It’s officially the first day of winter, and Berlin and Brandenburg have been on “shutdown” since last week till at least Jan 10. This means that most shops and schools are shut, restaurants open only for takeaways and deliveries, and people could leave their home only for important reasons. Fortunately, sports do count as an important reason, so we could still take a walk, jog or cycle (subject to restrictions stated here for Berlin and here for Brandenburg, in German). The weather has been mild enough for this, too.
One walking/cycling route to explore in Berlin and Brandenburg is along the river Panke. The Panke is a right tributary of the river Spree and it’s the third longest river in Berlin after the Spree and the Havel.
Back in October, J and I did a 13 km walk from the source of the Panke in northeast Bernau in Brandenburg. I wanted to see the headwaters but unfortunately they’ve been covered by railway construction.
We walked parallel to the railway track in Bernau for a while before reaching the Teufelspfuhl. It’s probably a quite popular picnic spot in summer, although the water doesn’t look clean enough to swim in.
We saw a number of horses during our stroll, but we were never that far away from urban housing. Living here might be an attractive proposition if you’d like to have plenty of space without leaving the comfort of amenities found in towns.
There’s even some sort of a mini zoo, which kids get excited about.
Definitely loads of green all around. One could probably go fishing in some of the ponds, with the right licence.
Pedestrians, cyclists, and even roller skaters usually share a path along the Panke, so it was nice to be able to escape through hidden footpaths sometimes.
Is this a DDR-style treehouse?
We stopped for a banana split in Zepernick, although it was not exactly a warm day. Didn’t find any restaurant that looked inviting, though.
From Zepernick, it was approximately 4 km to Berlin.
We passed a meadow and saw some cyclists from afar.
The lights in late afternoon are beautiful here.
Our stroll ended in Buch, a district in the northern part of Berlin. From Buch, the river continues to flow into the city of Berlin, so that’s 16 km or so of a path we have yet to explore. We’ll probably get on our bikes the next time around, considering that the path along the Panke is mostly paved with asphalt.
Meanwhile, you can check out the highlights of our stroll from Bernau to Buch here.
