Date | 18.07.2020 |
Strava Activity | https://www.strava.com/activities/3779902406 |
Bike | Flash |
Distance in km | 88.7 |
Elevation in m | 488 |
Amount of newly ridden kms from wandrer.earth | 17.0 |
The day for the final Stage of the Grand Tour de Öffentliche Verkehrsmittel had arrived! Sun, sun and more sun was forecast so it was going to be a hot ride. I was obviously thrilled that the whole Grand Tour would be complete, and keep an eye out for my summary of the whole Grand Tour.
First though, I had to complete the final four public transport routes. I had finally finished that porridge that was causing my blood glucose to be too high after breakfast and so didn’t reduce my bolus insulin for the carbs. This was my approach before Stage 58 and it worked well, so I did the same thing. Problem was, I didn’t factor in that my body was more insulin sensitive because of cycling that Stage the previous day, so in reality I didn’t need to inject this much bolus insulin.
I reduced my basal insulin (because of this Stage) and put on some sun cream before heading out towards the main bus terminus at Zoologischer Garten for the start of the 249 bus route. I headed southwards into Wilmersdorf and eventually followed the same route as the 310 route from Stage 54.
Just before I reached the ever impressive Rathaus Schmargendorf (Schmargendorf Town Hall), my CGM alerted me that my blood glucose was dropping. So I stopped and took on an energy gel in front of this lovely building. This is now used as a registry office, and many people have gotten married here – including Albert Einstein and the actress Romy Schneider, who Nadja had a huge crush on!
The final stop of the 249 bus route was opposite the Qatari Embassy at Roseneck, which was also the start of the M29 bus route from Stage 30. From the lovely houses in this area, I cycled towards the Wannsee train station for the next bus route. I got another taste of the cobbled roads of Nikolassee – they must be terrible even for cars!
Once I reached Wannsee, I decided for a food break in the park overlooking the Ronneby Promenade. I ate a Clif Bar to help boost my blood glucose in front of the large bust of Otto von Bismarck.
The next bus route – the 316 – was one that I knew very well, as I had used it numerous times when I used to commute between Berlin and Potsdam. This bus route travels on the Königstraße which is also a popular road with cyclists heading to Potsdam as it includes an actual climb! After the lovely descent, the 316 bus crossed the famous Glienicke Brücke (Glienicke Bridge) which was used when the Cold War powers exchanged captured spies. The final stop was at the tram terminus overlooking the Glienicke Brücke.
I cycled along the shores of the Tiefer See (Deep Lake) towards Potsdam Hauptbahnhof (Potsdam Central Station) for the next bus route. This area is full of beautiful houses overlooking the lake and the river Havel.
The N16 night bus was up next (replacing the 316 bus service I had just cycled), this started at Potsdam Hauptbahnhof and passed through central Potsdam before using the same route as the 316 bus to reach Wannsee. So I got to tackle the Schäferberg (Shepherd Mountain) climb on Königstraße once again. The N16 route continued further on towards its final stop at the Nikolassee S-Bahn station.
From Nikolassee, I cycled towards Mexikoplatz for the start of the final public transport route of the Grand Tour. This would be the N3 night bus which is the night replacement service for the U3 underground line. The N3 route only goes to Wittenbergplatz, the former terminus of the U3 line. The line however has been extended to use the same tracks as the U1 line and now terminates at the Warschauer Straße station.
My plan was to follow the N3 route until Wittenbergplatz and then follow the train tracks for the extension of the U3 line. Before I could do this, I stopped at Mexikoplatz for another food break. The efforts of tackling the Schäferberg twice in the heat meant that my body was using blood glucose pretty quickly so I needed more carbs for the rest of the Stage. So I ate an energy bar and had a gel too.
The first part of the N3 route was along Argentinische Allee and continued northwards through the lovely district of Dahlem and the large Freie Universität campus. The thatched station of Dahlem-Dorf is always worth a photo. This was the second time I passed by it during the Grand Tour, as it was the end terminus of the M11 from Stage 19.
The N3 continued northwards through Wilmersdorf and then along the busy Hohenzollerndamm where the quirky Fehrbelliner Platz station is located. Kurfürstendamm was not far from here and then I soon reached Wittenbergplatz for the end of the N3 bus route.
I continued on past Nollendorfplatz to follow the U3 route. Just before reaching the Gleisdreieck Park and Station, I saw the famous house through which train tracks impale! People really do live in this house – I can’t imagine what that must be like.
After cutting through Gleisdreieck Park, I reached the Tempelhofer Ufer complete with its awesome pop-up bike lane. This meant I could safely travel along this road that cuts through Kreuzberg until reaching the Oberbaumbrücke. From here the final stop at Warschauer Straße, was just up the road.
I informed Nadja that I had reached Warschauer Straße so that she could set off and meet me at Brandenburger Tor. The only place to take celebratory photos after completing this Grand Tour de Öffentliche Verkehrsmittel. There were four different demonstrations happening in central Berlin and the amount of people around Brandenburger Tor had steeply increased since the last time I was here.
It was great meeting up with Nadja and being able to properly relish finishing this huge task that I started back in November 2019. Unfortunately my blood glucose was dropping pretty fast, so I needed to get back home in order to rest and carb up. This didn’t dampen my spirits too much though!
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