As Germany won the World Cup last night, you can guess we are in a very happy place today! We got our T.V. out and watched it ourselves. I did not realise before we came to Berlin how many large lakes surround it. We are in a marina called Boothaus Roll on the Zeuthener See (Lake), about 30 minutes by train from Berlin and a beautiful spot. As with many of the things that have happened on this Gap Year, we are here because of people we met on the journey. In Paris we met Dr Angelika & Franz Paulus and they advised us to come here.

Holiday homes along the lake side

In the Arsenal Marina in Paris, we met Angelika & Franz from Berlin at a BBQ and told them of our plan to go to Berlin. They said we should stay in the marina where they normally keep their boat, especially as we planned to leave the boat and come back to Ireland for two weeks, as the security was excellent.  They arrived to our boat the next morning with the marina phone number and directions on how to get there. As we don’t speak German they were good enough ring and book us in. So that is how we ended up staying in Boothaus Roll.

Every home is immaculate

Repeatedly on this journey, people have arrived into our lives at the right time with help and advice to get us to the next stage. It seems weird, but we have got used to it happening and now depend on finding someone at each stage to help us through the next part of the journey. This is certainly not how either Nuala or I would have lived before and a great lesson for us in trusting a higher power that things will work out for the best and we will get the help when we need it.

Busy Damerizee

So that is how we ended up staying on the Lakes of Berlin. There are hundreds of lakes and many of them are bigger than Dublin Bay. On the way from Berlin to here, we crossed 10 lakes. The Germans make great use of  them and particularly as it was a Saturday when we travelled down from Berlin, there where hundreds of boats on each lake; tour boats, boats with hen/stag parties, cruisers, sailing boats, dingy racing, kayaks and house boats like we have never seen before.

Breakfast on the deck at Boothaus Roll – note swimmers in background

There were also many people swimming in the water. Berliners have a fantastic play ground on their door step and they make plenty of use of it. Also some of the lakes are connected by canals and along these canals they have built holiday homes right at the water edge. Some of the houses are simple wooden shacks and other are mansions. It’s like driving a boat down a street! All of the properties, whether shacks or mansions, are immaculately kept. It’s hard to convey how much use Berliners get from the waterways. I wish we were doing the same in Ireland.

House Boat – floating house with outboard engine – many for rent all over the lakes

Nuala in front of Boothaus Roll ready to go shopping