I LOVE getting out of Berlin on the weekend to go hiking or biking. Usually I plan something big, get up early, take an hour plus long train ride, and hike or bike for as many hours as there are sunlight. But some days, you just want to sleep in or get home not so exhausted that you crash directly into bed. So here’s a bike ride for one of those Sundays 🙂
Getting to Erkner
This is a round trip journey from Erkner. There’s a twice hourly Regio which will get you there in a half hour. Otherwise, the S-bahn (S3) will take forty-five minutes from Hauptbahnhof. The cool thing about being on the S-bahn is that we didn’t have to fight people or bikes with our bikes on the train. This can be a major issue on nice weather weekends with the regional trains headed to the Baltic Sea.
In Erkner, the journey begins by cycling the Berliner Straße for what seems like a while. The trail is on a heavily trafficked road, although it is outfitted with a decent bike path. At least the first kilometer is through a nicely forested area, even if the street is so busy. Once you make it through three or so kilometers of Wilhelmshagen, you’ll be able to leave that behind and enjoy the rest of this really pleasant ride.
Müggelsee
The first view of the Großer Müggelsee can be had at Strandbad Müggelsee. The name comes from an early Slavic word meaning fog or wind, which was definitely being taken advantage of by the numerous kite and wind surfers on the lake. Berlin’s longest beach is raising money to renovate the facilities, although a few cafés are in operation, as are the public toilets. Access to the beach is still permitted.
Shortly thereafter, we turned off the road onto a path for the shore heading towards Friedrichshagen. This trail was gorgeous! We flew through the woods on dirt path occasionally catching glimpses of the lake. It was over too quickly. Then we were briefly back to the road through Friedrichshagen before reaching the Spree Tunnel.
“built and sunk 1926”
We carried our bikes down to the tunnel and went through under the Müggelspree river. Out on the other side, we followed the shore of the lake on another wide, wooded, dirt path around to the south side of the lake. Soon the path turned to asphalt on one of the smoothest Radwege (bike paths) I’ve seen. We stopped to have a snack break at the edge of the lake. Sitting there, two ducks came on shore waddling around us looking for their snack break too.
The paved path continues to follow around the lake, turning into the R1 European bike path at some point. This makes it easy to just follow the bike signs from here. We went over the Müggelspree twice more before heading past the Dämeritzsee and meeting up again with the Berliner Straße to head back to Erkner. The 27 kilometer trip took us just under two hours to complete, making it an easy day or afternoon trip from Berlin. I would certainly do this one again!
If you’re looking for more adventures from Berlin, check out the Berlin Wall bike trail and the 66-Lakes-Trail. Both have lots of great options for day trips from Berlin.
Photo Credits: C.O. and myself