The Spreewald

Sixteen days in Germany can not be done in one blog post, so the next few blog posts will be dedicated to some of the more fabulous places we got to go! Even though we didn't get to the Spreewald till toward the end of our trip I am posting it first due to the sheer awesomeness of it.
My family lives is Lubben, a town about one and a half hours south east of Berlin in what was once the former East Germany. The thing that makes Lubben famous is that The Spreewald, a series of small waterways branching off from the Spree river and winding their way through the forest, is there. It is tradition when we go to take a boat ride on one of the long flat bottomed boats. You can take a tourist boat through the more widely traveled area and see a great deal for a few hours, or you can be lucky like we were and get to go on a private boat for a 5 hour tour and then get lost and end up spending 9 wonderful hours in this beautiful place, and one freezing hour as we tried to find our way back before dark. So yes, we got the 10 hour tour and for the most part it was amazing.
I say for the most part one because of the last cold hour when the kids who had done awesome most of the day (especially since half way through we found a restaurant in the middle of the wetlands and had some very tasty ice cream) started getting tired and hungry. And because of the mosquitoes. With a little bug spray and wearing our windbreakers we were saved from them mostly, but there was that incident when after about 5 hours there needed to be a bathroom break and our only option was a swampy side bank. Lets just say that it is hard to slap away bugs and pee at the same time and leave it at that. If you want to hear the whole story I will admit it with a red face, but not in writing!!!
So here are my pictures of The Spreewald. It was breathtaking. Enjoy!!!