Through the Oder floodplains from Stolpe

On dams of the East and West Oder to a castle ruin with distant views

The Oder splits below the Oderbruch near Hohensaaten into an east and a west arm, forming a wide floodplain or polder strip between the two, which stretches to Szczecin, where both arms reunite. This floodplain zone is a central part of the Lower Oder Valley National Park. The state border runs along the middle of the East Oder or on its west edge. However, the western arm of the Oder only bears the name "West Oder" starting a few kilometers below Schwedt. Due to flooding, the West Oder was converted into a canal after 1920, the 42 km long "Hohensaaten-Friedrichsthal Waterway." The expansion ends near Friedrichsthal, south of Gartz – from here, the West Oder exists in its "old" form. The area around this canal between Hohensaaten and Criewen is scenically attractive because it (and thus the old Oder glacial valley) is limited on its west side by steeply sloping lateral moraine ridges. Near Stolpe, about 10 km southeast of Angermünde, the moraine is crowned by a widely visible castle ruin, popularly named "Grützpott," the last remnant of a medieval Pomeranian border castle. It has been a ruin since the 15th century. Stolpe is the birthplace of naturalist and geologist Leopold von Buch (1774–1853), who is interred in a hereditary tomb in the park of his manor house at the foot of the castle hill.