A trip to New Venice. Doesn’t sound so bad. After a long time of not traveling this certainly sparks the imagination. But for today no gondolas, pasta or pigeons on St. Marc’s square. Instead I took an S-bahn to the outskirts of Berlin, met up with some colleagues and started exploring the area.
From Rahnsdorf S-bahn station we walked through the forest to the edge of the Müggel lake to take a peak at the ducks with their ducklings. We continued and followed a road that led us to the old fishermen’s town of Rahnsdorf. At the center of town stood a lovely church. A small alley led to the waterside where a ferry took cyclists back and forth over the lake. It was a warm but cloudy day and loads of people were out on their bikes. We were nearing New Venice.
New Venice was completely in theme, with street names like Rialtoring. It looked just like any spacious neighborhood, but occasionally you’d walk over a bridge and see beautiful canals. Kayakers and boats were out on the water, exploring the area and enjoying the breeze. It was much greener than Venice, but a bit less charming. I think this area would be best explored from the water, so you can paddle past all the backyards that border the canals. The charming effect was a little lost walking on the streets. For the most part you could have been in any Eastern German town.
Our original hike was only halfway done when we saw a café with terrace as we reached the main street. We sat down for a drink and after much debate decided to also have lunch here. The food being brought to the other tables simply looked to appealing. After a huge meal of traditional German fare none of us really felt like walking a lot anymore. With full bellies, the sun and the alcohol we were starting to feel tired.
From here we followed the road for a while until we reached the bus stop close to where we’d started. We were all quiet on the way back to Berlin. In this New Venice we saw motor boats, schnitzel and Rahnsdorf instead of gondolas, pasta and St Marc’s square, but as my colleague said: “I think this was a successful hike”. I’m not sure we can truly call it a hike, but it was definitely a successful day!
Looks so nice! I am always searching for nice places to go on the weekend from Berlin, would definitely check new venice ! 🙂