Maybe it's because I lived for a while in Cornwall, close to the sea, that I seem to be drawn to water.

Not that I'm any good on it. I remember from my childhood when my family lived at Pangbourne, directly on the Thames, how we once caused mayhem by crashing out small boat from side wall to side wall on a calamitous passage through Whitchurch Lock.

So it was with a little trepidation that I took over the controls of a motorised raft to spend an afternoon on the Havel and lakes around Potsdam, just south of Berlin.

But, as the tourist board's press officer had assured me, I needn't have worried. "Even" she had managed it, she said, and it wasn't difficult.

The raft, from Huckleberrys, was an ingenious vessel, incapable of capsizing (which I would no doubt put to the test), with a cabin that can sleep four. Some holidaymakers rent them for up to five days to travel miles through the labyrinth of interconnecting waterways.

Brandenburg is the German state with more water than any other in the shape of 3,000 lakes and nearly 20,000 miles of waterways.

And with its great palaces - the capital Potsdam alone has Sansoucci, Charlottenhof and Cecilienhof - it is an ideal destination if you want to mix culture and history with some fun and get-away-from-it-all nature.

Barely 15 minutes into Huckleberrys motorised raft journey, we were passing under the Glienicke Bridge, the famous connecting line between East and West where there were tense exchanges of spies.

Anyone who has seen the Steven Spielberg film Bridge of Spies will know where I'm talking about.

And it was somehow quite appropriate to be there, because earlier in the day we were privileged to have been given a tour around Babelsberg film studio, just a few miles away, by its very knowledgeable communications director, Eike Wolf.

Studio Babelsberg is the world's oldest film studio and among the classics produced on their legendary stages were Metropolis and The Blue Angel - we had a look at the Marlene Dietrich Halle, which still exists - through to modern box office hits such as Inglorious Basterds, The Grand Budapest Hotel, and Valkyrie, starring Tom Cruise.

It was fascinating to see the sheer scale of the film studio's props, costume and make-up departments.

Close by is Babelsberg Film Park, a movie-based theme park for families with film sets, high-tech cinematic rides and stunt shows.

We took the train north from Potsdam to Rheinsberg, spending a day in Berlin on the way.

Rheinsberg is a bit off the beaten track, although it's only 100km away, but that's what makes it appealing. And the Maritim Hafenhotel has a stunning lake-side location where the sunsets are superb.

It was as easy as anything to hire bikes from the hotel and then cycle around some of the lakes.

It surprised me how much forest there was, but that was pleasant on the hot days.

This "Rheinsberg Lake District" was written about by Theodor Fontane, regarded as one of the most important 19th-century realist writers, who through Wanderungen durch Die Mark Brandenburg passed on his fascination with the area's countryside.

Rheinsberg Palace, where Frederick the Great spent his youth, is a beautiful building and we spent half a day looking around the palace and its large park.

This part of Germany represents excellent value. Even with the pound losing value recently, it is still far cheaper eating out in a good restaurant here than in the UK.

And the tranquility of rural Brandenburg - a pleasant contrast to traffic-packed Oxfordshire - has drawn us back on more than one occasion. And will no doubt do so again.

CONTACTS:

Jon travelled from Potsdam to Rheinsberg as a guest of TMB, Brandenburg Tourism Marketing

See: reiseland-brandenburg.de

Also:

Huckleberrys: Flossstationen.de

Hotel am Grossen Waisenhaus, Potsdam: hotelwaisenhaus.de

hafendorf-rheinsberg.de