Come along with me on a solo bike ride through Berlin — a peaceful little adventure filled with unexpected history, quiet parks, and beautiful places you might not find on a typical day.
I visited Bösebrücke, where the Berlin Wall first opened in 1989, wandered through a forest to find a Soviet War Memorial, and stumbled across hidden gems like a rose garden pavilion and a former royal palace with the most stunning wallpaper.
This was a fun and thoughtful kind of day—no guides, no schedule, just me, my bike, and a bit of curiosity.
Timestamps:
00:00 intro
01:06 Bösebrücke bridge
03:12 Volkspark Schönholzer Heide
03:44 Soviet War Memorial
04:41 Pavillion im Rosengarten
05:59 Ausstellung Schloss Schönhausen
07:14 Conclusion and Outro
Let me know if you’ve been to any of these spots—or if there’s somewhere else in Berlin I should bike to next! 🌿🚴♀️
[Music] Hi everyone, welcome back to my channel. Lately, I’ve been looking at the different ways I can explore Berlin and see a little bit more of it. And what keeps popping up are the bike tours around the city. And I was thinking, I have a bike. What’s stopping me from just going out and doing my own solo bike tour? So, I found this PDF online and if I can find the one that popped up, I’ll link it in the description below. And I thought, let’s go do our own tour. So, come on, let’s [Music] go. I’m going to apologize in advance for my pronunciation of the places I visited on this tour, but I’ll do my best. And also any information I provide is just stuff I looked up online afterwards. So don’t take it as gospel, but I hope it’s interesting. My first stop on the solo bike tour is Buzzuka Bridge. This bridge became famous in 1989, the day the Berlin Wall fell, when the border crossing was the first in East Berlin to be open to GDR citizens, which is the German Democratic Republic. They were the communist East German state that existed from 1949 to [Music] 1990. I’ve just made it to Panka Park and I think I’m supposed to be able to bike along the side of the stream on a greenway. So, I’m just going to try and find the entrance to that. And the weather is looking pretty dire. I’m trying to get as much done as I can before it starts raining. Hopefully, we don’t have to cancel early, but we’ll see. It just started raining, but luckily this path has quite a bit of tree cover, which is protecting me from most of it. And I can pretty much just follow this greenway all the way to my next stop. Heat. Heat. N. [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] Here I’m arriving at Folks Park Shun Holder Haidider. This is a naturally hilly forest park and forests are my favorite locations to bike through. I feel like it’s something from a magical movie as you go through these winding trails with beautiful glowing green leaves all around you. So stunning. So good for the soul. And it was here that I found one of the three Soviet war memorials which have been built in Berlin. During World War II, this particular site had been converted into a large forced labor camp. After the war, the area was built into a military cemetery to commemorate the Red Army soldiers who died in the final battles for Berlin. The architecture is very striking and the atmosphere is eerie, especially as you walk through the central courtyard which is recessed into the ground. It creates this feeling of a bubble protected from the wind and the noise going on outside the space. I was glad I visited this memorial. [Music] The next stop was Pavilion in Bosen Garden. This is a historical landmark and it all began with a vineyard. During the 18th century, this public park was converted into a malbury plantation and later used as a garden restaurant. After World War II, the area was heavily damaged and designated as a cultural park. The Rose Garden occupies a quiet part of the park and it was quite [Music] [Applause] peaceful. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] So I think this was my favorite stop on the bike tour as the longlos shunhausen. This palace was the summer residence of the Prussian Queen Elizabeth Christine from 1740 to 1797. I paid €8 to see inside the exhibit which displays the interior furnishings that have been largely preserved. My favorite features were the wallpapers, the stuckcoed ballroom and the display paintings which were truly gorgeous. It was really interesting to learn that during the Nazi occupation, Shunhausen was used as a central depot for so-called degenerate art. Thousands of artwork which had been confiscated by the Nazis have been stored here. After World War II, the palace was the official residence of the GDR’s head of state, Wilheim Peak. I really enjoyed this exhibition and would definitely recommend checking it out. [Music] I had a lot of fun doing the solo bike tour. I feel like if you’re interested in landmarks and parks, history, but you don’t want to spend the money on a guided tour, then this is a really great option. Obviously, you miss out on the knowledge and the commentary that a professional tour guide could provide, but I also found it really interesting to look up the information about the places I visited once I got back home. Let me know in the comments if you visited any of these sites. I’d really love to hear about it. And also, if you have any other locations you’d like to recommend, definitely let me know. Thanks for tuning in and I’ll see you in the next one. Bye. [Music]
1 Comment
I’ve been to the Soviet War memorial – it definitely had a spooky vibe! I found the history of Berlin so interesting.