Completing cycling the Berlin Wall Trail

[lethargic_man]

In retrospect, it's a little puzzling that in my first few years in Berlin, I hardly ever cycled out of the city to explore the countryside, given how much I'd enjoyed doing precisely that in Newcastle and Edinburgh (and the one time I went on a bike ride in Cambridge). It must have been the legacy of fifteen years in London, where by the time I'd reached the countryside, I'd had enough and just wanted to turn around and go home again.

Berlin is a third the size of London, but it took the pandemic to teach me that. Meaning: When my work sent us all home from the office, I wanted to do as much cycling each week as I would have done commuting, to keep myself fit. After a few weeks exploring the city, I reached the countryside and rediscovered that it was really nice (duh).

Shortly afterwards, I discovered that the sections of the Berlin Wall Trail on the city edge (including my favourite bike ride in Berlin^*) nicely combine cycling through pleasant countryside (on, generally, at least one side) with well-maintained cycle paths.

* The route takes you through fields, past a small lake then through a pine forest, with sandy areas, then along a raised boardwalk over a marsh, with signs along the way showing the wildlife in the marsh.

After I'd been cycling thus for a little while, I decided to mark out the Berlin Wall Trail on the map where I'd been tracking my cycling progress:

The result inspired me to cycle the rest, and today I closed the last gaps in my coverage (almost entirely in chunks of no more than two hours, that I could squeeze into the time I would, pre-pandemic, have been commuting by bike, plus my lunchbreak) of the 100 mile (160 km) course of the Wall:

Key:
Dashed line = where the Berlin Wall Trail departs from the route of the Wall.
Dotted line = route of the Wall, but not of the Berlin Wall Trail.
Light blue = remaining sections of pipe-onna-wall outer wall. (Other sections of wall remain but are not so obvious.)

And here's how I did the cycling:

Comments

The Rim of the Ancient Murrainer

[hairyears]

I take your point about getting anywhere green from central-ish London: I've found a few nature trails and country parks within five to ten miles of Punsylvania, but the 'green fields' countryside is ten miles out.

But... I now ride the best bike I've ever owned, a Gazelle Esprit with a 7-speed hub, and the gearing is perfect for me.

So Sunday's 40-mile ride, out to Rainham and Purfleet, taking in some of the trails on London's tributary rivers along the way, was an easy pleasure.

The trick is identifying safe routes out, and back, in a country with a de facto legal immunity and impunity for motorists who injure or kill a cyclist; and the painted 'cycle lanes' on London A-Roads have 40% more fatalities per mile than comparable roads with no cycling signage whatsoever.

So ehat's it like in Berlin? My views on the dangerously arrogant and aggressive drivers of German cars in London - the Kensington Panzerkampfwagen Brigade - are probably not applicable in Germany...

Re: The Rim of the Ancient Murrainer

[lethargic_man]

I take your point about getting anywhere green from central-ish London: I've found a few nature trails and country parks within five to ten miles of Punsylvania, but the 'green fields' countryside is ten miles out.

Well, the edge of the countryside was about forty-five minutes away for me, but since I got rid of my annual Travelcard, I was determined to keep cycle commuting three times a week in London, which reduced the amount of oomph I had for other bike rides.

So ehat's it like in Berlin?

Well, on the one hand, cycle lanes and cycle paths are everywhere, and the vast majority pedestrians know to avoid them, and the vast majority of drivers know to wait for cyclists on their right before turning right.

OTOH, the tarmac on the road is way smoother than cycle paths, and I frequently ride on the road where the traffic isn't too bad, and it's legal. (Until about a decade ago, it was compulsory for cyclists to ride on cycle paths/lanes, but then research proved that cyclists were actually safer on the road, and cycle paths were made non-mandatory except where signed so.)

At any rate, my experience is that the smaller the city, the less hurry people are in because the less time they're wasting getting anywhere. I recall being astonished to have complete strangers wishing me good morning whilst I waited at a bus stop in Dundee on Sunday. London is of course the opposite end of the spectrum, and it took only a year to turn me into as aggressive a road user as any other London resident. The same probably applies to the drivers of German cars you're referring to.

For some years I remained a more aggressive road user here than other Berliners, but I think the London effect might finally have worn off now. But even before it did, or did completely, I was astonished whenever I went back to London at how aggressive the drivers there are. I certainly feel much safer as a cyclist in Berlin.

To be sure, there are still cyclist deaths—indeed, a member of my synagogue was killed by a right-turning lorry a week before the birth of his first child (who ended up being born on the same day as my own), but in absolute numbers, there's way less than the rash of cyclist deaths which provoked so much outrage amongst cyclists and eventually action from the authorities, in London in the late first half of the 2010s.

[liv]

I have found possibly the most you song ever. You may already know this but it has a rabbit who cycles around Berlin and sings about it in German, and it's super, super cute:
Fahrrad fahr´n

[lethargic_man]

That's funny, because Rafi insists on watching this every evening, and until I clicked, I was wondering if it were this you were referring to. (Some of the lyrics are also quite amusing.)

[lethargic_man]

It's also very appropriate because I saw a hare (or at least I think so—I didn't get to inspect it close up) on my bike ride today. :o)

That would make it the first wild hare I've seen. (I've seen quite a few wild rabbits, though. Still no boars or raccoons, though.)