This region, described by writer Theodor Fontane as "a Venice as it may have been 1 500 years ago", is riddled with a network of streams and was once a forested wetland. Spreewald is also unique for its Swabian minority, highly attached to its traditions and language. Explore this verdant landscape from the deck of a barge, where the only sounds to interrupt the silence are the swish of the water, birdsong and quacking ducks. The village of Lehde, within the lagoon site, houses an open-air museum.