In this video, we follow the highlights of our cycling tour of the Berlin wall on our Brompton foldable bicycles. We started our journey with the overnight sleeper from Brussels to Berlin. If you’re interested, the Paris to Berlin sleeper should be operational by late October 2024 and which we would have taken had it been running. No special tickets are required for Bromptons but we would always recommend putting on the Brompton bicycle cover which is already required by Eurostar and SNCF train journeys.
For the bike tour, we decided to take our time and cover the 160-kilometer route over four days. This allowed us to make lots of tea stops and take time to look at the various remnants of the wall as well as reading the various stories which are presented along the way of the different people who died trying to cross the wall over its thirty-year presence.
Each night was spent in a hotel, and we made our own lunches and evening meals on the way (mostly) by buying fresh food every morning from local shops.
Day 1. Central Berlin to Marienfelde, 39km. Leaving directly from Berlin central train station we headed out to the Eastern part of the old wall which cuts through the town centre. From here we headed south out towards the suburbs.
Day 2. Marienfelde to Potsdam, 43km. The journey involves a lot of riding in forests but some of this has gravel paths which means we can’t go as fast as we’d like. Arriving in Potsdam, the town is pleasant and serves as a leafy outer suburb of Berlin.
Day 3. Potsdam to Stolpe, 47km. Starting with a bit of a hill climb out of the town, beautiful views of the lakes on the way out. The day cycling is a delight with asphalt paths through the long forest rides.
Day 4. Stolpe to Central Berlin, 32km. There are too many cobblestone paths for the first hour of this trip. We end up having to push for much of this as the vibrations are too much to take. Afterwards, the journey back into the suburbs is smooth and we make our way past the Reichstag back to the central station, completing the loop.
From here we took another train onto Rostock, in the north of Germany to allow us to catch a ferry to Denmark. That video is to follow.
You can find our detailed route on Komoot : https://www.komoot.com/fr-fr/collection/3072713/-berlin-wall-trail