Grand Tour de Öffentliche Verkehrsmittel Stage 12/59 – Rainbow Unicorn

Date	27.01.2020
Strava Activity	https://www.strava.com/activities/3047868533
Bike	Bolt
Distance in km	80.1
Elevation in m	210
Amount of newly ridden kms in Berlin from wandrer.earth	42.5

I headed out for Stage 12 after breakfast, this time only slightly reducing my bolus amount since after the recovery week, my body was not as insulin sensitive as during training block weeks. The length of this stage was a good one to boost my insulin sensitivity since it would take over 3 hours to complete. Even though Stage 12 tackled just two bus routes – the 158 and 390, these were in the northernmost and easternmost areas in Berlin. The 390 bus route also services small towns in Brandenburg – but more of that later!

I passed through the Moabit and Gesundbrunnen districts on my way to Prenzlauer Allee/Ostseestraße which was the starting point for the 158 bus route. The bus route then heads north into the Weißensee district before veering to the left and onto the Blankenburger Chaussee. Here I decided to cycle on the road as there was a multi-use path rather than a designated bike lane. The Blankenburger Chaussee is well-paved so this was a fun section speeding along next to some fields!

The 158 route continues north through the Blankenburg and Karow districts. The bike lanes in these districts are pretty sketchy – one section over the Sellheim Bridge had road lamps in the middle. Who doesn’t like an obstacle course in a bike lane? Also this bike lane spits you out into the traffic and then magically reappears on the pavement with no warning! Some proper planning is needed here.

After passing under the Berlin Autobahn at Karow, I arrived in Buch, which is known for its medical and biotech research institutes, such as the Charité and Helios. Buch has a long history of medical research, with the opening of the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Institut für Hirnforschung (Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Brain Research) in 1931. Eugenics research was also performed during the Nazi era. 

Buch was the end stop for the 158 bus route – incidentally this bus route is roughly based on the same bus route that was originally designed in 1929. Next up was getting to Ahrensfelde. I passed through the town of Lindenberg and the final stretches before Ahrensfelde were on a well-paved cycle lane near some fields. This was pretty nice to cycle on but with the area being so open, there were quite some crosswinds.

I decided to have a coffee stop at the Ahrensfelde train station so I could eat an energy bar and inject some insulin. My blood glucose was trending upwards so I needed to take on some more insulin in order for my body to work better (i.e. so my muscles could use the glucose in my blood) for the rest of the ride. I managed to drop most of my coffee while fiddling about with my insulin pen – at least I didn’t drop any on me! 

After the food break (wasn’t much of a coffee break), I followed the route for the 390 bus. This is a circular bus route that starts and ends at the Ahrensfelde train station and services the nearby towns of Eiche and Mehrow. Ahrensfelde is a strange town as it has parts that belong to Berlin and others to Brandenburg! 

Starting out in the Berlin section of Ahrensfelde meant that I passed by a wonderful sculpture of a unicycling unicorn on a rainbow – truly amazing! The 390 bus route then heads towards the larger Brandenburg part of Ahrensfelde before going towards Eiche (literally just means Oak). The bus route through Eiche is parallel to the Ahrensfelder Berg (Ahrensfelder Mountain) and once the Berlin-Hellersdorf border is reached, it heads back on the same road. 

The 390 route then heads right towards the town of Mehrow. The bus only goes as far as the church before turning around and heading back towards Ahrensfelde on the same road. I spotted some sheep grazing in Ahrensfelde – always a highlight! The rest of the 390 route through Ahrensfelde followed the same roads as when heading out of Ahrensfelde.

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After finishing the 390 bus route, I headed back home along some roads that I had never travelled on before. I passed by a memorial to the murdered antifacist resistance fighters at Loeperplatz – quite appropriate since it was Holocaust Memorial Day. I continued on some of the quiet back roads of Friedrichshain before the main streets of Alexanderplatz, Unter den Linden and Straße des 17. Juni.

Once I got to Friedrichshain, I needed to take on an energy gel since my blood glucose was now getting a bit too low. I must have injected a bit too much insulin during my break in Ahrensfelde. This is exactly why having a CGM is a great tool as I could react and treat my blood glucose levels before it got dangerous. 

This was a great stage taking me to new places and I’m looking forward to the next one – weather permitting since a lot of rain is forecast for the coming week.

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