Tag Archives: Berliner Wanderclub

Very nice walk which it must have taken the leader, Margot Dietzsch quite a bit of work to organiseFirst about 12 km in beautiful, mostly unspoiled nature, then a nice lunch and a lovely boat tour.

Nowadays, one is grateful for not getting soaked, and on this occasion, it only rained once, quite briefly, on the walk, quite a lot during lunch when we were indoors, and a tiny littlel bit once during the boat tour, so that was a bit like winning the lottery.

Unfortunately, our meal came off to a slightly uncomfortable start when it turned out that the restaurant had misunderstood or somehow or other caused some confusion about the reservation Margot had made, and the waiters took it as a personal insult that we were more people than they had expected. They were snippy and even quite rude in the beginning, despite the fact that they were not even half full, so – not cool.

There is a phenomenon in “the entertainment business” that I have come across many times. It often seems that if a café or restaurant has a particular advantage going for them – an idyllic location as in this case (Restaurant Il Borgo in Grünheide has a beautiful view onto trees and a lake just by the tourist boat we were to take back to Köpenick), or for one reason or another some snob value has been attached to it and never faded, they consider that enough of a “raison d’être” so that they do not have to make any particular efforts in other aspects of their service. Or even consider the fact that their tone can put a bit of a damper on a meal, especially for the person who has spent time and effort into organising it.

My mind was cast back to another walk with Berliner Wanderclub where a very busy restaurant, Restaurant Schlosspark-Grill, welcomed and accommodated a large-ish group of us completely unannounced with nothing but good humour, as described in this post. Guess which restaurant I would make a point of going back to?

By the way, we also stopped for a coffee/ice cream break at “Funny’s Kanuveleih”. One of their canoes, complete with a family on board, can be seen in one of the photos below.

The walking route on MapMyWalk here.

The boat route on MapMyWalk here (it started where the walk ended, but I forgot to start recording till 45 minutes after start).

PHOTOS TO COME

First, I am experimenting more and more to see just how many nature photographs work as well or better in black and white:

Colour photos from the walk:

From the boat tour (still dithering between monochrome vs colour):

And finally, a couple of experiments that definitely belong in the “epic fails folder”, but I still quite like them:

2023: Bring it on

From Babelsberg to Wannsee with Berliner Wanderclub 22 June

22/06/2023 Helle Møller

I am definitely having a dysfunctional relationship with Berliner Wanderclub. They are just too minimalistic with information for my limited brain capacity. Or perhaps it is just that it is only when I start interacting with people that life turns strange.

At least the other walking groups bother to mention the expected end time of the walk, and whether it might be a good idea to bring a packed lunch. Just so that everything is pretty much spoon-fed when I try to imagine how the day will go.

So according to the programme, today’s walk would be about 13 km, and would include eating at either Loretta or Schützen-Wirtin, both of which are near Wannsee S-Bahn Station – the end of the walk. With a 13 km walk, I imagined that by eating was meant lunch. There was no mention of a lengthy lunch break along the way. Sounded good to me.

What actually happened was that it turned out that the expected end time of the walk was 17.00 hrs (!!!!??????). With a 9.00 hrs start, that would make eight hours for a 13 km walk. That is not wandern. It is not even Schlentern. Also, there did not seem to be any general recollection of the mention of the two above restaurants, and they were not mentioned at all during the walk. Moreover, about four km from Wannsee, there was a long and boring break and it turned out everybody had brought a packed lunch! How did they know??

Conclusion: Focus on the other walking groups where it is clearer what is going to happen. Or better still: go solo. Which is what I did when after a great length of time nobody showed any signs of ever wanting to finish the walk, I left and went to Wannsee where I had lunch at Loretta, just the way I had originally thought, except the street-level restaurant was closed, so I went to the Biergarten upstairs.

Now, a word on that – Loretta’s beer garden is a very nice location, but the food will undermine your health (apart from one item – baked potato with vegan kidney bean chili and guacamole). And as for the coffee – don’t get me started. Walking closer to the S-Bahn Station, I discovered Corsini, which, as far as I could see, has the same kind of prices but a much better choice of food – fresher, tastier, healthier, and real coffee, so that is something to remember for next time I am in that area.

Anyway, I enjoyed the walking, and took a few photos.

Almost back home, walking through Besselpark, I discovered that they have stopped watering and mowing those boring lawns, so perhaps Berlin is finally entering the 21st century, climate-protection-wise.

Some native plants (or weeds as some people still call them) have already appeared, of their own choosing, needing much less water, and no fertilizers. Hooray! I hope it stays that way, even in the unlikely event that we get what is considered enough rain to go back to boring lawns again.

The route on MapMyWalk here.

2023: Bring it on

Easter 2023 walks

05/04/2023 Helle Møller

Friday 7 April

Start from Bhf Dallgow-Döberitz to Falkesee, originally planned to total about 13 km. Organised by a member of the Facebook group Wandern in Berlin und Umgebung.

My route on MapMyWalk here. (When it started to drizzle and I was feeling really cold, I left the group when an opportunity arose).

It was a pleasant walk, although too much incessant schnickschnack – as in NON-STOP yacking – for my taste. Why ruin a walk in nature when you can cater to those needs anywhere else – a café, for example?

Saturday 8 April

My route on MapMyWalk here.

With Berliner Wanderclub, a guided tour of Wasserturm Finow and Messingwerksgelände. Later, walk along Finowkanal back to Eberswalde. Just one comment: given the (what I perceived as) freezing cold, the guided tour was much too long (nearly 2,5 hours). Without all the stopping for no apparent reason, and a lot of schnickschnack, it could have been done in one hour). But that is just me.

Sunday

“Die Krumme Lanke in Rangsdorf”, with Wandersportverein Rotation Berlin from Bhf Rangsdorf via Krumme Lanke and Jühnsdorfer Heide to S Blankenfelde – found in the Berlin-Brandenburg Wanderplan.

The route on MapMyWalk here.

A large group – I counted between 25 and 30, so at times, the speed-talking, which can be bad enough in groups of five to ten people, was infernal. What is it about nature that is like pushing a button, whereby most people start spouting words-words-words as if there is no tomorrow? And in many cases so loudly that the rest of us can’t hear the birds?

However, it was a lovely part of the world, the weather was finally great, and whenever I distanced myself from the noise machines, or people exceptionally kept their mouths shut, it was truly blissful, although not as long as we had been “promised”. All in all, I shall have to somehow make up for three relatively short walks in the last few days :-).

Beginning again after a surreal six months

With Berliner Wanderclub along the River Spree from Ostbahnhof to Tiergarten

13/12/2022 Helle Møller

Tuesday walk organised by Joachim Wenzel. Nice walk, although I felt very cold, for some reason. It was not the case for most of the others, who preferred to walk very slowlsy.

The route on MapMyWalk here.

The walk ended with lunch in Ristorante da Ponte. I had a delicious spaghetti with octopus and justified that, at least partly :-), by walking the rest of the way home (route on MapMyWalk).

Daytrips from Berlin, Life in Berlin while Covid lingers

From Grünau to Erkner with Berliner Wanderclub

16/11/2021 Helle Møller

In autumn colours that are hanging on thanks to the fact that we have not had the usual several autumn storms (which we also did not have last year, as far as I recall). Perhaps Mother Nature decided to spare us, in view of the other troubles ….

Anyway, the day was a little misty, but dry and mild, so it was a very nice walk, led by Joachim Wenzel. Here the route on mapmywalk.

Life in Berlin while Covid lingers

Rudow with Berliner Wanderclub

19/10/2021 Helle Møller

This walk, entitled U 7 “Endstation”, Rundwanderung am Stadtrand, was organised by Joachim Wenzel and approximately 12 km – actually a little more, I think – here is the link to the route on mapmywalk. (I forgot to start recording right at the beginning, and also twice after having paused recording, so the route probably looks a bit weird, but it went from and back to U-Bahnhof Rudow). Back in Rudow, we finished with a meal in Restaurant Zum Alten Krug. Highly recommended, good food and very friendly staff.

I had left Max (my dog, for those who don’t know 🙂 to have fun with Frank and some canine friends. Much as I had hoped to bring Max along on the walks with Berliner Wanderclub, it is too stressful for him, and therefore for me and everybody else. He wants to be in front all the time, but also make sure that everybody is still there, and on the leash, that does not work. If he could run off-leash all the time, it would probably be lots of fun for him to keep running around in those loops, but that is unfortunately not allowed in most places in Berlin and surroundings. I don’t know if those instincts are so deep within him that it would not be worth the effort to try to teach him to walk with a largish group of people. I will talk to Frank, and also to Astrid, our current trainer, about that. But for now, Frank’s Hundeausführservice is a wonderful alternative, which also lets me take Mr Canon along instead.

PS: I have to say this: Whenever I mention Berliner Wanderclub to friends and acquaintances of all ages, they later make the comment that nobody is going to take an organisation seriously that does not have a proper, navigable and up-to-date website, or a Facebook page, preferably both. No organisation will attract new members as long as it relies on word-of-mouth, scraps of paper, and phone calls in order to communicate for example changes in the programme and cancellation of walks. I tend to agree.

Life in Berlin while Covid lingers

A great day out with Berliner Wanderclub

07/09/2021 Helle Møller

From Königs Wusterhausen, along Nottekanal, Krummensee and Sutschketal to Bestensee. The route on Komoot: https://www.komoot.com/tour/480361185.

(Some photos at the end of the post).

This was a first for Max, and only a second for me, thanks to Corona. Like the first walk I went on, this was also very well organised by Margot Dietzsch.

Bonus tip: There is what looks like a very nice bakery/café – Café Wahl – right next to the station in Bestensee, with freshly baked bread and homemade ice cream, and everything in between. Unfortunately, it is closed Mondays and Tuesdays, so, determined to find a place to sit down together and have at least a coffee, we took the train back one stop to Königs Wusterhausen and went to the café in the castle there for coffee and cakes or a salad in very pleasant surroundings.

Oh, and just for once I was not going to mention Max :-). But he did really well. Walking with a group of people (I think we were 14 or 15 today) is still stressful for him because he seems to feel he has to be in front, and also occasionally make sure everybody is there. Interestingly, referring to the previous post about eating, he was a bit unruly after we sat down at the café at the end, and after he had had some water and some snacks, the way he can be when he is a bit tired but still agitated by everything that is going on, barking for attention occasionally. But the minute the waiter brought my lunch, Max lay down and quietly watched me eat. Amazing. He became impatient again afterwards. I think he gets to a point when he just wants to go home. He was calm but forced himself to stay awake all the way on the S-Bahn, and pulled madly at the leash the last short walk from the busstop down the road, and seemed overly excited to be back in the flat, almost galloping around in and out of the rooms, and circling around me several times before collapsing on his pillow. I think he spends a lot of mental energy on walks with many new impressions.

And finally, Berliner Wanderclub could do with some more members, so if you like walking in nature, with nice people who are very knowledgeable about Berlin and Brandenburg, and practise your German at the same time (unless you want to walk along thinking your own thoughts, which is also permitted) – then get up off your fat arse and become a member.

Daytrips from Berlin, Photography

Impressions from a walk 20 October 2020

21/10/2020 Helle Møller

This was my first, and definitely not last, walk with Berliner Wanderclub. Fifteen people met at Bernau S-Bahn Station and took bus 894 to Wandlitz. We then walked to Liepnitzee, followed the southern shore to Obersee and Hellsee, past Schloß Lanke and Upstallfließ, and finished in Lobetal (a very interesting place). In total around 16 km. Unfortunately, I forgot to record the exact route on komoot.com.

Bonustip: The “Alte Schmiede” in Lobetal doubles as library and café (coffee and homemade cake: 2 euro), and probably a lot more for the citizens of Lobetal, most of whom are physically or mentally challenged one way or another. The café also has outdoor seating.

Given the fact that it was not a photography tour and that therefore, there would not be much time to take photos, I only took one lens with me, and I must say I am quite pleased with what one can achieve in a short time with the Canon 24 mm, aka “Pancake”.

Practised some “ICM photography” on the way (too rushed, of course, since photography was not the purpose of the walk and I had to keep up with fourteen other people):