Cottbus, Germany 2016 🇩🇪 – Michael and Pam's Travels

Travelled : 159 kilometres from Potsdam to Cottbus, Brandenburg (state).

Visited : Cottbus and Schloos Banitz

Stayed : Municipal Stellplatz Cottsbus, €12 includes all the usual facilities. N51.74641 E14.35282 (CamperContact).

We make an early start to beat the time-clock on the parking machine, preferring €20 rather than €30 if we left after 9 am. Having enjoyed our time in Potsdam we are looking forward traveling south and hopefully seeing a few less people. It’s now autumn and the holidays are over in Germany. We don’t get far before we spot a Lidl and stop for a quick shop. Now you may ask why do we shop so often ? Well we only have a small fridge, not a lot of cupboard space and Pam like fresh fruit. More importantly, nothing is open on Sunday’s in German unless it sells alcohol.

As usual the German autobahn provide a smooth run, except for a 10 kilometre detour because an exit ramp or ausfahrt was closed. Have I previously mentioned that every off-ramp in Germany has a sign with an arrow “AUSFAHRT”. A couple of hours later we roll into Cottbus and make our way to the stellplatz. Seeing an official looking person in a reflective jacket, I have one of the most confusing conversations I’ve ever had, but as Johannes said, ‘the rules become self evident’. Firstly go to the office at the zoo, tell them you have a campercar and get a key. OK where’s the zoo ? A small steam train trundles past and heads up the track, in the distance an elephant raises his head to acknowledge the train. It all makes sense now.

It’s actually a beautiful little stellplatz, plenty of power and shade on the edge of Branitz Park.

Another little train trundles by Pam. Not a steam train this time, but a little diesel locomotive.

Branitz Schloos (palace) and gardens in the foreground. In the tourism info, it identifies Branitz as a palace, but it’s really just a grand house. The parklands around the Schloos are really special, hundreds of hectres of grassland, tree lined cycle paths with little bridges crossing streams seemingly everywhere. In the early evening deer come out of the woods and start wandering about. It’s all very special.

It’s going to be another hot day, so we cycle in the altstadt of Cottbus early to have a look around. We find remnants of the old walls and towers as we pass.

The Church of St. Nikolai. Built in the 15th century, in the German red brick style. The interior a simple white wash finish.

The German churchs tend to be much less ostentatious than those in Spain and Italy, but that may have more to do with being predominately Protestant rather thann Catholic or reflecting perhaps the beliefs of Martin Luther ?

Another old tower stands with some more modern buildings. It’s mid-day and getting hot in Cottbus, more people are getting about heading to their favourite cafe or ice-cream shop.

The River Spree cuts through Cuttbus, marking a line between the old town and the new. There are cycle paths either side of the river and lots of bridges and weirs to cross.

We have been chatting with our Belgium neighbours, they highly recommend Dresden, so what the heck let’s go to Dresden.

Michael and Pam

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