Waldsiedlung Zehlendorf and Serrahn · 384 km from Zehlendorf

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Waldsiedlung Zehlendorf

   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.

   Read the complete Waldsiedlung Zehlendorf write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Waldsiedlung Zehlendorf 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 94 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 189 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 Waldsiedlung Zehlendorf.

5. 5. Waldsiedlung Zehlendorf

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Waldsiedlung Zehlendorf write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Back at Waldsiedlung Zehlendorf. That is the ride.