Tag Archives: Forests

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Trainingsradeln: Berlin – Liepnitzsee und Zurück

After my six-month bike report yesterday, and having been thwarted by rain on the weekend (I’m not really equipped for long watery rides at the moment), I planned all week for today to be my ride day – also because I leave for Brussels early Saturday and shall be bereft of Zweirad for a time). I also planned to ride maybe a third further than last time; just seeing what I can endure.

My original plan had been to bike up to Chorin by way of Liepnitzsee, which then changed to Templin by way of the Biosphärenreservat Schorfheide Chorin, in both cases getting the train back. I decided somewhat accidentally for a loop to Wandlitz and Liepnitzsee by way of Summt, returning via Bernau bei Berlin.

Most of this was on good roads, a bit on cobblestone, and perhaps 15km on trails. The ride out, through Mühlenbeck and turning to Zühlsdorf is one of the nicer ways north; not so many cars, roads wide enough, and even something of a small hill, up to Summt, just past the ring. Even nicer through to Wandlitz, which is almost a tourist town, or reminds me a bit of towns outside Adelaide, tree-lined streets and small cafés.

As for Liepnitzsee, today was perfect, the bright sky turning the water turquoise. I was originally planning to go to Lanke and then loop south from there, but discovered I could follow a walking trail through the forest down to Bernau bei Berlin, around 11km of various widths from fire trail to single track.

From there back to Wedding was one of the less enjoyable rides I’ve had. Narrow streets with a solid stream of pushy cars all trying to make it to the Ring, and even when getting past that and following the S-Bahn down to Pankow, it was a bit too intense – especially having ridden for some hours and having to maintain a high degree of concentration the whole time.

An additional detraction from riding pleasure is the amount of neo-nazi graffiti around, from a Lonsdale sign in Niederschönhausen to ‘pure hate’ sprayed in Schwanebeck, it’s both the prominence of it as well as the obvious age – this stuff isn’t removed in the weeks or months after its arrival. (Lonsdale is popular because the letters nsda are those of the the nazi party, and pure hate, also spelt pure h8 plays on the letter h and number 8, also being h, the eighth letter in the alphabet, being an acronym for ‘heil hitler’.)

I got back mid-afternoon and promptly fell asleep. 5 hours riding around 75km (not especially fast) when I haven’t ridden more than 20 or so km in a day for years was a bit tough for me. Nice to find my limits though. I don’t think I would come back via Bernau bei Berlin again however. The traffic is far too demanding to make that road fun. Better is via Schönewalde, or even better yet, smaller roads I haven’t found yet.

As for the parts on trails and in forests, it’s beautiful in the way Grunewald is, also with the Berlin-Brandenburg sand – difficult to spot, very soft, and likely to try and hurl one off repeatedly.

Oh, and it’s just a couple of days over 3 years since I first arrived in Berlin.

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The last free people on the planet

I started reading Neuroanthropology a couple of years ago at least, and it has been one of the first blogs I suggest when I find myself in discussions around certain topics, particularly the cultured body and this specifically in dance, theatre and other physical situations.

Today I have read a number of articles and blog posts that are high exemplars of thoughtful analysis and to me underscore the brilliance of new media as it has grown in the past several years; individuals who are unabashedly passionate about their fields on interest and recognise the importance of their voices in providing not just a bulwark against the endless mediocrity and often willful disingenuousness of commercial media, but often altruistically providing considered, articulate, educated writing that could exist nowhere else.

Greg Downey at Neuroanthropology today wrote a piece that at its absolute minimum is all this: ‘The last free people on the planet’. It’s over 11000 words (and that’s before even clicking any of the extensive links or further reading), so find a spot in the sun if you’re in Brussels, along with something to drink, take an hour and read this.

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grunewald … nordwärts vom nikolaisee

The S-Bahn detoured to Messe Sud, somewhere I’d never heard of before, then the ersatzverkehr bus dragged me the length of that absurd Autobahn cutting Grunewald, depositing me at the far south end – S-Bahn Nikolaisee. I decided to walk in the opposite direction to my usual.

My vague plan was to veer immediately towards the lake, then follow by or near the coast up till Havelchausee (another piece of tarmac through the forest), crossing over to continue by the lake and perhaps stumble by Kaiser-Wilhelm-Turm continuing up into the bulge of the forest between the north end of Großer Wannsee and Teufelsberg before heading east-ish to S-Bahn Grunewald. Mostly I managed that, though once past the Turm, having discovered blisters growing on blisters, curved more directly towards the finish.

The weather was close to perfect. Cold, grey occasionally split by shafts of turbulent sun, wet – not quite raining though – and tempestuously windy. As with my love of climbing, I don’t think too deeply about why my ideal hiking conditions verge on atrocious, and being wet, cold and suffering is sublime. Part of it is that there are simply less people, and so an according increase in wildlife activity.

I didn’t take many photos. These walks are in part just to enjoy the rhythm of moving across uneven ground surrounded by woods for hours on end until I ache a little, and so I only infrequently pause, though the idea of spending many hours photographing one small copse or gully is seductive. The light early on was beautiful, and most of the photos I took were in the first kilometer. They don’t capture though the ethereal glow beneath the turning leaves; at times it feels as though I am nowhere near a big city, and have arrived in some transcendental landscape.

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grunewald again…

How did that happen? A month and hot a single hike or walk. I thought perhaps it had been two weeks since my last journey down the S-Bahn but puh! not that long.

It was very warm and sun shining the whole day, enough so that Grunewald was awash in families, dogs, children, runners, cyclists, mushroom hunters and other despoilers of the autumn routine of the trees and animals. Woodpeckers were especially busy; mushrooms and other fungi not so as last time.

I decided to walk slightly further west before veering off south-ish, skirting one of the small lakes and wetlands before gently looping around to arrive at Dahlemer Feld. I was aiming for Havelgraben, the cleft on the east side of the small hill that is Haveltor or berg, and somehow in my successful wandering found myself after an hour exactly where I’d started. I think that’s the first time ever I’ve found myself turned around like that. I decided to head in the direction of Nikolaisee instead, not trusting that I wouldn’t do a silly repeat of my circular walking, and so veered off in the other direction.

Grunewald is ruined by a dead straight line that gouges from its north-east corner to the south-west tip. Almost the longest distance between any two borders of the forest is on one side the somewhat harmless Kronprinzessinnenweg, a sealed road for those not feeling like wandering in the muck of trees, on the other the venerable S-Bahn, raised on its pile of stones, and in-between the obnoxiously loud and very Roman sounding Avus. Otherwise known as the E51 / 115. An autobahn.

Not content to merely vandalise the centre of the forest, to make it impossible easy crossing from the heart of the woods to the lakes; being without noise barriers, it ceaselessly pollutes a kilometer-wide band on either side of its monument to personal selfishness with either a anxious, insistent rumble or unrestrained ear-tormenting blare, depending on one’s proximity.

Couldn’t they have at least buried it? As with all instances of trees coming into contact with urban planning though, nothing signals ‘coming in under budget’ like a single trunk, a copse or an entire Wald. Especially when the natives either side of said woods happen to of the class which approves such planning. (On that note, I can also happily say our Baum in Uferstrasse will remain. I wonder if anyone has told it the good news?)

Finding one way across, and with Schlachtensee in the unseen distance, I continued south with half-hearted attempts at wandering until being spat out at the S-Bahnhof. Not quite as enjoyable as last time, but utterly joyous in places. Nothing either rain or unfrolicsome cold wouldn’t fix. And I’ve barely begun to explore the whole forest. Some photos…

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grunewald

Schlachtensee, Krume Lanke and the lakes along the east side of Grunewald have been my favourite walks around Berlin since soon after I first came here. There not so long ago with Gala and again with Dy, I discovered new parts; further west but still bounded in that direction by the S-Bahn and highway.

Rainy, cold, grey and peopleless, today was a typically perfect day for me to go further that way, cross over the dividing rails to see what the great body of Grunewald might have. My method of navigation, which often I find eerily accurate in a I’m-not-paying-attention kind of way, still got me going in an approximately desired direction as opposed to mired in a hopeless gyre; in this case mostly south-ish with west-ish tendencies.

It is mushroom season and the last few warm days met at their end with today’s rain found the forest erupting from all damp, moist, earthy orifices in a beautiful diversity of fungi. I was hoping the path I planned to wander wouldn’t be either too occupied by others nor too obviously a path, so I could feel at least a little as though I wasn’t surrounded by a city and it’s periphery. Lucky then my crypto-navigation also is accompanied by, “That path is sort-of in the direction I think I am to go, furthermore it is small, mostly overgrown and unused. Also wet. Perfect!”

After some time where I felt much the same as I did on my cold and wet circumnavigation of Lainzer Tiergarten in Wien, I found myself on a small bluff overlooking Havelsee. Much walking later, now thinking I needed to continue south-ish but east-ish also, I fell out at the furthest south-east corner possible, by S-Bahn Nicolaisee; just where I’d hoped.

Some photos of mushrooms and trees…

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müggelsee by boat and foot

Today rising somewhat early and then via S-Bahn (und zwei abgefickte neo-faschisten), Ostkreuz, S-Bahn again to Friedrichshagen, a town outside Berlin in the south-east, one of those towns blessed by geography and thus also blessed in the past by artists, so becoming a small town to wander through on the weekend and find a writers’ festival. We continued passing Brauereien, houses in the Victorian mold, though I suppose here the nomenclature would be kaiserlich, and so to the lake.

Mist burning off below bright sun, discovering ourselves overdressed; it is, after all still summer. To a ferry, a memory of Vevey and days beside the lake, and so across the lake. A Biergarten with fish sandwiches. Should to be accompanied by Vodka? More sun and brilliance of the day until falling asleep on the S-Bahn home.

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grunewald schlachten see

Raining in steady endless sheets, grey and the faint sense of autumn already. While hiking around Vienna I thought I should continue this now back in Berlin, and so went for a short walk with Dasniya along one of my favourite places nearby, Grunewald and Schlachtensee. The inclement day kept most people away and getting turned around in the forest added to the feeling of directionlessness. Some ducks on the lake…

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opening … and so on

We opened. Friday. Yes, is now Monday and half-way through. Two shows a day in Café Prückel, and so I drink much coffee and spend the remainder of the day blllrrrblllrrr…

Opening found us later at the ImPulsTanz lounge. I seem to have been not so social this festival, and this was my first visit there. I expect likely to have one more, though am more excited about returning to Lainzer Tiergarten, where I went on Saturday, our day off.

Also a day of cold, grey rain and wind. I decided some 20km of walking up and down and back up again might be perfect, and standing atop the tower at Hubertuswarte, above the crowns of the forest, belted by the inclement storm and near swept off and become airborne myself … mmm perfect way to spend a day.

Café Prückel is going rather well, somewhat chaotic each time in different ways, and becoming more a bacchanalia each time also. Four more to go, then back to Berlin on Wednesday — it’s been a while since I was properly there.

Back to opening night, Lewis — who has absconded from Wellington — and I practice our feast and the beast scene. I haven’t been taking any other photos lately (even missing the families of wild boars in the Tiergarten), and anyway… he’s been an avid stalker of supernaut for years, so it’s only fitting he finds his way into here now.

lewis and frances feast + beast lewis and frances feast + beast

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lainzer tiergarten

I took off away from the city yesterday, as I’d been planning since before I arrived, remembering wandering in the hills around Vienna during DanceWEB and needing some noise of forests and trees. Much looking on maps and planning where to go took me along the U4 from Stadtpark to Lainzer Tiergarten, the 500 year old hunting ground of the Ferdinand I.

First walking from Nikolaitor upwards until arriving at Wiener Blick, much like Waterfall Gully, but Eucalyptus replaced by Walnut, Ash, Plane, Furs and others, not a few close to the age of the park itself. Then I got a bit lost. Somehow I’d decided I’d started from Lainzer Tor and had the idea I’d walk to Rohrhaus then circle back around via Hubertuswarte. Instead, finding myself approaching the end far too early, I discovered I’d in fact begun from Nikolaitor and was now at … Lainzer Tor. Lucky my idea of a good time is 5 hours by foot.

Considering it’s only been the last couple of weeks my hip and knee have calmed down (thanks to a rather good physio in Wedding) enough to cycle, yoga, and walk for hours after months of annoyance, a gentle walk of this long in rolling hills was enough to make me moan with pleasure at aching hips and legs. I really want to be enjoying days on my own in the mountains again, and soon.

Returning via St. Veiter Tor, I saw first a wild boar cross my path, silhouetted by a gash in the forest at the apex of a small rise. We were both as shocked as each other and tottered off with a bit of a gallop. Later, a pair of Fallow Deer, much less interested in humans than the ones behind the fence near Hermesvilla.

wien from wiener blick wien from wiener blick

fallow deer, looking for food fallow deer, looking for food

fallow deer in enclosure fallow deer in enclosure

forest near st veiter tor forest near st veiter tor

forest near nikolaitor forest near nikolaitor