Through a quarry to the StienitzseePretty Packed

Combining history and nature in Rüdersdorf near Berlin

On my walk on the 66 Seen Weg I’d passed through Rüdersdorf. On the way I saw an interesting looking museum: Museumspark Rüdersdorf. I didn’t have the time or energy to visit then, but when I saw a meetup that would visit the park posted on the internet, I grabbed my chance and signed up. As part of this meetup we first visited the museum and then hiked along the big Stienitzsee towards the S-bahn station in Strausberg.

This was my first ever meetup and I hope it will be the first of many. All summer I’ve been hiking alone, but now the main Corona scare is over there are groups going out into the nature again. Beforehand I’d contacted some of the group and found a travel buddy so I could use the public transport for free. We met up at Ostkreuz and took the train together to Friedrichshagen. At the tram stop we were going to meet the other people.

11 of us ended up taking the tram to Rüdersdorf. First we entered the museum park Rüdersdorf and stared at the confusing map. We’d been given a mix of English and German maps. There wasn’t much information. Just some numbers and short descriptions of the buildings. All I could make out was that there were many ovens. Some of terms didn’t make sense to us in English or in German.

The Museum park is on the side of an active limestone quarry. It’s pretty big and you can stroll along the grounds and visit some of the historic buildings. On one side you have a gorgeous view over the active quarry. It is huge! For a few hundred years this quarry has been supplying limestone to places around Europe and some of Berlin’s iconic buildings are made out of limestone from Rüdersdorf, for example the Olympic stadium, the Brandenburg Gate and Sanssouci palace in Potsdam.

Most of the buildings had something to do with ovens. The ovens, also called kilns, were used to heat the limestone to very high temperatures. This creates a reaction that forms something called quicklime. With this concrete blocks or cement can be produced.

The most impressive sight were the “Schachtofens” with their impressive chimneys. You can walk over a bridge in between the chimneys. Nearby lie more abandoned buildings that used to belong to a chemical factory. On a rounded roof we saw a bunch of kids walking around. The terrain was closed off, but we saw some more kids sneaking in through a hole in the fence from the museum park. It is now also a popular filming location.

We decided to stick to the official terrain and slowly make our way out of the park. We found a nice, quiet picnic spot and then took a tiny trail to the edge of the park. A paper on the ground notified us we were leaving the terrain of the museum park. There was no fence, no gate, we just made our way through the bushes towards a railway bridge with a sidewalk. It was a bit adventurous, but we made it. Turns out you can enter here and get into the park for free easily.

We then basically followed a trail along the Stienitzsee. I didn’t realise we’d be walking pretty much a section of the 66 Seen Weg, so it wasn’t new for me. But it was nice to be outside on a beautiful day and get to know some new people. We had a lovely break near the water, although it was way too cold for a swim. Then we continued through a forest until we arrived in Strausberg.

We found the Kaffeepause café and were super stoked since we’d been talking about coffee and cake for about 3 hours. But the café turned out to have “Schnee Eis”, a kind of shaved ice cream. I ordered one since I had never heard of this. It turns out to be quite unique, even in Berlin. A mountain of fluffy ice cream arrived. It was super delicious and totally unexpected. It was definitely a successful day and what a way to end it!