The weather was foul and the forecast said -8 to -10 Celcius with snow and strong winds. However, I was determined to keep my appointment with Maxie – my regular “walking bubble person”. After all – how often do we get this kind of weather nowadays? We managed about ten km.

This was the route on Komoot: https://www.komoot.com/tour/314134743

Drachenbrunnen on Oranienplatz :

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Engelbecken-Hof, Leuschnerdamm 13, a house mentioned in the book Verborgenes Berlin, built in 1904 by the Swedish stonemason company Kessel & Röhl, with a characteristic facade and a lift in Jugendstil:

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Also mentioned in “Verborgenes Berlin” is the building from the time of the industrial revolution on the corner of Adalbertstraße and Waldemarstraße with the characteristic reliefs. On the other corner, there are two large murals.

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Feuerwehrbrunnen, Mariannenplatz:

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Through Görlitzer Park:

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To Schlesischer Busch and the GDR Watchtower:

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And back along Landwehrkanal, slightly weatherbeaten:

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To the closest places of interest according to these books:

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The Diaspora Garden – I did not actually go in (I think they are closed to visitors), but I have seen the garden before, inside the Michael S. Blumenthal Academy, a more recent addition to the Jewish Museum opposite, on the other side of Lindenstraße. Read about it here.

Here a couple of photos from the outside of the academy (I love the sloth and wonder how long it has been there without me noticing it):

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Around Theodor-Wolf-Park between the southern end of Friedrichstraße and Wilhelmstraße there are many large murals. According to the book “Die Schönsten Berliner Stadtspaziergänge” (from 2010), this is the largest mural in Berlin, from 1996 by Christian “Lake” Wahle. The book is from 2010, and I am quite sure it is no longer the largest.

Here two of the several other murals in the area:

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Again, I have not actually seen the next “attraction”, although it is almost a neighbour, and also did not enter the building today: the spiral staircase in the house of IG-Metall – Haus des Deutschen Metallarbeiterverbandes. (A website worth exploring a bit, and now that I have been reading about it, I will certainly look at that building with new eyes every time I pass it). The house was designed by the architect Erich Mendelsohn (another revelation worth exploring, with an amazing life story), and the staircase is, according the the book Verborgenes Berlin, one of his lesser-known masterpieces. Here is, for what it is worth, what I was able to come up with today, taken from outside their glass entrance door:

Further along Alte Jakobstraße, for no particular reason:

Ritterhof, Ritterstraße 11, according to the book “Verborgenes Berlin” one of the few buildings in this street that survived WWII:

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From neighbouring buildings, and the building site next door to Ritterhof:

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And this:

Read more here (the building now houses Betahaus and no longer the TAZ).

And finally, yet another photo of the buildng I can see from my bedroom windows: