Dresden, 27. August 2025

A little man stands in the forest… but with his bags packed :-) Because this Monday we were heading to Dresden for our team days. My ride, Susanne, who probably has by far the longest journey and just happens to be passing by my place, picked me up at the agreed time.

The first two days were still filled with daily work and meetings, but it's also fun to see all our colleagues face-to-face once in a while and work together in person. Wednesday, however, was all about team spirit, adventure, and—yes—a good dose of splashing water.

Adventure in the Spreewald: paddles instead of PowerPoint

A "wet-n-wild" challenge was planned. I'm not really much of a water rat but the things you do for a strong team! Once all the participants had been divided into carpools, we set off for Neustadt an der Spree. There, Mücke and Biggi from Aktiv Erlebnis Lausitz welcomed us with a special kind of breakfast, lovingly decorated with everything your heart could desire. The pictures below this article speak for themselves.

After this sumptuous feast, we were not only equipped with boats and life jackets, but also given playful tasks that already caused a lot of laughter on the shore. I quickly borrowed a pair of shorts from Jana, as long jeans were clearly impractical for the mission ahead.

A tour guide? Check. A captain with a cap and bell? If we're going to do this, let's do it right. Honestly, I tried to hide, and luckily the choice fell on Jana and Christian, who, incidentally, with his captain's cap and a little imagination, was reminiscent of Captain Iglo. He took it with humor and lightened up the whole tour with his cheeky remarks. Shortly afterwards, it was time to "cast off!" and we started paddling, sometimes elegantly, sometimes in a zigzag pattern. Well, anyone who thinks steering a boat is that easy is mistaken. But after a while, we got the hang of it.

Team spirit on the water

Rain from above, rapids up ahead – I've only ever seen things like that in movies. After all, we were literally in the same boat, so we closed our eyes and went for it. Since I was armed with cameras and my hands were occupied, I left the paddling to my fellow travelers. Apart from the fact that I am a nature lover anyway, the tour rewarded us with beautiful sections and views. Just in time for lunch, the sun was shining down on us again.

Was it exhausting? No, of course not, never *rofl* :-) But some of us were already feeling a little hungry again. We had already covered two-thirds of the route. So it was time to go ashore and grab some food. Our hosts had set up a barbecue on the shore, and there were steaks, roasted chicken, and vegetables. Did I mention that I love potato salad? Unfortunately, I didn't want the boat to capsize because of me, so I held back. The well-deserved lunch break was once again cleverly used to put us to the test with marble and skill games, banishing any midday tiredness.

Refreshed and with almost professional paddling technique, we headed back out onto the water. Selfies, videos, and lots of laughter accompanied us to the finish line. We didn't see any animals in the water, on land, or in the air, but that's not surprising when you're blaring "If I were a piece of furniture, I'd be a lamp from the seventies…" at full volume on the Spree. Once we finally had solid ground under our feet again, we pulled the boats out of the water, cleaned and loaded them onto a trailer. And to prevent us from collapsing from exhaustion, more snacks were offered to us. Unfortunately, I had to pass on these, as delicious as the cake looked, I had perhaps had one too many spoonfuls of potato salad earlier.

That was the first part of our adventure. You can see how much fun we had in our video. But there was more to come. Next week, you will find out what happened at the adventure camp that evening, so stay tuned.

Volker