Gartenstadt Flakenberg and Serrahn starting at Grünau

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Gartenstadt Flakenberg

   On the southeastern edge of Berlin, near the Dahme river, a few streets of small houses are painted in colours so bold that locals nicknamed the place the paint-box estate. This is the Gartenstadt Falkenberg, or Falkenberg Garden City, designed by the architect Bruno Taut and built in the years just before the First World War. Taut believed that colour could improve ordinary lives, and so he gave the terraced houses facades of deep blue, red, ochre and green, with gardens, tree-lined lanes and a central square. It was an early experiment in affordable housing for working families, and UNESCO included it in 2008 among the Berlin Modernism Housing Estates.

   Read the complete Gartenstadt Flakenberg write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Gartenstadt Flakenberg is where the day begins. Next is Grumsin.

2. 2. Grumsin

   North-east of Berlin, the last ice age left behind a landscape of hills, hollows and lakes, shaped by glaciers that advanced and melted back again. In one corner of it, between Angermünde and Joachimsthal, lies the Grumsin forest, a beech wood that has been left largely undisturbed for a long time. It is part of the UNESCO site of Ancient and Primeval Beech Forests of the Carpathians and Other Regions of Europe, inscribed as one of Germany's contributions in 2011. Old beeches tower above a forest floor scattered with fallen trunks, small ponds and bogs, and in spring the canopy glows a fresh, translucent green.

   Read the complete Grumsin write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Grumsin comes up about 88 km into the recorded legs. Next is Serrahn.

3. 3. Serrahn

   Between the lakes of Mecklenburg, north of Berlin, a pocket of old beech forest has been left to grow for the better part of a century, and it is now one of the most unusual places in Germany. Serrahn is a part of the Müritz National Park, a few kilometres from Carpin, and its beeches were once part of a ducal hunting reserve that was protected from logging, so some trees are two hundred years old and more. The Serrahn woods are part of the UNESCO listing of Ancient and Primeval Beech Forests of the Carpathians and Other Regions of Europe, a serial site that protects the finest remaining beech forests, from Ukraine and Slovakia to Germany, Spain and Italy.

   Read the complete Serrahn write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 183 km into the recorded legs you reach Serrahn. Next is back through Grumsin.

4. 4. back through Grumsin

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Grumsin write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through Grumsin, late in the day. Next is Gartenstadt Flakenberg.

5. 5. Gartenstadt Flakenberg

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Gartenstadt Flakenberg write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Back at Gartenstadt Flakenberg. That is the ride.