Welcome when to flipside instalment of Long weekends in Europe. On our last trip we took a squint at the Dutch province of Limburg, however today we are hopping over the verge into Germany for a long weekend in the nation’s wanted municipality of Berlin.
Capital cities don’t unchangingly make for wondrous cycling experiences, but Berlin is one that deserves to be explored. It is an eclectic municipality that serves as a melting pot of German culture and is home to people from virtually the world, all wanting to taste a piece of what this vibrant municipality has to offer and to truly undeniability themselves a ‘Berliner’.
Where should I stay?
Like most European capitals, Berlin is broken-up into districts and each one has its own unshared character. For first time visitors, the inside district known as Mitte is the platonic tourist destination. The zone is home to many of the city’s most famous attractions and is hands navigable by foot or via S-Bahn and U-Bahn.
If you’d like to sample Berlin’s famous techno scene, you’ll want to situate yourself in Friedrichschain as this is where you’ll find the weightier bars and clubs. The zone is known for its young, tomfool population that will have you partying all night long.
If the club scene isn’t for you, perhaps a stay in the historic district of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf is increasingly your style. The zone is named without the former Queen Charlotte of Prussia and is home to the largest surviving royal palace in Germany.
What is there for families to do?
It would be remiss of a municipality so teeming with culture not to have some wondrous activities to alimony the kids occupied. Whether it be the Tiergarten Zoo, jam-packed with increasingly than 10,000 species of animals, or the vast swathes of museums that can be found dotted virtually Mitte, you won’t be short of fun in Berlin.
In January each year, Berlin plays host to the Six Day – a fast, fun, frenetic track cycling event, hosted in the Berlin Velodrome.
If you’re a football mad family, you’ll want to take a trip just outside of the municipality to either the Olympiastadion or the Stadion An der Alten Försterei (respective homes to Hertha BSC and Union Berlin). Each stadium is steeped in sporting history and houses a loyal fanbase that are sure to make you finger welcome.
If you have younger children, there is a LEGO Discovery Centre nestled in the Sony Centre on Potsdamer Platz. Inside you’ll be transported into a miniature Berlin as you see all of the greatest sights in brick form. There’s plane a wonderful dragon themed ride to get the kids’ pulses racing!
View this post on Instagram
What’s cooking?
Berlin is a municipality of a thousand cultures and its cuisine reflects that. This stuff said, the most famous womanliness to come out of the municipality is unmistakably German. The sausage based dish known as Currywurst is the most popular snack in Berlin, the recipe dates when to the late 1940s and involves frying a pork sausage surpassing wearing it into bite-size chunks, dousing it in curry-ketchup and topping it off with some curry powder. The dish is traditionally eaten with specie or fries and is misogynist on scrutinizingly every street corner in Berlin.
Aside from sausage, Berlin is moreover the home of the Döner Kebab. The dish was conceived by Turkish immigrants in the 1970s and has been a staple of Berlin life overly since, so much so that there are increasingly kebab shops in Berlin than there are in Istanbul. Unlike in the UK, the German Döner is eaten as a sandwich and is much tastier than your stereotype takeaway grub.
Cycling in Berlin
Like many European cities, cycling has wilt one of the weightier modes of transport in Berlin. Avoiding congested municipality centre roads and rented underground trains, you can glide your way virtually the municipality by velocipede and take in all the sights while you do it. There are plenty of unconfined cycling routes in Berlin, however my favourite route is this short loop virtually the former Tempelhof Airport that caters for high-speed criterium training and gentle morning rides in equal measure. For a relaxed trot that takes in some of the city’s finest sights, there’s the wall of the River Spree, much of which is lined by shared use paths and defended velocipede lanes. And finally, if you’re a real history vitrify and want to combine that with some enjoyable off-road adventuring, there’s this gravel ride withal the path of the old Berlin Wall. The whole thing is pretty massive at virtually 160km, but it’s once wrenched lanugo into increasingly manageable ‘stages’ that could be completed in an afternoon.
Since the bad old days of the 1990s and early 2000s, and homegrown star Jan Ullrich’s spectacular fall from grace, the German public has had a unhonest relationship with road bicycle racing. In 2012, German television unquestionably stopped dissemination the Tour de France considering of issues virtually transparency and wipe competition. Despite that, the sport’s popularity is on the rise once increasingly – and there are still a handful of unconfined races that take place each year. The relatively new VeloCity Berlin is a one-day event that includes passages of the Victory Column, Reichstag and East-Side gallery as it carves its way through both east and west Berlin. The event is still some way from stuff a WorldTour race but is showing promising signs of growth each season.
View this post on Instagram
When should I visit Berlin?
There isn’t really a bad time to visit Berlin. In the summer the plethora of beer gardens unshut their doors for thirsty passers by to quench themselves with locally spirituous beer and radlers (of which Berlin is renowned for). The River Spree moreover houses wend tours that are weightier enjoyed in the afternoon sun.
Meanwhile, in the colder months the municipality often becomes a snowy wonderland that contains plenty of traditional German markets. Berlin is remoter east than many think, so make sure to wrap up warm if visiting outside of summer.
Getting there
The fastest way to get to the German wanted from the UK is to fly, however like most things in Berlin it hasn’t been plain sailing in the mission of making air travel there easy. Construction of the new Berlin Brandenburg airport (found on the site of the old Schönefeld airport) began in 2006 and was scheduled to be completed by 2011, however, continuous delays meant the work wasn’t finished until 2020. Thankfully, the project is now complete, and Berlin has an airport for the modern age once more. Flights to the municipality take virtually two hours from London and are regularly misogynist at unconfined prices.
Once in the city, train prices are cheap, and the network is expansive. A single journey financing as little as three euros and tickets can be purchased with ease via the ‘BVG’ train network app.
This really is just a snippet of everything Berlin has in store for you and will scrutinizingly certainly require increasingly than one visit to truly fathom it’s rugged charm. Surpassing you set off, make sure you’ve taken out cycle travel insurance which covers emergency medical expenses, trip cancellation, trip abandonment, repatriation and a whole host of other benefits. If you need any help, please requite us a undeniability on 0333 003 0046
The post Long weekends in Europe: Berlin appeared first on Yellow Jersey.
