Munich to Potsdam via train and bike (June 26, 2023)

June 26, 2023

A Successful Train Ride!

Jill chose a beautiful ride to Potsdam from Berlin. The forest and lake were wonderful.

Greetings from Potsdam. I am happy to report that we managed our train journey from Munich to Berlin with no serious drama. We were up at the crack of dawn and the train arrived 20 minutes early so it allowed us to load up without much stress. Jill handled the panniers and Dave handled the bikes. Our reserved slots did require lifting the bikes up to hook them on by the front tire but a very nice German guy helped Dave both at the loading and unloading stage. It was pretty positive; the train was full but everyone with a bike worked with each other to move around and get the bikes out in the six minutes we had in Berlin before the train took off again. The four hour train trip went very quickly and we decided not to stop for lunch before our 40 km ride to Potsdam because the weather forecast was for rain in the afternoon.

Although the bikes needed to be hung up, these hooks worked well for mountain bike tires like ours.

The trip out of Berlin was fun. It was a long urban ride heading west out of town but it was easy because pretty much every street has a dedicated bike lane. We then rode through a lovely forest and crossed the Glienecke Bridge; those Cold War buffs will know that it is the place where the Soviets and Americans exchanged spies during the Cold War since it was the border between the East and West (see the “Bridge of Spies” film with Tom Hanks).

Seriously, the riding infrastructure in Germany is first class.

We stayed at the Holiday Inn Express and managed to arrive before a pretty torrential storm. It is the least expensive hotel I was able to book (115 euros) on the entire trip and it was new and nice with a dedicated bike room with charging stations and very friendly staff. We ate Asian food at Madame Dang’s across the street, also very good. We are saving our sightseeing of Potsdam until tomorrow morning, so more on why we went to Potsdam at that time.

Don't let our mess fool you. This was a nice room.

Today's ride: 40 km (25 miles)
Total: 110 km (68 miles)

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Denise GravesLooks and sounds like a beautiful and overall enjoyable day!
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10 months ago