A hot summer’s day was a great opportunity for the eighth Stage of the Grand Tour de Grüne Hauptwege. This route led me through nature reserves and along small lakes in the east of Berlin. All the greenery was a nice touch to these primarily residential districts. A great ride and even my blood glucose was relatively well-behaved!
Stage 6 of the Grand Tour de Grüne Hauptwege was a nice tour through some of the central parts of the former East Berlin. It was a mixture of green paths, Plattenbau apartment blocks and some stunning green areas developed on former industrial grounds. My blood glucose was pretty high during the days before this Stage so it was quite a physical struggle – but at least I got to see plenty of sheep.
Stage 5 of the Grand Tour de Grüne Hauptwege is the North-South complement to the West-East route of Stage 1. I cycled from Buch along the lovely Pankeweg (Panke Route) right into the heart of Berlin. The way south continued through many green stretches before I reached the fields which the Berlin Wall used bisect. Here, I found a mobile phone and managed to reunite it with its owner!
Stage 4 of the Grand Tour de Grüne Hauptwege took me from bustling Prenzlauer Berg to the quiet village green of Lübars. The route used a lovely section of the Berliner Mauerweg (Berlin Wall Trail) – although I made some detours to further explore the countryside, like the lovely Köppchensee.
The third Stage of the Grand Tour de Grüne Hauptwege led me from the government quarter in central Berlin all the way to the wheat fields in the northwestern district of Heiligensee. I followed canals, stopped at lakes, cycled through dense forests and could even enjoy some of the best street art that Berlin has to offer.
The start of a new Grand Tour is always exciting and this one would take me through Berlin’s numerous parks, forests and along waterways using the official Grüne Hauptwege (Green Routes). The first route followed roughly the path of the river Spree to connect the west and east borders of Berlin. This was a lovely Stage passing through the old towns of Spandau and Köpenick as well as the hustle and bustle of central Berlin.
I visited the three tallest structures in Berlin during the final Stage of the Tour de Tall. All three were built to transmit radio/TV signals and built when Berlin was divided, which played a role in their final states. I mainly cycled through the lush forests of Berlin before the final stop in central Berlin where loads of people were enjoying the sun.
The penultimate Stage of the Tour de Tall took me to the extreme north and south of Berlin on the hunt for the 7th to the 4th tallest structures of Berlin. The structures were all related to power generation – mainly stacks from natural gas power plants but also impressive wind turbines. This was a fantastic cycle in Berlin with ideal conditions.
The second Stage of the Tour de Tall was more zig-zagging across Berlin to visit the twelfth to the eighth tallest structures. More impressive stacks from power plants and an Eiffel Tower imitation .. I mean .. inspiration, plus a bonus spaceship.
The Tour de Tall consists of four separate Stages visiting the 17 highest structures in Berlin in ascending order. This first Stage zig-zagged through central Berlin to reach the five “shortest” structures – all stacks from different power plants. This was a lovely ride in the sun and I could even visit Nadja and the cats for lunch.