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KLR600 |
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KLR600 World Chat Champion
Joined: 15 Mar 2005 Karma :
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Posted: 22:21 - 22 Apr 2014 Post subject: KLR's Whistle Stop Tour Of Berlin |
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Seeing as I've lived in Berlin for just over 2 months now and have spent the majority of that time banging my head against a wall with all the official stuff that comes with moving here I decided that a day on the bike would do some good. I'm taking my bike off the road indefinitely at the end of April as that's when all my UK insurance/Tax/MOT runs out and it needs a lot of work doing to it too. I'm planning a few mods for it but I need to look into how importing/TÜV affects my plans on that front before going ahead with the work and getting it back on the road.
I have a friend here who rides a 1979 MZ250 TS and I've been badgering him about taking me around Berlin since I got here. He was free over the Easter weekend and he also brought along a friend on a brand new BMW F800GS so it turned out to be a diverse trio of bikes! The guys picked me at my flat and we aimed for the middle of Berlin. After getting lost about 5 minutes into the ride (neither of the guys actually live in Berlin and I have been using public transport mostly!) we eventually found ourselves underneath the TV Tower at Alexanderplatz.
https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v331/serenaur/IMG_2300_zpseac86cee.jpg
It was built between 1965 and 1969 by the GDR and is the tallest structure in Germany with a height of 368 metres. You can take a lift to the top for a 360 view of Berlin but it costs €13 and I have some friends who live on the top floor of a high rise building nearby so we passed on that!
After snapping a photo and trying to figure out which way we were supposed to be going we headed off towards Unter Den Linden. On the way I lost count of the amount of cranes I saw on the very short journey from the TV Tower to Unter Den Linden. Berlin is known to be a bit of a building site but I was surprised none the less.
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After passing through what felt like hundreds of traffic lights we arrived at the Brandenburg Gate. The Brandenburg Gate was commissioned by King Frederick William II of Prussia and was built by Carl Gotthard Langhans from 1788 to 1791. It got a bit smashed up in the Second World War but was restored at the turn of the millennium.
https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v331/serenaur/IMG_2319_zpsc09bb3bf.jpg
The crane in this photo was actually a fairground ride that swung people around in the air.
The gate was as busy as expected considering it was Easter Weekend but it was still a magnificent sight. There are loads of tours leaving from the gate on various rickshaws, taxis, cycle tours and even horse and carriages but obviously I was getting a guided tour by motorcycle so I didn't need any of that!
https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v331/serenaur/IMG_2325_zpsb032996c.jpg
Insert generic two horsepower joke of choice here.
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Briefly parking in the middle of a road for a Brandenburg Gate selfie!
After blocking the road for long enough it was back on the bikes and off to the next stop. On the way I tried to get my head around the ridiculous system of pedestrian crossing traffic light synchronisation here. It turns out that pedestrians and traffic get a green light at the same time with pedestrians getting right of way. This means that if anyone needs to cross the road (which many people did being so close to a big tourist attraction) that only one or two vehicles at most could get through a light before it went back to red. The crazy thing about it is that the lights are red for the pedestrians and traffic at the same time so no one is on the road at all at this point!
https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v331/serenaur/IMG_2335_zps63cc215a.jpg
We must have taken a good ten minutes to get through these lights! It's not your typical red light traffic queue either
After eventually escaping the crazy traffic lights on Unter Den Linden we headed over to the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe just around the corner. The memorial was built between 2003 and 2004 and consists of 2,711 concrete stelae with varying heights arranged in a grid pattern.
https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v331/serenaur/IMG_2345_zps20fc79ee.jpg
We resisted the Dunkin Donuts next to the memorial and jumped back on the bikes to get a little bit lost on the way to the next stop.
https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v331/serenaur/IMG_2348_zpsf51e3a38.jpg
Trabant Safari!
https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v331/serenaur/IMG_2363_zpsc101475c.jpg
Basti has a bit of bike trouble and kicks his MZ back into life just as the lights turned green.
https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v331/serenaur/IMG_2364_zps5c6c7780.jpg
After a few wrong turns we arrived at the Reichstag Building. It was built between 1884 and 1894 and housed the German Imperial Diet (Reichstag) until 1933. The building was left unused after the Second World War and was not fully restored until the re-unification of Germany in 1990. The restoration was completed in 1999 and the German parliament moved back in.
https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v331/serenaur/IMG_2373_zps8af7a5d6.jpg
It was fairly quiet when we got there (I assume the hoards hadn't made it over from the Brandenburg Gate yet) so the guys had a cigarette break while I snapped some photos.
https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v331/serenaur/IMG_2376_zps0da0e4ad.jpg
After that is was back on the bikes and off to the last stop on the mini tour.
https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v331/serenaur/IMG_2378_zpsc59d3442.jpg
Riding past Angela Merkel's house.
https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v331/serenaur/IMG_2382_zpsf0a8b84c.jpg
The Berlin Victory Column was gifted to the German President from the French King in the 1870's to commemorate all the Prussian victories of the time. My personal tour guides told me that the monument has a police guard overnight to stop pikeys stealing parts of it!
https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v331/serenaur/IMG_2389_zps7844097d.jpg
For reasons I can't remember we didn't make it to what's left of the Berlin Wall but hey, I live here now so I can go and see it whenever I like
I was meeting another friend in Oranienburg (a town just outside Berlin) in the evening so we headed out there to get a bite to eat. I also wanted to get some photos of me on my bike before I mod it and I knew of a quiet road near Oranienburg so it was ideal really. Somehow I'd completely forgotten about the autobahn and I got a bit excited when the guys said there are some unrestricted parts just outside of Berlin. Only about 50% or so of the autobahn has the "recommended" speed limit and I thought they'd mostly be away from big cities but hey, what do I know! On the way to Oranienburg I took my bike up to a completely legal 140mph but opted to cruise at a completely legal 120mph as the visor on Denny's helmet caused some wind issues at speeds higher than that. The MZ reached a giddy 110KPH...
After my autobahn fun my bike decided to punish my by starting to run terribly. It felt like it was running out of petrol but I had over half a tank so I'm guessing I've managed to suck some crud into the carbs or something. It still ran though so we decided to go ahead with the photos.
I wanted to try what I'd call the "Tour De France" style of taking a photo by sitting on the back of a bike facing backwards. We tried the MZ as the camera bike with Denny as the guinea pig first.
https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v331/serenaur/IMG_2399_zps185c21a5.jpg
https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v331/serenaur/IMG_2412_zpsa0b6f264.jpg
They seemed to work out ok so Denny and I swapped places.
https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v331/serenaur/IMG_2498_zps97d145b9.jpg
https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v331/serenaur/IMG_2448_zps2359c874.jpg
I don't know why my bike looks so clean, it's actually quite grimey at the moment
We couldn't leave the MZ out so I jumped onto the back of the BMW and had to do an almost-splits to get my legs around the rack! It was a bit uncomfortable but Basti is a fearless ex-regional motocross champion so he wasn't afraid to ride mere inches away from my fisheye lens and the photos came out great.
https://img.photobucket.com/albums/v331/serenaur/IMG_2514_zpsc95a2c08.jpg
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With the photo success in our pockets and my bike running like crap we decided to call it a day and headed over to a local traditional German restaurant to get something to eat...
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Basti and Denny went on their way and I headed over to my mates house to plan an MX video project that we will be working on in the next few weeks. It was a great day apart from my bike developing the (suspected) fuelling problem and I'm looking forward to getting it modded, officially imported and back on the road for some more exploring!
I was glad to be following the guys through some of the bigger junctions as I definitely would have gotten a bit confused and I picked up a few useful German traffic law tips whilst out and about. The guys also knew an awful lot about the places we visited so getting a local insight into these places was great (BCF Berlin Bike Tours coming summer 2015 ) ____________________ Now: '00 Kawasaki ZRX1100R - Past: '84 Yamaha DT125, '89 Kawasaki KLR600, '97 Yamaha XJ600N
<My Bikepics Page> <My Yootoobes> <My Websites> <My Photos>
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Tiff |
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Tiff Nitrous Nuisance
Joined: 09 Aug 2006 Karma :
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Posted: 23:52 - 22 Apr 2014 Post subject: |
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Berlin is an awesome city- I'd move there in a heartbeat. Only the worry of finding work and the German's love of paperwork put me off. How did you end up living there? Genuinely interested.
Riding through Berlin in the wee sma hours is an experience I'll never forget...
I was sitting here having a smoke, contemplating the division between East and West, the struggle of the cold war and trying to visualise the same scene pre 1989, when a Corsa flew by, with some drum and bass blaring out, and a bare arse hanging out the window. This just kinda summed the place up!
https://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y73/tiffx19/BMW%20R1100RS/DSC00021-1.jpg
https://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y73/tiffx19/BMW%20R1100RS/DSC00018-1.jpg ____________________ 1996 Kawasaki GPZ1100s,1996 VFR750,1980 BMW R80,1982 Kwak Z250B,1992 ZZR1100C,1996 BMW K1100LT,1994 Kwak ZZR600E,1993 BMW R1100RS,1992 ZZR 600D,1988 BMW K100LT,1998 Aprilia Pegaso 650,1994 Suzuki RF900,1991 Yamaha XJ600, 1988 Honda Dominator,1992 Kwak KMX125,1987 Yamaha RD50MX,1984 Honda MBX50.1984 Honda Superdream 125 |
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KLR600 |
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KLR600 World Chat Champion
Joined: 15 Mar 2005 Karma :
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Aff |
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Aff World Chat Champion
Joined: 05 May 2011 Karma :
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instigator |
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instigator Super Spammer
Joined: 19 Oct 2004 Karma :
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Deano_44 |
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Deano_44 Scooby Slapper
Joined: 24 Mar 2008 Karma :
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Posted: 15:03 - 23 Apr 2014 Post subject: |
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Went to Berlin for new year, loved it there. Unforunately we took a plane though.
Great shots! |
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KLR600 |
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KLR600 World Chat Champion
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Posted: 17:35 - 23 Apr 2014 Post subject: |
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stinkwheel |
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stinkwheel Bovine Proctologist
Joined: 12 Jul 2004 Karma :
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Sabs |
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Sabs Scooby Slapper
Joined: 12 Nov 2013 Karma :
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Posted: 18:48 - 23 Apr 2014 Post subject: |
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Great photos ____________________ My Photos
Theory in the bag, Mod 1 passed 28/3/2014, Mod 2 passed 9/4/2014 - Let loose
Kawaski ER6-f |
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KLR600 |
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KLR600 World Chat Champion
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stinkwheel |
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stinkwheel Bovine Proctologist
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KLR600 |
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KLR600 World Chat Champion
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instigator |
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instigator Super Spammer
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KLR600 |
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KLR600 World Chat Champion
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Old Thread Alert!
The last post was made 9 years, 341 days ago. Instead of replying here, would creating a new thread be more useful? |
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