Bright colours were a weapon for Bruno Taut. The architect believed that good housing could change people's lives, and in the 1920s he designed several large housing estates in Berlin for working and middle class families, with light, airy flats, gardens and shared green spaces. The Waldsiedlung Zehlendorf, better known as Onkel Toms Hütte, Uncle Tom's Cabin, after a nearby inn and the underground station, was built between 1926 and 1931 on the edge of the Grunewald forest, and Taut, working with other architects, painted the houses in strong reds, greens, blues and yellows, so that the estate glows among the pine trees. It is one of the great monuments of modern housing in Germany.
The estate is a pleasure to wander through, with its long terraces of houses following the curves of the streets, gardens full of flowers, and the pine forest always close by. The colours were restored in recent decades, after being lost under later coats of paint, and they give the place a cheerful, almost playful atmosphere. Nearby are the lakes of Krumme Lanke and Schlachtensee, popular for swimming and walking, and the vast Grunewald forest, with paths, lakes and the Teufelsberg, a hill made of wartime rubble, crowned by an abandoned American listening station.
For motorcyclists, there is a special connection here. Just to the north runs the AVUS, which opened in 1921 as one of the first roads in the world built exclusively for motor vehicles, and it was used as a racetrack for decades, with a steep banked curve at its northern end that saw some terrifying races in the 1930s. Today the AVUS is part of the city motorway, but its history still gives a thrill to anyone riding along it.
Riding in Berlin is generally easy, with wide streets, clear signs and relatively calm traffic by the standards of big cities, though cyclists, trams and cobbled streets demand attention. Zehlendorf is a leafy, prosperous district with fuel, shops and restaurants. To the south west, Potsdam, with its palaces and parks, is a short ride away, and the lakes of the Havel offer pleasant roads along the water. The weather is continental, with warm summers and cold winters, and spring and early autumn are the best times for riding.