Biking in Berlin

A few weekends ago I had the opportunity, almost by accident, to take a bike ride through the heart of Berlin. I mentioned to our hosts that I was considering taking the train into downtown to do a little "sightseeing." It was then suggested that maybe we should bike into town (12k one-way). This was somewhat of an unusual bike ride for me as I was accompanied by other people--a four year old who rode with me in a child bike seat, a six year old who rode her own bike (quite a feat considering the distance we were to cover) and the father of the two girls.

The ride into town was tense at times, as we had to share some rather busy road space with cars due to construction on some of the bike paths (or a complete lack of paths). The map of our ride can be found on the Bikley website. As we got closer to mid-town, the pathes got better and sights became more interesting. We passed various embassies including the Scandinavian Embassy (all three Scandinavian countries share a building) and the still-under-construction Saudi Embassy.

After a short, but pleasant ride through the Tiergarten (the main public park in Berlin), we came upon the relatively new Bundeskanzleramt, which serves as the home of the Chancellor and main office building for the government leaders (similar to the White House):



Within view from the Kanzleramt is the Reichstag, which house the Bundestag (German Parliament) and is obviously a historically significant building. It got somewhat of face lift shortly before Berlin became the capital once again.



Berlin has undergone a massive transformation since the fall of the Berlin Wall. And the city continues to change with each passing year. Shortly before the beginning of the 2006 World Cup, Berlin opened its brand new main train station, which sits across the river Spree from the government building pictured above. As part of this construction effort, new pedestrian paths were built along the river:



After emerging from the river path, we took a short detour to find a rest room. Traveling with someone who knows Berlin inside out has its advantages. We found a bathroom in a building between one of the most famous hotels in Berlin and the soon-to-be United States Embassy, a stones throw away from the Brandenburg Gate. After the pit stop, we took a quick shortcut, which took us past the British Embassy and then the relatively new Jewish Holocaust Memorial:



From there we took a short break for lunch and then started our return journey. As as an aside, the website Radzeit.de has a bike route planner for biking in Berlin (in Enlgish no less).