By Michael Blakley
Like a little sweat with your sightseeing? We do too, so we put together a list of great bike paths for those of you who like a little cardio when you explore. Berlin’s bicycle friendly streets and flat terrain make it an ideal city for cyclists. Besides, taking a bike will give you a front row seat to the city’s neighborhoods, characters and street art. A view you’d certainly never get from the train or on the bus.
These routes are all easy to navigate and begin at our bicycle rental shop near Zoologischer Banhof. Once there you can rent either our classic cruiser bicycles or one our new trekking bikes. We also have helmets and panniers available so you can ride around both safely and comfortably. Each week we’ll post maps, distances and suggest a few stops along some of Berlin’s most popular bike routes.
Trip 2 Hmm…My Guidebook Didn’t Mention Steglitz : Western Canal Loop
Type: Loop
Distance: 17 miles/28 kilometers
Highlights: Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, Bierpinsel, Landwher and Teltow canals, Tempelhofer Park
Level: easy
Highlights
Drop into Schluezenkrug beer garden after (or before) your ride for well a deserved meal and great German beer.
Begin by crossing the old heart of former West Berlin in Kurfurstendam and see the destruction brought on by WWII in the preserved remains of the Kaiser-Wilhelm Memorial Church.
Get outside the coverage of most city guides to Steglitz, a part of Berlin rarely visited by tourists. Here you’ll find the Bierpinsel, originally an eccentrically designed restaurant that has long been out of business. Berlin’s prolific street artists have since adopted it and transformed it into one of their many ever changing canvases.
As you complete the loop enjoy the lack of traffic and serene views while you ride along the Teltow canal on your way to Tempelhofer Park. The park, originally an airport commissioned during the Third Reich, was later utilized during the Berlin Blockade when West Berlin depended on air transport to deliver their daily essentials. Here you can bike along the old runways or simply take a break in the seemingly endless expanse of green space.
On your return, ride along the Landwher canal and pass impressive embassies as you follow an impossible to get lost path taking you back to where you started.
Directions:
- Go left from Fat Tire Bike shop
- Take Joachimstaler Strasse south. Road name will change to Bundesallee
- Make a soft right to continue on Bundesallee
- Turn right onto Schloßstrasse
- Turn left onto Burkbusch Strasse
- Turn right onto bike path along Teltow canal
- Cross canal at Edenkobener Weg
- Turn left on Gernsheimerstrasse and follow canal
- Cross back at Sieversbrüke
- Make a right and follow the canal
- Turn left at Tempelhofer Damm
- Turn right at Hoeppner Strasse to enter Tempelhofer Park
- Exit park on the northwest side onto Columbiadamm
- Turn right onto Mehringdamm
- Cross Landwher canal and turn left
- Follow canal through Tiergarten
- Exit Tiergarten to return to Fat Tire Bike shop
- Map
