Tour de Embassies – Stage 1

Date	14.10.2019
Bike	Flash
Strava Activity	https://www.strava.com/activities/2788175770
Distance in km	106.7
Elevation in m	371

I was passing through Tiergartenstraße past many of the imposing embassies during one of my commutes to my previous place of work and a thought struck me: where are the embassies of all the countries located in Berlin? They couldn’t all be in the Tiergarten/Mitte area, so where were they? This led me to develop the Tour de Embassies, a two-day bicycle tour passing by all the addresses that I could find for all the national embassies located in Berlin.

Set off after breakfast – porridge with peanut butter – into a clear autumn day where the leaves were mainly yellow. Headed due west past the Kyrgyzstani embassy on Otto-Suhr-Allee, which is now missing its Buddy Bear. Blood sugar was pretty good after breakfast, I slightly reduced the basal and bolus insulin amounts as the past few days have seen me being a bit more insulin resistant than I’d like.

After Madagascar, it was back towards the (first) Turkish embassy in Berlin via Heerstraße and touring the very posh areas of Dahlem where this does not feel like the stereotypical Berlin at all! So many huge houses with gardens, easily peak-West Berlin.  

Next, I was circling around the Dahlem campus of the Freie Universität for a handful of embassies (Iran, Iraq, Libya, Equatorial Guinea) – again more lush housing.

Zehlendorf and Lichterfelde were next up, not really areas that I tend to cycle through as there’s just too much traffic from my Charlottenburger base. Steglitz was next and the Chadian and Yemeni embassies took me back to the Meteorological Institute of the FUB and some good memories of defending my doctoral thesis. Plus remembering that there is actually a fairly steep climb (for Berlin) up to the building.

Then the first stop of embassy central aka lower Tiergarten. The Nordic embassy building, Felleshus, is pretty well designed with its sleek lines and copper panels. Very much on brand for Scandinavian design. Just next to the Nordic embassy is the impressive Mexican embassy – ready for some Instagram action with their wings! Being half-Maltese, I always give a quick wave at the Maltese embassy, which is a few doors down from the Mexican embassy. It’s a suite in a building that also hosts the Bahraini and Luxembourg embassies.

Snaking around the trafficky streets of Mitte was next and then onto Kürfurstendamm. Couldn’t spot the embassies I wanted to (that’s you Cyprus, Mali and Sudan), as you really need all your wits cycling in the bus/taxi lane, which tallies as a double parking lane and beware of pedestrians crossing too!

Quick detour to Berliner Straße and then back to base. All in all a fun ride: perfect conditions and some nice riding! Blood glucose management was pretty optimal too, had an energy gel after about 45 minutes, first Clif bar after photographing the Madagascan Embassy and then another Clif bar about 2 hours after. Finished with 80 mg/dL so that’s pretty ideal.