Potsdam palaces and the Spreewald

Route description

Leave Berlin south-west on the B1 through Zehlendorf and Wannsee. Central Berlin is a low-emission zone, so a green sticker is needed for any vehicle. The road crosses the Havel on Glienicke Bridge, where spies were swapped during the Cold War; park at the Glienicke palace on the Berlin side and walk across. Cecilienhof, where the Potsdam Conference was held in 1945, is a few minutes further in the New Garden.

Give Sanssouci a full day. Frederick the Great’s palace sits above six terraces of vines, and the park stretches for kilometres past the New Palace, the Chinese House and the orangery. Palace tickets are timed and sell out on summer weekends, so book online. The park is free, and paid car parks lie on its edges; motorhomes are best left at a car park on the outskirts, with a bus or tram into the centre.

From Potsdam take the A10 ring and the A13 towards Dresden, about 110 km to the Lübbenau exit. The Spreewald is a maze of more than 200 small canals through alder woods. Leave the car in Lübbenau, where harbours offer punt trips of two to five hours, and walk or ride out to Lehde with its island farmhouses and open-air museum. Canoes and kayaks can be rented if you prefer to paddle yourself.

Finish in Cottbus, about 35 km south-east by the A15. Branitz Park lies on the eastern edge of the city: Prince Hermann von Pückler-Muskau spent his last decades shaping it and is buried inside the grass pyramid in the lake. The park is free and good in all seasons. Spring and early autumn are best for the Spreewald; in high summer the canals are busy and mosquitoes are thick.