Critical Mass Berlin

It's nearly two years now,

since we joined a Critical Mass.

This time we made it to Berlin, 

to take part in one of the biggest events of this kind in Germany.

We started at noon, with the velocar strapped down to the bed of our transporter.

Due to the very hot weather,

we interrupted our journey to Berlin for a few hours

 to take a swim with our kids in one of the countless lakes around Berlin.

At 5 p.m. we finally arrived in the central city, just south of the Tempelhof airfield,

which we also wanted to discover.

It is closed for air traffic since a few years and opened to the public instead,

so it's now the biggest recreational park in Berlin.

On the runways we saw lots of people on skateboards with surf sails on it, 

some were pulled by kites.

The greenfields in between were filled with many crowds, who enjoyd grilling, playing music 

or simply relaxing in the evening sun.

At the east end of the former airfield a group of enthusiastic people has build up a public vegetable garden, open to all who are also interested in planting their own food.

We rode for an hour up and down the runway with the velocar 

and took some photos.

 Finally we leaved the park 

to make the last three kilometers to Mariannenplatz in Berlin-Kreuzberg,

the meeting point of the Critical Mass.

Starting time was at 8 p.m.,

we arrived nearly an hour earlier.

Just a few people were waiting at this time around the place,

so we wondered, how this can be such a big event.

But after 45 minutes the picture has drastically changed

There wasn't a real starting sign,

after some time the mass of riders began to move slowly into one direction.

And I have to say again, VERY slowly.

The street was so jam-full of bicycles,

the first minutes we were barely able to cover 100 meters or so.

This was the first bicycle-caused traffic jam of my life !

Then, the mass stretched, the rows cleared somehow and 

off we went.

We saw lots of stylish fixies, all sorts of soundbikes, trailers, tandems

 and self built cruisers.

At 10:30 p.m. we leaved the crowd,

taking care of our two little girls on the back seat.

I'm still editing some video stuff,

hoping to include it here soon.

Cheers