Slow Sweet Life in Petershagen/Eggersdorf

This long beautiful summer that ended up suddenly into cold late autumn brought me in many beautiful, relatively unknown places in Germany. Curious to discover this country off the beaten path, I answered the challenge and spent interesting times exploring places, meeting people and trying to understand geographies and architecture. After Strausberg and Erkner, Petershagen Nord - to not be confused with the place with the same name from Nordrhein-Westfalen - was our next Sunday trip destination. Easy to reach from Berlin with the ABC ticket with the S5 from the Zoo S-Bahn station, it takes almost one hour to arrive.

When you travel to any place in Germany on Sunday and you find something open, all you can do is to have a stop, grab a cake and a coffee and enjoy the capitalistic priviledge. Near the train station, Café Noebe winked on us, offering not only a humongous strawberry bread coconut pudding, but also a slice of local life, with many people living here enjoying the sunny afternoon while taking a sip or a bit at their tables covered in plastic tableclothes.

Well fuelled, we try to stay in good shape while walking for around an hour alongside the Atlantsberger Chausée, passing rows and rows of one storey stone houses surrounded by gardens. Many are also the headquarters of small business, many in the field of house maintenance and reparations, but also hosting unusual still useful projects, such as the workshop for porcelain reparations. 

Everything around us is small size, with side streets and meows leading to narrow streets populated with small houses.

As we are fast getting tired, a new refreshment is necessary. Eiscafé Eisjunge, apparently one of the respectable institution, if only to think about the long rows in the front of the counter. The icecream sortiment is beating any serious offer in the city, with ingredients as unusual as cucumber or sweet potatoes. 

However, we have some family-oriented activities in mind: a visit at the small petting zoo - Kinderbauerhof - full with children either partying hard for the birthday of their friends or just hanging around in the grass with their parents. It is a really pleasant ambiance, and besides the chance of interacting with the animals, the children can also spend their energies in the playground. 

Although we didn't find a serious, tempting restaurant to inclue on our foodie list - spotted some Mediterranean and Greek options though - at least we've visited another small Sunday bar/coffee place where people living here usually meet: Angerscheune, open this day until 17.00 o'clock where also small local cultural events are hosted.  

Although anything special, spectacular, bubbling took place during our Sunday trip to Petershagen/Eggersdorf, leaving it was like saying too fast 'good bye' to a world where time stopped. The gracious horses taking a break outdoors were a reminder that we have to come back this autumn to admire the show of colors at the Bötzsee, and eventually use this time to be grateful to have so many options to spend a free meaningful disconnected from the busy city life.