Berlin Solar-Powered Catamaran Spree Cruise with Audio Guide

The catamaran harbour and the Oberbaum Bridge

The cruise starts at a small harbour on the Spree in Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg, about 150 metres from the Oberbaum Bridge and directly behind the large hotel on the riverbank. Boarding begins fifteen minutes before departure, you show your ticket as you step on board and collect your welcome drink. Within minutes the catamaran is passing beneath the Oberbaum Bridge, completed in 1896 with two brick towers and a double deck that carries the elevated U-Bahn over the river; from 1961 to 1989 it was a pedestrian border crossing between West and East.

Because the solar boat makes no noise, the first thing you hear under the bridge is the train crossing above you. The audio guide begins its story here with the division of the city, and this Spree cruise Oberbaum Bridge start means you photograph the towers from both sides within the first ten minutes.

East Side Gallery

Just beyond the bridge the catamaran passes the East Side Gallery, the 1.3-kilometre section of the Berlin Wall on Mühlenstraße painted in 1990 by artists from many countries and now a protected monument. From the river you see the side that faced East Berlin's border strip; the river itself was the frontier, with the water belonging to the East right up to the Kreuzberg bank. The audio guide explains how the gallery came about in the months after the border opened and how it was restored in 2009.

A Berlin boat tour East Side Gallery passage is short, about five minutes, but on the quiet catamaran it is unhurried enough to take in the whole length and the new apartment and office buildings that have replaced the empty border strip behind it. After the gallery the boat continues west past Ostbahnhof and the converted brick pumping station of 1881 towards the lock.

Mühlendamm Lock and the old centre

The passage through the Mühlendamm Lock is the moment most passengers remember: the catamaran enters the chamber, the gates close and the boat rises or falls to the level of the inner city. The lock stands where Berlin was founded, on the mill dam that joined the medieval twin towns of Berlin and Cölln in the thirteenth century. On the far side you pass the Nikolaiviertel, the oldest quarter, with the twin spires of the oldest church in Berlin and the TV Tower of 1969 rising behind it.

The small size of the boat helps here, because the lock timetable is strict and the catamaran fits in with other traffic easily. The whole passage takes around ten to fifteen minutes, and the audio guide fills it with the story of the river harbour, the mills and the East German rebuilding of the quarter in the 1980s.

Museum Island and Berlin Cathedral

Beyond the lock the Spree divides around Museum Island, a UNESCO World Heritage Site with five museums built between 1830 and 1930, and the catamaran takes the eastern arm past the Humboldt Forum, which rebuilt the baroque facades of the demolished City Palace, and Berlin Cathedral, completed in 1905 with a dome almost a hundred metres high. Then come the colonnades of the museums themselves, ending at the Bode Museum on the tip of the island.

From the low deck of the catamaran the cathedral and the museums tower above you, which makes this the best photographic stretch of the trip. The audio guide explains the island's listing and which museum holds what, useful if you plan a visit on another day. You pass Museum Island again on the return, so there are two chances for the picture.

The Government District and Berlin Central Station

West of Museum Island the river passes Friedrichstraße station and the Tränenpalast, the former border hall, and then bends into the Government District. The Reichstag, completed in 1894 and seat of the German parliament since 1999 beneath its glass dome, stands on the right bank; the ribbon of federal buildings crosses the river to the Federal Chancellery of 2001, built so that parliament and government straddle the former border. Opposite rises Berlin Central Station, opened in 2006, the city's largest and most modern railway station.

The riverside lawns here are busy on warm afternoons and the quiet boat passes close enough to the Reichstag for detailed photographs of the dome. This is the stretch for which many travellers choose a Berlin river cruise with audio guide, as the commentary on the parliament and the Chancellery runs at your own pace through the headset.

House of World Cultures and the return to the harbour

The catamaran turns at the House of World Cultures, the former Congress Hall of 1957 at the edge of the Tiergarten park, known to Berliners as the pregnant oyster for its curved concrete roof, rebuilt in 1987 after a collapse. From here the boat glides back east along the same route, through the Government District, past Museum Island and the cathedral and through the Mühlendamm Lock a second time, before the Oberbaum Bridge and the harbour come into view.

The return leg is when most passengers put the camera down, sit on the open deck and simply watch Berlin pass in silence; snacks and further drinks can be bought on board. The cruise ends at the harbour after about 2.5 hours, a few minutes on foot from Warschauer Straße and Schlesisches Tor stations.