This is a great day trip when you're tired of Berlin's eternal hipness and just want to go look at some red squirrels in the woods and take a swim in a lake. It's also dirt cheap if you get the timing right.
You get the S-Bahn to Wannsee - it's a suburb in the south-west of the city. Come out of Wannsee station and cross over to the ferry port. Here you'll see a load of tourist boats, but also the 'BVG-fähre' boat to Kladow, a workaday ferry which leaves on the hour. So if you're lucky your S-Bahn ticket will still be valid and you can just hop on.
The ferry journey lasts about 20mins and takes you past an intriguing resort called Strandbad Wannsee - all 1920s architecture and neat rows of sunshades. You can imagine the flappers of the Weimar era frolicking there in their droves.
On arriving at Kladow you could take a right and follow the path into the woods - we did, and spotted a vivid red squirrel within minutes, which put us nicely in the zone for the rest of the day.
Once you're in the woods, and the parks and lakes beyond, you can just idle about the place and you are bound to find something to capture your imagination - for us it was a quick swim in the lake (there are a few sandy shores here and there), coming across an old orchard of gnarly apples and finding a dilapidated house that was once home to the Mendelssohn family.
Back at the bar on the shore by the ferry you can order some potato soup, wash it down with some Weisse beer and let the ubiquitous sparrow population entertain you. Then you can wind you way back to the hipster capital of the world a little less world weary.
The travel for the whole day cost us less than €5 as I recall, which made the wanderings even more carefree.

www.bvg.de/index.php/de/3774/name/Faehrlinie+F10.html
Google map: bit.ly/Opjz2i

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I wanted to find a pretty German lake for a swim on a sunny day, and Wandlitz was the obvious answer. But however hard I looked online I couldn’t find the answers to any of my questions, or even find the train station on google maps, so here goes…
To swim in the lake get on a train from Berlin Karow and get off at Wandlitzsee, and almost opposite the train station is a lido in the lake. It costs about two Euro to get in and there’s grassy banks, the lido, but also access to swim in the whole lake, rowing boats, diving boards, food and drink and lots of German families.
If you don’t want to go to the main public part of the lake try heading to the right as you approach the lido and take the path round, every so often there are areas you can access the lake for a swim, have a picnic, or just enjoy the peace and quiet.
This is all within Berlin zone C so easy to get to, and only about 15mins from Karow. We took a picnic and asked the woman in the boat hire to look after our things while we went for a swim which she was more than happy to do, but most people just left their belongings and as with everywhere else I went in Berlin you never really got the feeling that anything would get stolen.
Apparently it takes about three hours to walk round the whole lake but it was far too hot to even consider attempting that. And apparently the town is quite pretty, but I was desperate for Kaffee und Kuchen and so bi-passed that and headed back to the city.
Highlights? Watching the many varied attempts of people falling head first, feet first, and far too often belly first off the diving boards into the lake; and just swimming in a huge, calm, clean (although not quite crystal clear) stretch of water.

Wandlitzsee - Regional train from Karow (S2)
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Google map: bit.ly/TzuyrY

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A nature park with easy walking trails, elevated walkways and an imaginative indoor exhibition. Feeding the goats in the petting section is fun, there are deer, bears and birds, but the absolute highlight is the wolf pack. The wolves have a large area to roam in, but because you can climb up and look down from the walkway, you always get good views of them. Decent cafe and events throughout the year. We always stop off here on our way by car from Berlin to Rostock. It is just off the motorway, about two thirds of the way to Rostock.

www.nup-guestrow.de
Verbindungschaussee 1, 18273 Güstrow, Germany
+49 3843 2468
Google map: bit.ly/SykZbc

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