Berlin’s UBahn line 2 from Vinetastraße station, through Schönhauser Allee to Senefelderplatz is a must-not-miss enjoyment for those who travel between Pankow and Prenzlauer Berg for the first time. Built in the beginning of the twentieth century by Alfred Grenander and Johannes Bousset, the elevated railway was originally known as “Magistratsschirm” – “the “Magistrate’s Umbrella”, I would translate. This yesterday’s futuristic bridge remains a beautiful historical monument today – and is also a practical one: Schönhauser Allee’s and Eberswalder Straße’s U-Bahn stations just look majestic – and smell of kebabs. From the latter, people find themselves in a sea of bars and restaurants, aka “Ecke (Corner) Schönhauser” by the locals, but it was also there where the border between East and West Berlin stood.
If one happens to be traveling on good timing, and if Berlin is in a good temper, a beautiful sunset and the historical cinema Colosseum can be seen to the left (if traveling from the south) or to the right, if from the north. On the other side, Kulturbrauerei is also very visible at the entrance from or exit into the tunnel: afterall, UBahn is an underground metro. The “Bremer Höfe” residencies, originally built in the mid-nineteenth century, are to be seen too, along with other century-old houses, also recommended by the former East German government as “monuments of art.”
