Vier Seen-Route im Landkreis Oder-Spree

Sixty Kilometers on the Märkische Meer

Theodor Fontane called the Scharmützelsee the “Märkische Meer” (Marchian Sea), and anyone who rides these sixty kilometers quickly understands the phrase: The lake is so large that the route only encompasses it at a considerable distance, also including Lake Storkower See and Lake Glubigsee. The route is mostly on asphalt, primarily on dedicated cycle paths, partly on low-traffic side roads, and one section leads along a former railway line through the forest. Traveling without a car is more convenient than its location suggests: Take the RE 1 to Fürstenwalde an der Spree, where the RB 35, the Scharmützelseebahn, connects, running hourly to Bad Saarow-Pieskow. It operates with battery-electric trains that have a multi-purpose area with marked bicycle spaces: With a bike, you board through the rear door and exit through the middle door, and monitors show real-time occupancy. If you come without your own bike, you’ll find a rental about a hundred meters from the station on Golmer Straße.

Spa Park, Lesser Promenade, and the Port of Wendisch Rietz

Bad Saarow was a spa town, and you can still see it: The spa park has old trees, a lake balcony, a pavilion, a pergola, and a drinking cure facility at a healing spring from 1927, and entry is free. From the park, the approximately one-and-a-half-kilometer-long Lesser Promenade leads directly along the lake shore to Fontanepark, where quotes from the writer are displayed. In addition, there’s the historic train station, the lakeside promenade, the listed Villa Paolo, Cecilienpark, and the Alte Eichen peninsula. A stop at Silbersee is worthwhile for birdwatching. Further along the route is Wendisch Rietz with a harbor area that feels more Scandinavian than Brandenburg, followed by Diensdorf and Pieskow with the manor house Klein Sanssouci, a fairy tale forest, and a church with a seventeenth-century wooden altar. Those who venture further can reach the restored Storkow Castle with its nature park center, the Waltersberge inland dune, and the Naturgut Köllnitz. There are plenty of bathing spots: at the Bad Saarow lido, in Kleistpark, at Lustgarten in Saarow Dorf, in Radlow, Diensdorf and Pieskow, as well as on small beaches at the southern end of Scharmützelsee.