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Grand Tour de Öffentliche Verkehrsmittel Stage 30/59 – Halfway Point / Cycling Mentoring

Date09.04.2020
Strava Activityhttps://www.strava.com/activities/3274784803
BikeFlash
Distance in km73.3
Elevation in m243
Amount of newly ridden kms in Berlin from wandrer.earth24.5
Blood glucose values throughout Stage 30 of the Grand Tour de Öffentliche Verkehrsmittel

With this Stage I reached the halfway point of the Grand Tour! Pretty good stuff and I even got a full night of sleep in preparation for it. This was extremely necessary as my diabetes decided to wallop me after Stage 29. You may skip the next paragraph, if you don’t want to read my complaints – no offense taken.

Nadja and I changed my CGM sensor the evening of Stage 29 and it was giving wrong values so I spent that night with low blood sugar. The day after I was, understandably, pretty useless and barely recovered from the exertions of Stage 29. So I was really hoping for a good night’s sleep. But I woke up with high blood glucose, over corrected and then woke up again with low blood glucose so needed to eat to correct the overcorrection. Not ideal. The next day, I cycled to the customs office to pick up the new cycling jerseys of the Zwift Team Type 1. This easy cycle perked me up and so I considered doing another Grand Tour Stage.

There was warm weather again for this Stage, but not as hot or windy as Stage 29. I put on sun cream to prevent further lobsterification. I believe that’s the medical term for my “tan”. I only slightly reduced my basal and bolus insulin before heading out since I felt that my body struggled to use insulin properly during the previous Stage.

Lutherbrücke / Luther Bridge

The first public transport route was the 187 bus that travelled between the U-Bahn station of Turmstraße and Halbauer Weg in Lankwitz. I cycled towards Turmstraße and right when I got there, my CGM alarm was warning me that my blood glucose was dropping. I took on an energy gel for some quick acting carbs but this was a sign that my body was (finally) sensitive to insulin and going to function well throughout this Stage!

Helmuth Graf von Moltke Denkmal / Memorial

The 187 route headed past the large Amtsgericht Tiergarten (Tiergarten Local Court) building before cutting through Moabit along Paulstraße. I crossed the river Spree on Lutherbrücke, this is also where Schloss Bellevue – the official residence of the German President – is found. The huge imperial statues of Moltke, Roon and Bismarck (the big 3 responsible for German unification) are located here and face the Siegessäule (Victory Column) at Großer Stern. 

Königskolonnaden / Royal Colonnades

I continued southward through Schöneberg and passed more imperial gardens at Kleistpark, where the Königskolonnaden (Royal Colonnades) are found. This park also used to have an outdoor velodrome for races in the early 20th Century until a terrible accident, where a motorbike (for pacing the cyclists) lost control and flew into the crowd where its engine exploded. Nine people died and 40 were injured and this led to the closing down of this velodrome.

Bezirksamt Steglitz-Zehlendorf / Steglitz-Zehlendorf District Office

Once over the Teltowkanal, I was in the district of Lankwitz and nearly at the end of the 187 bus route. The route passes through the main throughways of Lankwitz before heading into its historical section. It is here that Halbauer Weg – and the final stop of the 187 bus route – is found.

Kiriat Bialik Sporthalle / Sport Hall

Before heading towards the S-Bahn station of Lichterfelde Süd for the next bus route, I ate a homemade energy ball. My blood glucose was doing fine after the energy gel, but it needed a little boost before carrying on.

Graffiti on Celciusstraße

The 186 bus route started at the bus terminus right next to the Thermometer Siedlung (Thermometer Residential Estate) at the Lichterfelde Süd S-Bahn Station. This bus route heads back north parallel to the Teltow Canal before crossing it using the Prinzregent-Ludwig-Brücke (Prince Regent Ludwig Bridge). 

Embassy of Qatar

Now the 186 bus route passes along the major shopping street of Steglitz – Schloßstraße – and as usual the bike lane was full of double parked vans and cars. I was now getting into the fancier districts (Friedenau, Schmargendorf and Grunewald) that the 186 bus route passes through. The impressive Qatari Embassy is located at the edge between Grunewald and Schmargendorf. From here it was a matter of admiring all the fancy houses until reaching the S-Bahn station of Grunewald for the end of the 186 bus route.

Grunewald Train Station

My blood glucose needed another boost so I ate a homemade flapjack before getting to the Roseneck bus terminus. This is the start of the M29 bus route which starts in fancy Grunewald and ends in cool Kreuzberg. The dichotomy of this bus route was investigated in depth by the Berliner Morgenpost in a really interesting article (in German) here. The article looks at differences in voting patterns, demography, income, unemployment and AirBnB apartments at each bus stop of the M29. It’s a really fascinating look at how different the daily lives of people living on the same bus route can be.

Beton Cadillacs / Concrete Cadillacs

The M29 metro bus heads towards Kurfurstendamm along Hubertusallee. I headed along Kurfurstendamm past many fancy designer shops, although they were all closed because of the Covid-19 pandemic. On KuDamm, a teenager started chatting with me about how he has started getting into cycling especially during these times of social distancing. I gave him some tips of where to ride away from all the traffic on KuDamm and we cycled and chatted until I reached the intersection of Schöneberger Ufer and Potsdamer Straße. Hopefully he’ll continue enjoying cycling!

Search and Destroy shop in Kreuzberg

The M29 bus route passes by Anhalter Bahnhof and Checkpoint Charlie before reaching the district of Kreuzberg. The route heads through Oranienstraße which is famous for being the centre of the International Workers’ Day demonstrations on the first of May. The final stretch of the M29 route passes along the area between Görlitzer Park and the Landwehrkanal before ending at Hermannplatz.

Amerika Gedenkbibliothek / America Memorial Library

I had really enjoyed this Stage and meandered through new streets on my way back home to drag out the ride a bit more. This was the complete opposite to how I felt after Stage 29 and a great way to get my mojo back.

The % distance I cycled in each district during Stage 30 of the Grand Tour de Öffentliche Verkehrsmittel

1 thought on “Grand Tour de Öffentliche Verkehrsmittel Stage 30/59 – Halfway Point / Cycling Mentoring”

  1. Pingback: Grand Tour de Öffentliche Verkehrsmittel Stage 59/59 – Grand Finale – Pi-Cycles

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