Come Along on my Hike

A friend and I have decided to take a few hikes along Berlin this year. I needed to build up stamina for my arctic expedition and she wanted to savor her camino walks from last summer. So we set out to try to get as many hikes in. So far we only managed three hikes. We started with a 14 km one in early March (I was aiming for no more than 10km but felt good). The second was supposed to be 15km but I had issues with the train service and only joined for 7km. And last weekend we had the longest one planned with 16km. I figured why not take you along.

We roughly oriented ourselves on the Spandauer Pilgerweg (a pilgrimage) which also happened to have lots of overlap with the Berlin Wall Trail.
We started in Berlin-Kladow which is a small neighborhood surrounded by the river Havel and lakes.

First stop as it is on a pilgrimage was the town church. It was pretty cute inside.

We followed the trail through mansions on the waterfront, little piers with ducks enjoying the sun.

We stumbled upon a manicured landscaped garden. We had a peak inside and decided this is a whole exploration on itself. it had a cute little café. I think this would be a wonderful spot to have a birthday brunch.

We went through a few more neighborhoods with town houses. It was al very calm and idyllic.

Pretty soon we entered the woods. And followed this trail for some time.

Which was nice because temperatures were in the upper 20°C and it was too hot in my jeans.

Not long coming out of the woods we hit the next church on our route.

The Heilandskirche Sacrow (Church of the Redeemer) is on the bank of a lake overlooking the water and part of the manor grounds. Here is a fun fact. My mom’s cousin is the pastor. Every last Sunday of September they are holding an end of season boating service. You can come with your boat and the do the service towards the water. I wanted to go there last year but didn’t manage and while I type this the service is happening again. Fingers crossed next year is possible.

I mean look at how cute this is.

My friend took a phot of me and I was so surprised because here I – for the first time – saw how much my exercise routine had changed my body. Also look at the view. That is where the boats would be.

And from here on out things got a bit sideways. We were all happy as clams and kept walking and talking and decided to explore the park a bit more. We decided that at km 10 we would have a snack and fill up our water bottles so we skipped the cafe in the mansion.

We kept on walking along the lake and enjoyed the forest and water views. We stumbled upon this arbory monument. Planted as a growing reunification monument were three trees – one for East German (a pine), one for West Germany (a beech) one for all of Germany (an oak). Annual they add the tree of the year. And ask passerby to water the trees. Of course we did.

Soon after we realized we had missed a trail and were walking along the wrong lake. We were wondering how far to fill the water bottles. It happened that we had run ourselves into a 6km detour.

We cut through the woods to get to the other lake. At least we found amazing mushroom spots.

When we finally entered the next village I was struggling (I was on the cusp of a migraine for days – of course). So we didn’t care much for the next church where bumped the ice cream parlor was closed but finally stumbled into this little Vietnamese café.

The food was great (not pictured we were hungry) and added it with some matcha ice cream and I tried Vietnamese coffee for the first time. It was just want I needed but it might be too sugary on any other day.

By then it was 4pm and my friend was a bit in a hurry because she had plans in the evening. We were back on the original trail and busses were able to get her back to the city. Before we hit the road though we had to cross the former boarder (again) from former East Germany back to West Berlin.

As I mentioned we were on parts of the Wall Trail and some of the wall was preserved. I had actually never seen the metal fence in real life which was the first thing going up in 1961.

I dropped off my friend at the bus stop (at km 16) and decided to finish the route on my own. I was tired but I also needed some alone time after 6 hours of talking and before sitting in public transport for over an hour. It was good I did. The route itself wasn’t as exciting though.

I ended at the chapel in the woods with its thatched roof and found a pilgrims stamp – my first.

I was contemplating going the last 2 km back to the starting point but got a bit lost and then decided to just hop on the bus since the last stretch was going along the big road.

I was very proud of myself doing this hike. It was a nice trail. I ended up hiking for 22km and made 35,262 steps that day. It was a good check-in to see what I can already handle. I was exhausted but besides my feet nothing really hurt. I was a but stiff the next day and tired. I wouldn’t have wanted to do the same hike the following day but overall I might have been able.

Our next hike is planned for October where we are exploring the moor and enjoying the colorful leaves. That is the plan. So hopefully it’s not raining as we would have to move into denser territory with no boardwalks that get slippery.

Would you have wanted me to join on the hike? When was the last time you took a hike?Ever took an unplanned detour? Ever earned a pilgrimage stamp?