Bruno Taut liked colour, and in Berlin in the late 1920s, he used it to make social housing feel joyful. The Wohnstadt Carl Legien, built between 1928 and 1930 in Prenzlauer Berg, is a large estate of apartment blocks arranged around green courtyards that open onto the street, with facades painted in bright, contrasting colours: yellow, red, blue and green, the balconies and window frames picking out the patterns. It was named after Carl Legien, a leader of the German trade unions, and it was built by a union-affiliated housing association to provide light, air and greenery for working families. It is one of the six Berlin Modernism Housing Estates listed by UNESCO in 2008.
The estates were built during the Weimar Republic, when Berlin was booming, and they were a response to the dark, overcrowded tenements of the nineteenth century. Taut and other architects of the time, like Martin Wagner, believed that good design could improve people's lives, and the estates were among the most advanced housing of their time. Today, they are still lived in, and still feel fresh and humane. Walking through the courtyards, you can see why.
Prenzlauer Berg itself is one of Berlin's most popular districts, with cafés, shops, restaurants and parks, and its tree-lined streets and restored nineteenth-century buildings make it a pleasant place to explore. The Kulturbrauerei, a former brewery turned cultural centre, and the Mauerpark, along the former route of the Berlin Wall, are nearby.
Riding in Berlin is a test of patience, with heavy traffic, cobblestones, tram rails and many cyclists. The city has a low emission zone, the Umweltzone, but motorcycles are exempt from the sticker requirement. Parking is easier for motorcycles than for cars, and you can usually find a spot on the pavement or in a designated area.
For riding outside the city, head north toward the lakes and forests of Brandenburg, where roads wind through pine forests, past lakes and villages, with gentle curves and little traffic. The Schorfheide and the Uckermark, to the north-east, are particularly beautiful, and the beech forest of Grumsin, part of the UNESCO-listed ancient beech forests of Europe, lies in this area.
Prenzlauer Berg, a district of nearly a hundred and fifty thousand people, has fuel, shops and restaurants of every kind. Try a currywurst from a street stand, or one of the many international restaurants of the district, and enjoy a coffee in a café on the Kollwitzplatz.