I continued the Berliner Mauerweg. And this is the leg when I finally get out of the city centre.
I began from when I left off, Warschauer Strasse. This is rather familiar to me, given that it passes by neighbourhoods which I pass through during my commute to work.
For example, there is the Oberbaumbrücke. I first learned of the existence of this historic bridge from the old German movie,
Run, Lola, Run. But since then, I actually go over this bridge on pretty much a daily basis, when my subway rolls over it as it pulls into the terminus. So this bridge isn't just a historical entry in my head, but rather, a part of my daily commute.
There is also the building on Falckensteinstrasse 46, which is a funky building. It looks like a squat, but actually it isn't. It is managed by a foundation that provides socially affordable housing, and it contributes to the radical flavour of Kreuzberg. There is a rather well-known leftist general merchandise shop on its facade, but I have to say that I am not part of the target audience most likely. Neither am I the target audience off the drug dealers that I briefly bumped into when I entered the nearby bushes. This neighbourhood after all is Berlin's so-called
Bush Pharmacy, where people can go to in order to get drugs.
As I continued, I always came across fancy apartments, like the ones above. After all, the wall became a deserted area when it was there, but when it was torn down, then there are wide open spaces that suddenly became prime real estate. So these became developed, and nowadays there are fancy new apartments, of course, with fancy rental prices too.
And then there is also the southeastern extension of the A100, which opened late last year. On the first time I completed the Berliner Mauerweg, this section of the highway was not yet open, so this was definitely a new feature. I learned of the various political issues that are stemming from the construction of this highway, which I suppose is to be expected, with every large construction project.
And then the trail gets quiet. There's even a section running through a peaceful canal.
And then there is a long stretch of the trail that is next to the A113. The A113 actually is a highway that has been built on the site of the former wall: when the wall fell, it left behind this long stretch of a "death strip" which was then used as the location of a highway. This enabled post-reunification city planners to connect transport arteries of the city that used to be divided. Of course, as the trail is running next to a highway, this wasn't very pleasant, but I just plugged in my ear plugs and listened to music as I went.
Finally, I reached Schönefeld. This is where the old airport was, but now, there is a more modern new airport close by. Here's another thing that changed: in 2013, the new Berlin Brandenburg Airport was still not in operation, so Schönefeld Airport was still a busy place. Nowadays, it is deserted. I actually used the old train station to go home, and while I remember using this train station when catching a flight from Schönefeld back then, nowadays, the train station is more or less a ghost station, and I was the only passenger when I boarded the train.
In any case, I clocked 19 kilometres, which was a feat. I'll continue this next time, of course.
