Until 1989 the Berlin Wall ran right past here. Glienicke/Nordbahn, just across the boundary in Brandenburg, was home to the Entenschnabel, the duck's bill, a narrow strip of East German territory that poked into West Berlin, with houses whose gardens backed onto the Wall. Today the Mauerweg, a walking and cycling path, follows the old border line, and a few traces remain.
This finish lies in the far north of Berlin, near Lübars and Blankenfelde, where the city gives way to fields and farms. Lübars is a real village, with a green, a church, farmhouses and horses, and it feels miles from the city centre. The Tegeler Fließ, a small stream, winds through meadows and woods nearby, and the area is popular with walkers and riders on horseback.
It is an odd landscape to finish in. You ride in through ordinary suburban streets, and suddenly there are paddocks, a pond and a church tower, with the tower blocks of the Märkisches Viertel standing on the horizon like a reminder of where you are. The contrast says a lot about West Berlin, a walled city that had to keep its last farms because it had nowhere else to go.
Coming back from Lehnin and the Zauche, the final kilometres follow the ring or cut through the northern suburbs, with traffic lights, buses and stretches of cobbles that rattle the mirrors. Approach the old border slowly; the roads here were never built for through traffic.
Glienicke has shops and fuel on its main street. Lübars has a couple of places to eat around the green, and on a warm evening there is no better reward than sitting there, boots off, listening to horses instead of engines.