If you are paying a visit to Berlin and you feel tired of going to hundreds of museums and clubs, you should perhaps take a day off and try something different.

Take a ride to Treptower Park…

This was also the our case… Having visitors from south Germany, we decided that instead of doing a humble-rumble-we-go-to-the-city-center tour under these temperatures, we took a train to Treptower Park…

If you take the S-Bahn, it shouldn’t take more than 20-30 minutes, depending on where you are.

Our main visitor, a five year old very active personality, deliberately wanted to try one of those pedal boat. Getting out at Treptower Park S-Bahn and going along the waterside, it is about a kilometer until you get to these pedal boats for hire. The way is everything except boring though… Especially for kids who are kinda hyperactive…

The only thing families with children should be cautious of are the bikers who are indeed very careful but it’s a good idea to keep an eye on the kids anyway.

The first stop is a small shop by the water where we buy crepes filled with apple pudding, sugar and ginger. There are seats and tables so enough facility to enjoy a “haeppchen”.

As one could imagine, Treptower Park is extremely green, even by these temperatures. It is also very clean (so you don’t really see dog shit everywhere, Tom, it could be your place ;) ). There are lovely boats and boat houses along the way.

One of the main attractions there is the Zenner Biergarten (which for us personally was way too kitch but I can imagine it being interesting for the tourists) where oldies and new hits as well as some funny remixes are played on sundays and many couples and young people meet for lunch, a bier or more and to dance.

The prices are not very expensive, you should be careful, though because it makes up a good the sum if you don’t really care about what you are ordering.

Going past this Biergarten, you finally come to the location where pedal boats, other boats and even motor boats are for hire. Our litte visitor got his eyes on a blue pedal boat with yellow parts (which actually was the worst one there, pretty old and slow so go for the newer ones if you want a comfortable and pretty fast ride) and we set off on water…. The normal boats cost about 8 euros per hour, pedal boats cost 11 euros and the motor boats about 45 euros per 2 hours. Dont forget to take an ID with you and remember they also get some deposit when hiring the boats.

Now the Spree has no flow… It is basically static and very calm water…But very nice, too… Don’t forget to take your hat with you at these temperatures !

The bridge there takes you to the island in the middle of the Spree and apart from more green area, you come across a very good cafe for chilling out. As we got there, a great band named Sabanova was playing there and it was definitely more relaxing than pedalling :) and indeed we started chilling there..

Although a small cafe, pretty well visited place with a variety of seating possibilities and no stress at all. For kids there are areas where they can play in sand or play ball and get dirty as they please. The parents and other adults can in the meanwhile enjoy their drinks and chat with friends or they can enjoy a day alone. The toilets are in the main building which is very close to the cafe and I must admit I found the cafe generally pleasingly clean. One problem for me was that some kids were going too near to the edge and I feared them falling into water but then I learned that the water is not very deep there anyway, so no worries.

The prices are ok and they get deposit on glasses and bottles so dont be suprised. But DO take a look at the price list that is hanging on the wall as it happened to me twice on one day that a drink cost all of a sudden 0,20 to 0,4 euros more. Talk to them and you get your money back.

Well, go and see it for yourself, have fun and chill out…