Walking to Work and a Minor Mystery

Posted by James

One of the best things about living in the city is that I can walk to work. Our apartment is about a 30 minute walk from the TU. Today, I took some pictures of interesting sights on the way there, and a couple on the way home, so I thought I would do a short guided tour of my route. In California, I drive 10 minutes on Route 237, a freeway, and the experience of walking could not be more different.

Above you can see one of the lovely ladies that adorn the wall at the base of the staircase leading up to our apartment. She's clearly from the early part of the 20th century, or maybe even from the 19th. Our apartment is in a building that's protected under Berlin's historic preservation ordinance, which is why she's there, since they sure didn't put that kind of sculpture on the entryway of apartments built in the '60's and '70's.

Out the door and onto Mommsenstrasse, I turn left. On the corner of Mommsenstrasse and Wilmersdorferstrasse, we see this purple pipe crossing over the street:

What could it be? Probably a district heating line. Like power, water and gas, Berlin used to have heating lines that were run by a utility and delivered hot water to buildings for heating in winter. That was when a hot water boiler was the size of a room and powered by coal. This one has been painted purple, but it's now not functional, as you can see by walking further up Wilmersdorferstrasse:

It's been disconnected and now serves as a mount for the solar panel (behind the fitting on the end) powering the pay parking ticket dispenser below it (not shown). Perhaps a comment on the changing energy technology between the early part of the 20th century and the early part of the 21st.

Across the street is Bio Company a grocery store like Whole Foods in the US:

They have a great selection of fruits, veggies, cheeses and also various other food products, in addition to cleaning supplies, soap, and cosmetics. Not nearly as big as the Whole Foods selection, but all certified organic according to the EU regulation, and the prices are not much different than at the regular grocery store. I do most of my grocery shopping there.

Ahead of us on Wilmersdorferstrasse, just this side of the beginning of the pedestrian mall, is the S Bahn overpass leading into the Charlottenburg commuter rail station on the left:

The overpass is the night home of a couple homeless guys. Sometimes I pass them on my way to work if they happen to be sleeping on my side of the street, but I never see them when I come home at night.

Continuing on down Wilmersdorferstrasse, I come to the Wilmersdorferstrasse U Bahn (metro) station:

As with all European cities, Berlin has a well-integrated public transit system with metro and commuter rail having stations that are right next to each other.

This time of day (7:30-8:00 in the morning) the Wilmersdorferstrasse pedestrian mall is deserted:

Usually, I end up dodging street cleaning machines and trucks driving on the mall to make deliveries to the stores in preparation for the day. Most stores open at 8 or even later, including Starbucks unfortunately. In the US, they open at 6. So if I want to bag a venti coffee on the way to work, I need to start out my walk at 7:50 at the earliest.

At the corner of Schillerstrasse and Wilmersdorferstrasse, I turn right onto Schillerstrasse:

Many of the streets in this part of Berlin are named after famous German poets (Schiller for example) or philosophers (Kantstrasse) or mathematicians (Leibnizstrasse). Further down Schillerstrasse, you can see the crossing over Leibnizstrasse:

There are no cars here now, but in the afternoon, this intersection is packed with people driving home from work in both directions. It has no pedestrian crossing zebra stripes, so drivers are not obliged to stop for pedestrians or bicyclists, and they don't. If you are on a bicycle, you can zip across just slightly ahead of an oncoming car, but as a pedestrian, you are too slow. Fortunately, there are two lights a couple blocks apart on either side of the crossing, and sometimes the traffic backs up and stops, so you can cross between the cars .

But wait a minute, what's that thing up there on the streetsign for Leibnizstrasse:

It looks like a little man with his arms outstretched. I wonder what that could be? Hmm.

Anyway, looking across the street is a playground:

Walking to work in the morning, I often see moms and dads with kids on bicycles or with a baby in a small trailer on their way to school and work, and coming home, there's often kids playing on the sidewalks along Schillerstrasse.  Today, I meet groups of teenagers coming in the opposite direction carrying books, on the way to school. One building along Schillerstrasse looks like it's a school too, with a playground in front, and at the end of Schillerstrasse is the Schiller Gymnasium (high school).

We continue down Schillerstrasse and pass by the back entrance to the state opera (the state in this case being Berlin, which is a state in its own right, like Hamburg):

The opera is located in the Schiller Theater.

Down a bit further and around the corner, we come to Ernst-Reuter Platz, a huge roundabout with busy roads leading in all directions:

We can see some bicyclists queued up to cross the street as in my previous post on bicycles. The road west out of Ernst Reuter Platz eventually comes to the freeway leading to the airport, the road east goes through the Brandenburg Gate and into the center of the city, a third road, Marchstrasse, leads past the building where I work and to the Landwehr Canal, then there are yet a couple more. I need to cross three busy streets to reach Marchstrasse 23 where my office is located.


On the west side of Ernst-Reuter Platz, we see the TU advertised on the side of a huge building, with the Deutsche Telekom (T-Mobile in the US) pink T and dots logo on the top:

This building once housed the Telekom Innovation Lab but now I think most of the people have moved downtown to Winterstrasse.

Crossing Marchstrasse and continuing on, we come to my building. An elevator up to the fourth floor and we are at my office:

The route home is basically the same, except there are more people crossing the streets at Ernst-Reuter Platz because it's around 4:30. Here's the crossing at Hardenbergerstrasse, the last one I cross before Schillerstrasse, and the light is green:

The pedestrian crossing lights in Berlin have very evocative artistic characteristics. Not only is the light for "go" green, but it also has a little man, complete with a fedora, striding confidently across the street, so you know what to do. Not just boring old "Walk" and "Don't Walk" like in the US.

Here's the crossing at Marchstrasse, the first one I cross on my way back home. I'm not so lucky and I have to wait:

The pedestrian light for "don't cross" has a man with arms outstretched...but wait a minute! This guy looks like the little man I saw at Leibnizstrasse this morning! I guess somebody put him up there to remind the kids not to simply run into the intersection but rather to stop and check traffic first. A typical Berlin solution to a problem: creative, a bit whimsical, and fun.
 
Usually, the Wilmersdorferstrasse pedestrian mall is considerably more lively on the way home. The other day, I saw a truck with a gigantic pig on top advocating for a vegan diet. People were giving out leaflets. There's also a Tibetan monk who sits near the Karstadt department store, plays a small drum and sings. Well, at least he's dressed like one and has the gear, who knows if he's really a Tibetan monk? Tonight, on my way home, I saw this guy looking like he was suspended in the air, just holding onto a staff:

He's probably got a platform fastened to the staff that he sits on, but it looks kind of cool anyway.


Something new and interesting always pops up on the walk, it changes every day, and I always look forward to it. Even if I get a bicycle, I think I'll probably still walk, because a walking pace keeps you more in touch with your environment and gives you more time to notice things. Plus you can always stop and check out something interesting, or, on a whim, stop and pick up a coffee without having to lock up your bike or car. It's a more leisurely pace and I come to work refreshed from the exercise.

I'm tempted to say walking is somehow "better" than driving or biking, but in reality, it's just different. I get more exercise walking than driving so I don't feel the need to go to the gym and run on the treadmill for a half hour every night as I do when I drive, but there are equally interesting things to see when driving as the seasons change. Since I have an electric car powered by solar PV, driving isn't much of an environmental burden. I'm sure I'd feel differently about walking in the winter, when the sun doesn't come up until 8:30 and its cold and snowy, and even in the spring, summer, and fall when its pouring rain. Then I'd probably be grumpy by the time I get to work, and wish I had my electric Leaf and a 10 minute commute on the freeway.