It’s not often you have the run of a whole airport – free to do whatever you chose whether you want to run, cycle, roller-blade or wind-surf your way down the runway. Berliners have been taking advantage of the closure (and subsequent reopening) of Tempelhof Airport since its reincarnation as a public park last year.

The vast expanse of grass and runways were transformed into a vast expanse of… well, grass and runways, providing a haven for city dwellers desperate to shake off their feathers for some frische Luft and a sense of the great outdoors provided by over 300 hectares of nothingness.

The city plans to landscape and replant Tempelhofer Park to make it a proper park by the time it hosts the International Garden Show in 2017, and for now the only alterations have been to designate a barbeque site and some dog-running areas. (Surely the hot dogs are just a coincidence?)

Tempelhof had a crucial role to play in the Berlin Airlift of 1948 and in the Cold War, but whatever about its past or future, it seems Berliners are quite happy to leave it just the way it is – a huge flat field of grass and concrete in the shadow of the famous airport terminal built by the Nazis and once the largest in the world. Unfortunately, while the runways and grounds are open to the public, the terminal remains closed. Everything in reverse. How typically Berlin.

Details about this spot (Show on map)
Tempelhofer Park | Relaxing | Free
Oderstraße 52 | Schöneberg
Apr 06:00 – 20:30, May 06:00 – 21:30, June & July 06:00 – 22:30, August 06:00 – 21:30