I recently took you for a walk along the East Side Gallery in Berlin and promised to take you over the nearby Oberbaumbrücke another time.

The bridge takes trains, cars and pedestrians, so let’s cross one way by train and back again on foot, and while we’re at it we’ll fit in a canal and riverside walk too.

Starting at Warschauer Straße, we’ll take the U-bahn across the bridge and continue to Kottbusser Tor station, where it’s a short walk down Kottbusser Damm to join the Landwehrkanal at Kottbusser Brücke.

There’s a lively cafe / bar here set in a former harbour master’s shack, called Ankerklause, so if you fancy a coffee or even breakfast this is a great spot to pause – there’s even a terrace overhanging the water.

You can take a boat trip or even paddle board your way along this stretch of the canal but, for today at least, we are sticking to Shanks’ Pony.

It’s a quiet, easy walk along the southern bank, the Maybachufer, but things liven up when we reach Hobrechtbrücke, as there’s a vibrant street market here on a Sunday, with clothes, bric-à-brac, food and even board games on offer.

We continue our meander as far as Thielenbrücke, where we cross and say goodbye to the canal.

Now we head north up Glogauerstrasse.  We are going to speed up here as I’m eager to get back to the Spree River and the bridge that we crossed so quickly by train.  We’ll cross the Görlitzer Park and then take Falckensteinstrasse which takes us directly to the railway line and the bridge.

This magnificent Gothic style bridge has quite a history, which I told here, yet it’s hard to imagine the traumas that have been lived out here when you look at the almost Disneyesque turrets and towers.

Having admired the architecture from the banks of the river, let’s walk across the pedestrian part of the bridge.

There are good views up and down stream from here, but unless you have a stronger nose than I, I don’t recommend pausing for too long.  All I can say is, there must be a shortage of official public conveniences in this area as each turreted alcove seems to have been used as an unofficial convenience.  Enough said, hold your nose and let’s walk quickly to the other side!

There we are, tour complete and it’s time to head back to the Warschauer Straße stations.  I’ll leave you here at the platform, but I will bring you back one more time, soon, to look at some of the street art in the area.

Copyright Debbie Smyth, 22 June 2015

Pat of Jo’s Monday Walks