Biking in Berlin

It was Berlin that four years ago gave me the confidence to get back on my bike. With less than half the population owning a car, most people have a bike. Various surveys say that there are 400,000 cyclists (or around 12% of the population) on the cities cycle routes each day, and 5% of all journeys are biked (compared to 2% in London). Which means cyclists rule the road.

Unlike London, cycling in Berlin makes you feel safe and sexy. Cycle lanes, wide streets, traffic lights that turn green first for cyclists, and a look the other way attitude to cycling on pavements means that cycling in Berlin is pretty safe. This in turn makes helmet wearing rare, so that despite the rain, the occasional tramline and the wobbly effect the cobbled streets have on your arms, cycling feels pretty carefree.

There are bikes for every purpose here. Huge boxes at the front of bikes are used by post men and women to deliver letters, and by homeless guys to collect bottles (which they recycle for cash), parents take their eager kids to kindergarten or school in seat or a trailer attached to the back, and dog-owners give their pets a lift when its a bit too much, fresh-faced workers commute across town on the 1,600 km of cycle paths, and more tipsy night owls wobble over the bridge between Friedrichshain and Kreuzberg as they continue their night out. Fixies and pimped bikes are on the up, but because of those dastardly tramlines, most prefer a fatter wheel. Tourists have a choice of eight seater circular bikes, beer and bar bikes (where you drink, peddle and sight see), tandem bikes, Dutch bikes or your common all garden regular bike. Best ones are Boxi Bikes on Boxhagener Platz (28 euros for three days) or Fahrradstation on Dorotheenstraße in Mitte (really good selection, including trailers, but bit pricier).

With a couple of exceptions, everyone I've taken out on a bike has loved it, despite riding a bike I bought from a guy in the bar for 10 euros and a pack of fags, or having me riding on their rack after someone got a flat. We've either stuck to the city centre, doing the touristy sites and going out to the amazing Café am Neuen See in the Tiergarten, gone down along the canal in Kreuzberg and picked up an ice cream from Aldemir Eis in Falkensteinstraße, gone out to old town of Köpenick and the enormous Müggelsee lake (taking the train there costs 1 euro 30) or precariously balanced beers and lettuce leaves in our baskets on the way to a picnic in Treptower Park. And some have even been inspired to dust down their Pioneer Prestiges back home.