Halbe; Friday, 13 December, 2024

I had an OK nights sleep, though the chances of getting a lie in were put beyond reach when the drilling started on the outside wall of the hotel, directly underneath my room a little after 8am.

After an earlier than planned breakfast I headed out of the hotel and back into the centre of Berlin to go for a bit more of a wander around parts of the city I hadn’t previously explored, in particular the area around the Spreekanal and the historic harbour, before heading back to the hotel to pack up my bag and check out.

In the past I would have headed from the hotel over to Ostkreuz station to pick up the train out into Brandenburg, but with the creation of the Deutschland ticket virtually every regional train is now packed full most of the time as its quite a lot cheaper to take a series of local trains rather than pay through the nose for the ICE service. With that in mind I headed west instead and worked my way round the edge of Berlin to pick up my train at Spandau on the western edge of the city.

It turned out to be a very good idea as I was able to comfortably get a seat on the train, but just two stops later the train was pulling out of Berlin Zoo full and standing, and by Ostkreuz we were leaving people behind on the platform as the train was so full. It did add over an hour to my journey, but at least it was an hour sat down, rather than being rammed in for an hour out to Halbe 60 Km outside of the capital.

At Brand Tropical Islands station I got off the train and quickly made my way over to the shuttle bus over to Tropical Islands resort, expecting that to be busy as well, but it turned out there were only two other people catching the shuttle, so that was considerably more spacious than the train had been.

Tropical Islands is the worlds largest indoor water park, located to the south of the municipality of Halbe in a former zeppelin hanger, and up close it’s a truly enormous building (a model inside shows that at it’s widest point it’s wider than the Eiffel Tower is tall, and is significantly taller than the statue of liberty. By usable volume it’s the fourth largest building in the world. Construction work to convert the site started in 2002 and it opened in February 2004.

Whilst you can visit the water park as a regular day guest, you can also stay on site either in themed lodges within the dome or in the hotel rooms attached to the side (or away from the dome in chalets or with your own tent or caravan) and I had booked two nights as part of a special deal.

After checking in and heading to my room, and changing into swimming clothes which are pretty much essential given the dome maintains a steady 26C all year round inside, I headed out to explore the site visiting the different attractions on site including the water slides, Amazonia outside area and the main pools. I also had a bit of a wander through the indoor rainforest that dominates the centre of the site.

Along with all the rides and pools, there are also several bars and restaurants catering to both the day and overnight guests, and as the park started to empty out with the day guests leaving I headed over to the food court to grab a bite to eat before heading back into the pools and then over to the Sauna area.

After booking a massage for the following morning I headed back through the rainforest to the lagoon for a final swim before stopping off at a bar for an evening drink and then back to my room for a shower to wash the chlorine off and then turn in for the night.