Date | 07.06.2021 |
Strava Activity | https://www.strava.com/activities/5429343725 |
Bike | Flash |
Distance in km | 94.0 |
Elevation in m | 609 |
Length of Grüner Hauptweg | 42.0 |
Amount of newly ridden kms from wandrer.earth | 31.8 |
The second Stage of the Grand Tour would take me – as the name suggests – through most of the districts of Spandau. This would be a mixture of forest and waterside cycling, since the route spends long stretches in the Spandauer Forest (Spandau Forest) and along the west banks of the river Havel.
After Stage 1, I hoped for better blood glucose but I’m still in a phase of higher than usual blood glucose. I think it’s related to the increased temperatures – the heat seems to stress my body out leading to increased blood glucose. So once again, I woke up with high blood glucose and I injected the amount of bolus insulin to cover the carbs in my porridge but not an extra correction dose – I hoped that the cycling would do the trick. I also slightly lowered my basal insulin before heading out to the start of this route.
The start was the first lovely bridge of the Havelradweg (Havel Cycleway) that crosses the Aalemannkanal (Eel Man Canal; it’s more likely that the name comes from a German dialect and means Everyone’s Canal but “Aal” is also “Eel” so I’m going with that ?). I cycled northwards along the Havelradweg in the direction of Hennigsdorf – I have done this numerous times as it is one of the loveliest cycle routes around. Next up was the second bridge that crosses the Teufelseekanal (Devil Lake Canal).
Right after the first sandy swimming spot at the Havel, I turned left to head towards the Berliner Mauerweg (Berlin Wall Path). This is a lovely part of the trail passing through the Spandauer Forst. I had a pit stop at the Laßzinsee (Laszin Lake) so that I could view it and also eat my flapjack. I injected one unit of bolus insulin as my blood glucose was higher than I would’ve liked at this point. I quickly ate my flapjack as there were quite a few mosquitoes near the lake that were hungry for my legs!
After the Eiskeller (Ice Cellar) section, which Nadja and I had visited during our first NinJa Cycles adventure, I was now heading southwards and left the forest for the roads of Staaken. The route crosses over two sets of railway tracks and the main roads out West, still using the Berliner Mauerweg.
I took a detour from the route to explore the Hahneberg (Rooster Mountain) area. There are two hills in this nature reserve – the old and new Hahneberg. I went up the old Hahneberg first and was delighted to see a flock of sheep and their lambs. There was a shepherdess with her dog nearby too, so I could ask a few questions about these lovely sheep.
I left the sheep behind and cycled/walked up to the top of new Hahneberg. This hill was created in the 1960s and 1970s from rubble and construction debris. Atop the hill, there is a telescope belonging to the Bruno-H.-Bürgel-Sternwarte (Observatory) and some spectacular views in all directions. I could easily make out the tallest three towers of the Tour de Tall!
After descending the Hahneberg on some rough cobbles, I left the Mauerweg to get to the banks of the river Havel through the Gatower Rieselfelder (Gatow Irrigation Ditches). The medieval Jaczoturm (Jaczo Tower) was on one of the paths to the water. This tower was built to commemorate the legend of Jaczo, who in 1157 swam across the Havel with his horse and armour while escaping Albrecht the Bear, from the House of Ascania.
The rest of the route kept to the banks of the Havel, where there were plenty of people in the water at the small swimming spots. There were great views to the opposite side of the Havel to the Grunewaldturm (Grunewald Tower) popping out of the green trees in the Grunewald forest.
I took a slight detour to visit the Gutshaus Neukladow (Neukladow Manor) which was built in 1800 and restored in 2006. There are some fantastic views over the Havel, and some people were enjoying these from the café that is part of the grounds.
The Kladow harbour was a stone’s throw from the manor so there were plenty of boats moored here. The small Insel Imchen (Imchen Island) was full of cormorants – one of my favourite birds. They’re pretty badass drying their wings in the sun after diving for food. The ferry from Wannsee just docked and appeared to be pretty full from the amount of passengers disembarking!
I was near the end of the official route, since all I had to do was follow the path parallel to the Havel up to the border between Berlin and Potsdam. This had some great views of the Schäferberg (Shepherd Mountain) and the Pfaueninsel (Peacock Island) too.
Since this route passed through Kladow, I could meet up with my good friend who lives in this district. Always a huge bonus when cycling in this area! I cycled to her garden where I could rest and cool off in the shade. She also provided me with coffee and tasty biscuits too. I needed to once again inject one unit of bolus insulin as my blood glucose was still higher than I would like.
After I left her garden, I cycled back home and made a pit stop at the Vierfelderhof (Four Fields Farm) on my friend’s recommendation. The Vierfelderhof is a small farm with the usual farm animals and some adorable mini-sheep! This has been a great ride for sheep spotting.
This was a beautiful route taking in so much of the nature available in Spandau – dense forests and waterways. Cycling this route was a lot of fun and hardly takes you through built up areas – exactly what these Grüne Hauptwege were designed to do. I once again was not happy with my blood glucose, it was just too high! At least, I took it pretty easy on the bike so that my body was not additionally stressed with the heat and high blood glucose.
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