After a dreary introduction to northern Europe whereby I had to give in and wear socks before the end of September and wondered why I packed short sleeved shirts and skirts, October in Berlin proved to be lovely. Each week a few more leaves fell off the trees on the bank of our canal changing the look of neighborhood on a weekly basis, but come every Saturday the sun came out encouraging us to explore our new home. Here's a picture of our building at the end of September and one of Claire posing in front of building with our bikes. We bought bikes at the Berlin flea markets and spent our sunny Saturdays exploring the city or taking trips t0 towns on the outskirts of the city.
The first weekend we toured the parks of Berlin. After traveling in and around the Tiergarten by train or bus, we explored the center of the city. We found the zoo, which you can peek into from a few places along the bike trail, several lovely ponds, memorials and statues and eventually ended up on the lawn of the Reichstag watching a dress rehearsal for the German Reunification celebration. Although the path isn't completely continuous we were able to follow the canal from right in front of house all the way across the middle of Berlin!
The next weekend we figured out how to take our bikes on the U-Bahn and S-Bahn and headed out to Potsdam which is an hour away via public transportation. When I thought of Potsdam I thought of spy
exchanges and the big east-west divide. What I found instead was a beautiful city surrounded by lakes and rivers with excellent biking and a huge schloss. Sometimes it's fun to not read up and just be surprised as I was when we entered the main city park after picking out an awesome bike loop and in a few minutes
were in front of Sans Succi, the summer home of Frederick Wilhelm. Apparently one palace wasn't enough, as we biked through the park we passed 4 other large palace buildings - the Orangerie, Neues Palais (summer palace), and the Schloss Charlottenhof. Since his time other wealthy residents of Berlin and Brandenburg have also thought this area perfect for some homes and/or mansions which we saw as we biked along the lakeshore back to the S-Bahn station. In sunnier weather we would return for kayaking to explore the landscape from the water.
The next weekend took us up to Bordesholm, outside of Kiel in Schleswig-Holstien, to visit friends of Claire's from St. Olaf. Weather luck followed us. Claire had warned me that
everytime she had been to this region she had been greeted with gray skies and rain. We had crisp, cold northern air, but pure sunshine. Kristin and Frank took us up to Kiel for the day we journeyed by ferry out the Kiel fiord to the last town to catch a glimpse of the Ostsee (Baltic Sea). A new body of water for me! We saw the big ferries heading out for the overnight trips to Oslo and Stockholm, a tempting option for the future. I was excited to see in person and try out the beach baskets I'd only seen in my German textbooks in high school. And wow, you really can sit out on the beach on a cold day when you are blocked from the wind. I am a bit puzzled as to why this trend has not taken off on Oregon beaches.
The next afternoon we visited Lübeck, a member of the Hanseatic League of port cities and home of Niederegger, German marzipan. The old town is an island with a sinking gateway. We visited the Marienkirche which has this amazing astronomical clock inside, strolled through the city and back along the opposing riverbank before a customary visit to the marzipan cafe for kaffee and kuchen. I had never seen so many types of cakes that somehow incorporated marzipan or tasted marzipan milch kaffee. I really enjoyed visiting the north of Germany so I could get a feel for the maritime states. The architecture changes, more red bricks and the land just flattens out to the sea. I definitely feel landlocked here in Berlin and so making the journey to the north helped me feel more grounded.
Our final October weekend excursion had us out again on our bikes, this time heading to the southeast corner of Berlin. Claire's friend Sarah visited us from Nürnberg and we biked to Köpenick and the Müggelsee. Köpenick is technically still a part of Berlin but feels like a smaller version of Potsdam. We found this awesome bike path that
wound through some beautiful woods with late fall colors, followed the bank of the Spree River, took us to a little ferry crossing, eventually ending at the good sized Müggelsee complete with sailboats. Our original idea has been to bike around the lake, but that was the first weekend the time changed and by 3pm the day was already feeling short so we headed home to beat the darkness. A handy advantage of Berlin's lack of hills is that you can so easily hop on bikes and quickly get out of the city or simply put them on the train and travel a short distance and explore another area.
