15th stage of the "66 Lakes Hiking Trail": The spa town and the Märkisches Meer - Bad Saarow to Wendisch Rietz

The 15th stage of the 66-Lakes Trail offers amazing diversity and sightseeing variety: first through a miniature primeval forest of former clay pits, then through a tranquil landscape with fields, forests, other bodies of water, past bathing areas, through small villages and over the largest inland dune in Germany. 

Start / Finish: Bad Saarow / Wendisch Rietz
Length / Duration: 25 kilometers / about 6 hours
Logo / route sign: Blue solid circle on a white background
Road condition / route development: almost entirely unpaved hiking trails
Course: Bad Saarow, Kolpin, Kolpin Lakes, Reichenwalde, Storkow (Mark), Dahmsdorf, Wendisch Rietz
Arrival/Departure:

• Arrival: From Berlin Hauptbahnhof take the RE1 (Cottbus) to Fürstenwalde / Spree. From here take the RB35 to Bad Saarow (approx. 1 hour).
• Check out: From Wendisch Rietz take the RB36 to Königs Wusterhausen. From here continue with the RE2 (Nauen) to Berlin Hauptbahnhof (approx. 1,5 hours).

maximum height of 85 m above sea level and a minimum height of 37 m above sea level. 133 meters of ascent and 132 meters of descent are overcome.

Directions
The tour begins at the historic train station in Bad Saarow, where you can get good tips and comprehensive advice for the upcoming tour at the tourist information office. From here you go to the spa park and along the promenade to the left of the Scharmützelsee. 

At the level of the Fontane Literature Park, you leave the Scharmützelsee and turn right towards Kolpin, where you not only see the old town centre with the typical fieldstone church, but also pass the two lakes, the Großer and Kleiner Kolpiner See. 

Now you turn south, skirt Reichenwalde and then make your way to Storkow (Mark), which is more than 1.000 years old and is therefore one of the oldest towns in Brandenburg. Here you will also find the Waltersberge inland dune, which is a highlight of the tour. At 36 metres, Germany's highest inland dune is located on the outskirts of the town of Storkow and impresses with the wide view from the summit and the fine, light sand, which is still not overgrown in the upper part, but presents itself like a sea dune. Such inland dunes were formed after the Ice Age around 10.000 years ago, because vegetation could only slowly reestablish itself after the ice melted. Fine soil particles could be transported for kilometres by the wind. In very strong winds, the resulting dunes also "migrated".

If you want, you can take a detour into the city center and visit the historic Streleburg; otherwise, you follow the route of the tour along the shore of the Great Storkower Lake and through a small forest to Dahmsdorf.
 From here the path continues close to the shore until it reaches the Schafsbrücke, which leads over the canal that connects the Großer Storkower See with the Scharmützelsee.

The path continues through a short stretch of forest to the destination of Wendisch Rietz.

As one of the largest lakes in the Margraviate of Brandenburg (12,1 square kilometers in size and more than 10 kilometers long), the poet Theodor Fontane gave the Scharmützelsee the nickname "Märkisches Meer" - a very fitting name. Due to its elongated shape, the Scharmützelsee is called a Rinnensee. It and the Glubigseen chain to the south are a result of the Ice Age.

Attractions

• Bad Saarow: historic train station building, Scharmützelsee
• Storkow: one of the oldest cities in Brandenburg; largest inland dune in Germany, Streleburg, drawbridge and lock system, water buffalo enclosure, Church of St. Maria
• Reichenwalde and Dahmsdorf: old town centers and fieldstone churches
• Wendisch Rietz: amusement park "Scharmuntzelland"

Maps / Literature

• "66-Seen-Weg, Hikeline hiking guide", 1:50.000, Publisher: Esterbauer, Edition: 2 (2012), ISBN-13: 978-3850005012, 14,90 Euro
• Reschke, Manfred: "The 66-lake hike. To the natural beauties around Berlin", Trescher Verlag; Edition 8, current edition (2017), ISBN 978-3-89794-369-8