Nice ride. Yes it is a ride, because you can take the tram without a ticket but you can't in the U-bahn, it's too risky. So I always take my bike to go from my flat to my favourite clothes shop. It is indeed a nice (and long) ride.

The first part, going downhill until Frankfurter Tor, is quite speedy. Once there, always a look on the right to get a glimpse of the far TV tower in the middle of these two copper-green bourgeois-communist spires. Warschauer Strasse is quite boring and the traffic light rhythm is fucked-up. I then reach the first bridge: it is a minute of pure industry. This wide bridge goes over Berlin's busiest S-bahn tracks and bears tram tracks itself, directly on the right stands the enormous O2 stadium still construction and covered in cranes, and further, the TV tower again. On the left, two unlimited lines of XIXth century industrial buildings run along the S-bahn tracks. The second bridge, going over the river, dotted with successive little neo-gothic brick turrets and with old trees at its end, is quite the picturesque opposite. Then an enjoyably bumpy cycle lane leads to Kottbusser Tor through an increasingly trendy area, under the dark green shadow of the same trees that were at the end of the bridge. Each time you ride past one of these trees, there's a little bump on the brick cycle lane, deformed by the roots. For some obscure reason, some choose to ride right over the bumps, while others (including me) wisely avoid them with a slight curve. The distracting observation of the bump-lovers usually makes the journey a lot shorter and I reach Kottbusser Tor surprisingly quickly. Kottbusser Tor, the Turkish roundabout. Some people are still a bit afraid of it; it is, indeed, not very welcoming, but my experience taught me there was nothing to fear but the traffic. The rest of the journey is a bit motorway-like which is not too bad since it allows me to bike fast and bring my little red 1970' folding Peugeot to its limit. Finally I just have a short ride on the pavement among pedestrians who, I think, show far too much respect for cyclists who ride on the pavement.