Almost like the seaside

Where the Saale river has been romantically dammed

Why head to distant shores? A camping holiday by the Hohenwarte reservoir in southern Thuringia guarantees fun for all the family, whether in, next to or on the water.

It's a mere hour away from their home, but somehow it felt as if they had driven to another world. Like so many holidaymakers, the Fröhlichs also opted for a staycation: No travelling to Tyrol, the Adria, or Mallorca for them, instead: A campsite arranged in terraces fifty kilometres away from where they live, Gefell. The children don't really understand this fact, of course, but their parents are fascinated by it. Claudia Fröhlich reckons she would never have believed how relaxing this could be even just in terms of the journey: "It's only an hour's drive away, and not even on the motorway. That's how long you usually spend stuck in traffic jams from time to time on the way to your holidays." This year, the family already reached their actual destination in the same time: The campsite Linkenmühle by the Hohenwarte reservoir.

Don't get the wrong idea: This is no ordinary reservoir. Not the kind where an oval body of water that you can see in its entirety with just one look has been dammed behind a wall. The Saale river valley dam is the fourth-largest in Germany, the lake behind it measures seven square kilometres; tongue in cheek, the locals call it "the Thuringian Mere". From a bird's-eye perspective, the Hohenwarte reservoir looks like a twisting snake, as the Saale flows in meanders here. Get into a canoe at the campsite beach or onto a stand-up paddle board, and you'll disappear from sight as soon as you've gone around the next bend. After that, you have the lake more or less to yourself. Of course, a location like this is perfect for a campsite, and of course, the pitches directly next to the water are popular.

However, as the site is laid out in terraces, you still have views of the water and the Saale mountains even if you are pitched a little further back or higher up.
Like the Fröhlichs, who are occupying one of the fifty touring pitches (there are also another 160 seasonal pitches). Nils (11) is off to the playground straight away to check whether there are any other boys of his age around. Franz (4) has started extensive conversion works and has built a knights-Indians-dinosaur park in front of the caravan. And Theo (1) is hungry. Everything is as it always is, then.
There's probably not a single camper on the Linkenmühle site who doesn't walk down to the lake at least once a day, and, to be honest: Could there be a better place to spend a hot summer day?

Regardless of whether you are drifting along on a lilo or are trying to keep your balance on your first attempt at stand-up paddle boarding, whether you are just bobbing up and down, or paddling, or rowing, or swimming, or fishing: This reservoir has it all. Even if you just look out onto it all day long, like the couple who celebrated their diamond wedding here a few days ago - even then, the lake is the star of this holiday location.

Ronny Fröhlich says that everything is totally relaxed. "The site owners, the neighbours, everyone we've met so far." During the day, most people are either by the lake, in the lake or on it; in the evenings, the Fröhlichs usually sit down to dinner in front of their caravan. Sometimes, they go down to the shore, a great place to watch the sun set over the Saale valley: Glorious how the shadows are getting longer as the light gradually disappears. The air feels velvety at this time of the day, and sometimes, there's a thin layer of fog over the water that makes it look as if someone had picked bits of cotton wool and draped them over the lake just to please the smartphone photographers amongst the campers. It's as if nature has even taken care of the people who enjoy nothing more than looking at their holiday snaps when they're back home with fond memories of their summer holidays. Those holidays that were over all too soon. Of course, they might also just be looking at them in anticipation of their next holiday here.