Last look

One last look (up!) at the Niederfinow lift lock. I think structures like this look great in black and white. I guess I'm on sort of a monochrome kick this week!

Express route

There was a short walk from the ticket booth to the place where you boarded the boat for the lift lock tour. For people really in a hurry, there was the Hafenexpress. I think it's a bit of a misnomer, but I'm sure the ride was fun!

Going up

Since the basin on this lift lock is somewhat closed, it's hard to get a good impression of how far up we actually were. But I tried!

Here's a look over the treetops.

And now the gates are opening at the top of the lock. We sailed down a little ways and looked around before turning around and doing it all again. It was a nice way to spend an afternoon and I'd love to come back when the new lock is built to give it a test whirl as well!

It's finally Friday. I hope you've got some nice plans for the weekend. The weather is supposed to be nice, so I'll probably be on the golf course. Hope your skies are blue too - you can see more at Skywatch.

Von Munchhausen

This friendly little boat took us up and down at the Schiffshebewerk Niederfinow. We were amongst the first onboard and got prime seats on the front row at the top of the boat. I have no idea why the boat is named von Munchhausen, but it was a fun little tour that lasted a little more than an hour. For more signs, take a look at Signs, Signs.

Schiffshebewerk Niederfinow

 

Back in Toronto, I remember being super impressed with a boat tour of the Peterborough Lift Lock. So when I learned that the Schiffshebewerk Niederfinow (Germany's oldest and biggest lift lock) is not far from Berlin, I knew I had to go see it. It didn't disappoint!

It's sort of hard to capture the engineering beauty of these types of structures, but it really was impressive. A smaller lock was originally built on this site in 1914, but was quickly deemed too small for traffic demands on the canal. In 1934 it was replaced by the big, imposing structure that still stands today. It works a bit differently from the one in Peterborough - it had two basins which served as natural counterweights while Niederfinow has one basin and external counterweights - but the principal is the same. The lift stands at 60 meters tall and the journey up and down takes about five minutes. Be sure to check back later this week for an up close look at the lock, until then you can see more old stuff at Rubbish Tuesday.

Confidential to my brother: Happy Birthday!!!