Parks in Berlin: Mauerpark

Mauerpark, in the district of Prenzlauer Berg, is one of the most popular parks in Berlin. 'Mauer', which means 'wall' in German, is a reference to the fact that the park made up part of the 'death strip'  during the times of the Berlin Wall. The park itself is an ok place just to hang out and relax with friends but there are lots of other reasons to visit, especially on a Sunday. 

I've been to the park three times. In fact, this weekend a friend was visiting me from Spain so we decided to go there for a look around. There are many regular flea markets in Berlin and the Flohmarkt am Mauerpark has to be the most famous. It takes place every Sunday and has everything you would expect of a good flea market. 

You can buy anything from designer clothing and jewellery, used bikes, second-hand clothes and shoes, posters, tools, toys and household goods, even, for some reason, a surprising amount of decorative door knobs! The market is always teeming with activity and aside from the usual offerings there are plenty of bars and food stands where you can grab a beer, a currywurst, burgers, pretzels, refreshments and more. 

Not only can you do some bargain-hunting in the flea market or relax on the grassy area with a pic-pic, but there is normally some kind of organised entertainment going on including live bands and street performers.  You can't go to the park on a Sunday without catching a bit of the famous Bearpit Karaoke Show which has been taking place on Sunday afternoons since 2009. It draws huge crowds to the stone circular stage area within the park and thousands of people head there to listen to the brave performers singing karaoke classics. 

If you sing really well, the crowd goes wild. I'm not sure what the reaction would be if you don't sing well but I've heard there is a certain amount of boo-ing involved. I don't know if I'm ready for that kind of public criticism just yet so instead of getting up to give it my all, I sat on the hill with a beer and enjoyed the music! 

We had the pleasure of listening to a few performances including a very well sung rendition of Creep by Radiohead and an impressive Frank Sinatra impersonation. Both of which received very enthusiastic responses from the audience. 

So, if you can't think of anything to do next Sunday and you are in the mood for getting out of your pyjamas and heading into Berlin, keep Mauerpark in mind. Beware though, if you plan on playing frisbee, watch out for excited dogs! We decided to play on Sunday and within two minutes a dog came pounding up and stole our frisbee. He seemed very happy with his find at least for the two seconds he played with it before biting the plastic in two and destroying any flying capability it may have had. Note to self for my next trip to Mauerpark - Either A) buy a better quality 'dog-proof' frisbee or B) just take beer!  

The flea market takes place in Mauerpark every Sunday between 8am and 6pm (although in my experience it's better to go in the morning). The Karaoke starts at around 3pm but there is usually some kind of entertainment going on all day at the stage area. 

Müggelsee: Berlin's largest lake

Berlin has many rivers, lakes and canals and we recently discovered the biggest lake of them all, Müggelsee, in the district of Treptow-Köpenick to the south-east of the city. Großer Müggelsee ("Large" Müggelsee), with an area of 7.4 square kilometers (2.9 square miles) and a length of 4.3 km (2.7 miles), reaches a depth of 8 meters whilst it's smaller brother, Kleiner Müggelsee ("Small" Müggelsee) feeds the River Spree into the larger lake from the east.   

We visited the lake recently and found out that on a weekday morning it is mainly deserted. We can imagine that it can get rather busy though especially during a hot summer weekend. It was actually very nice to escape the city and to enjoy the soothing sounds nature had to offer for a few hours. We approached the lake from the south side at Müggelseeperle but there are some other worthwhile places to visit all around the lake including the towns of Friedrichshagen and Rahnsdorf. 

The lake, being a quite popular day-trip destination for Berliners, has beaches as well as public paths and various resorts around the lake. There are a couple of official bathing beaches and plenty of places to hire paddle boats, motor boats and even canoes.    

There are many paths and cycle lanes as well as lake-side cafes, restaurants and beer gardens to relax in and enjoy the view. What we really liked about our quick visit was that there was a lot of wildlife there including ducks, swans and deer. We also spotted a fox on our walk. 

There are quite a few activities close by such as a Waterworks Museum ("Museum im Wasserwerk") in Friedrichshagen on the north side of the lake. There you can find out about the history of the water supply system and see a permanent collection of machinery, tools and documents related to Berlin's water supply and the history of the plant which still supplies water to Berlin today.

It takes around an hour to get there by public transport (S-Bahn and/or bus) from the city center depending on which part of the lake you wish to visit. Check the useful 'journey planner' on bvg.de to find out the best way to get there. By car it takes about 30-40 minutes and there are lots of places to park around the lake.

A walk around the whole lake I suppose would take around 3-4 hours and I will definitely write a blog about it if I decided to go back and see how long it takes.

Parks in Berlin: Treptower Park

 

Continuing our look at parks in Berlin (a few weeks ago we visited Körnerpark in Neukölln) we recently took a stroll around Treptower Park in Alt-Treptow. We took the opportunity to visit after passing it a few times on the S-bahn train. This time we got off the train and wandered down into the park to take a quick look. 

 

 

It was very pleasant, well kept and clean like all Berlin parks I have seen so far. What makes it a little different from most other parks is the fact it is right on the waters edge and you can sit in the park with a view of the Spree.

 

 

If you enter the park from the Treptower Park S-Bahn station then you will soon come to a promenade which has a number of cafes, bars and shops to buy food and refreshments. The premenade runs alongside the small harbour that is home to a number of tourist barges and some vessels that look like people actually live there. Our favourite was a barge equipt with solar panels, a rooftop garden and a little sailing boat. 

 

 

 

The green areas are fairly big and spacious but I personally ate quite a few swarms of midges. There are probably so many because the park is so close to the water (I've never seen (or eaten) so many in daylight before though!). 

 

After a quick look around we stopped for a currywurst and a beer on the promenade. Apart from being attacked by a few very eager wasps who seemed obsessed about taking a dive into our beer, it was a nice relaxing couple of hours.

 

I'll leave you with a few more piccies.

You can find out some more information about Treptower Park on the VisitBerlin website.

Parks in Berlin: Körnerpark

Ok, so the "summer" hasn't been that great so far in Berlin. There seems to be a stream of a few very hot and humid days, followed by ridiculously powerful thunder storms, a week of cool rainy weather then the heat gets going again and so continues the cycle. So, while it lasted, we decided to take advantage of the warm weather last week by visiting a very pretty park in Neukölln in the south east of the city.

We actually have some friends who live very close to the park and they recommended that we visited when we were in the area. The park is called Körnerpark and is located between Neukölln and Hermanstrasse U-bahn stations. 

The park itself isn't really that big but it has all the things you'd expect of a city park; green areas and, in this case, lots of half naked Germans!  It's a surprisingly tranquil place actually because all of the nearby roads are small side streets with very little traffic. 

It comprises of three separate areas. Two green fields which are connected by paths and the other area is more of a garden with flower beds, some well kept lawns and a terrace café. 

The garden is the first part of the park we came across and the view surprised us as walked up the steps from one of the main entrances. It reminded me of a garden you would typically find in an English country home equipped with a fountain and stone steps with balustrades around the perimeter. 

Although the park was busy with people sunbathing, families having picnics and children playing around the fountain there was still a lot of place to take a quiet stroll. The terrace café was a perfect place to enjoy a cool beer in the humid heat and to take a relaxing break to look out over the park gardens.

It looks like the café and the park organise regular cultural events including outdoor concerts and exhibitions. In fact there is a series of summer concerts planned throughout the summer and the building houses an art gallery which has regular exhibitions. You can find out more about the Körnerpark Café and the events on their website (in German). Also, here is a link to the summer 2012  schedule. 

I'll leave you with a few more photos of this very lovely park.