Ilker's Blog

Robin and I biked from Berlin to Brandenburg an der Havel more than a month ago. It was my longest ride in last four years and longest one since I moved to Germany. It was full of nice surprises and stops.

Summary

• Route: Berlin – Potsdam – Brandenburg an der Havel
• Distance: 82 km
• Duration: 6 hours (the whole activity including breaks and sightseeing)
• Road condition: 85% asphalt bike road, 5% dirt road, 10% asphalt car road
• Logistics:
  • We met at Westkreuz S-bahn station and start biking from there.
  • We took the regional train RE1 from Brandenburg to Berlin.
  • You need a bike ticket to use both S-bahn and the regional train with your bike.

Route

See on Strava: https://www.strava.com/activities/15730413003

Notes

• It was a nice, warm Sunday. As it was one of last days of short Berlin summer, there were many people outside either walking, biking, or just chilling. It was definitely a good day to be outside.
• We met at Westkreuz S-bahn station as we always do when we want to bike to east. I could bike form my home (Neukolln) to Westkreuz but I think it does not worth to effort. We had already long route waiting for us so I didn’t want to lose energy.
• Initially, we talked biking around 60 km but we changed our plans spontaneously on the way and we hit more than 80 km.
• We passed Grunewald first. There is a long bike road starting from Berlin to Wannsee. It is almost straight with a slight uphill. That day, I understood why many cyclists came to this road for a weekend training. The bike road is so good. The road quality, slope, and straightness makes it one of the best spots for bike training. It was like a pilgrim road for sport-loving people with many people cycling or running.
• Then, we reached to Potsdam after climbing one of the rare hills around Berlin. In Potsdam, we stopped for half an hour and visited St. Nicholas Church. We went to the top of the church after paying 7 Euros. The view worth it.
• After Potsdam, we started to bike Brandenburg. After reaching Werder, we decided not to follow Google Map’s suggestion and went to the forest road. It increases the distance by 15 km but I am glad we did this. The landscape around bike road was amazing. It was a part of Havel bike road.
• We stopped for lunch around Ketzin. A German couple from local area recommended us to visit Götzerberg viewing tower. When we went into forest, I couldn’t bike and carried my bike until the tower. It was a long 20 mins uphill. I am getting old. The view of the tower also worth it. We even saw Berlin TV tower from 60 km far away!
• I also learnt that many hills around are artificial in the area. They were made of garbage brought from Berlin and they were covered by earth. Local people called them “Müllberg” which translates “mountain of rubbish”.
• My water was not enough. I had to stop by a small town and get water from a restaurant. They were kind enough to allow me get water from tap for free.
• I realized that I had a flat tire when we are 5 km away from Brandenburg. The hole was probably small and I was lazy to fix it so I biked until the goal. It was tiring.
• We ate our finish meal in a German restaurant near Havel river and took RE1 back to Berlin.
• I really liked this trip as it was mix of different good things except flat tire at the end. If I would do it again, I would start from Potsdam instead of Berlin. I biked Potsdam-Berlin quite a lot.