The Landwehr Canal is one of our favorite places to spend warm Saturday afternoons, just walking along it. But, it can be a pretty exciting place to explore in winter as well since, from time to time, it freezes completely. A frozen Landwehr Canal is what happened on the last weekend of February 2018, and we went there to take pictures of everything.
If you don’t know, the Landwehr Canal is a pretty iconic stretch of water that cuts through the heart of Berlin for more than 10 kilometers. It follows from Neukölln to Kreuzberg, and it joins the Spree river after the Tiergarten, and it’s beautiful all across town. If you have been to Berlin before, you know what we are talking about.
In the summer, people are standing by the water. But, in winter, there is ice everywhere. Not enough for you to walk over but, every so often, when temperatures stay below zero for long, a frozen Landwehr Canal can be seen. According to some friends that have been in Berlin longer than us, it used to happen almost every winter but, since we moved here in 2012, we have seen it only once. This is why we took our cameras there and did the video below.
In the last week of February 2018, the Beast from the East arrived in Berlin and brought temperatures down to below -14º at night. This happened for a couple of days, and the Landwehr Canal froze. On a Sunday, we were walking around Neukölln when we saw people walking where the water is. Of course, we had to go down and join them.
Since we come from Brazil and winters are not that cold around there, this experience of walking on top of the frozen Landwehr Canal was pretty exceptional. We took way too many pictures and had lots of fun. But, it can be a dangerous experience as well since you can never know for sure it is safe for you to walk over the ice.
Be careful with the Frozen Landwehr Canal!
If you are in Berlin during winter and it’s cold for a long time, check out the Landwehr Canal and see if it’s frozen. If it’s, do an online search and see if the Police says it’s okay to walk over the water. Check their advice on this and avoid areas where you can see cracks, water, and holes. Also discolored regions close to grey or black. Be careful and have fun as we did!
Look at the map below if you want to find out where were we walking over the frozen Landwehr Canal.
Landwehr Canal or Landwehrkanal in German
Kreuzberg, Tiergarten, Neukölln
Berlin, Germany
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