plenty of space. The usually grouchy lady at the window to get beer in the “seat yourself” space was even still pretty cheery!

We enjoyed our beers, a thing of fries, and the lovely weather. It was getting warmer out by the time we left, but the whole trip stayed in the range at which you are neither baking, nor worried about getting a little wet because it’s warm enough.

Altogether, our little canoe trip took around 4.5hrs. The trip back was a bit more intense, as there were more boats (including some larger, faster boats with a bigger wake) and the wind and picked up. And the direction of the wind was not in our favor. I can still feel the workout we got in my right shoulder today, nearly a week later. So when we go out tomorrow again, we’re doing a shorter trip. Maybe with the rowboat again.