Panke

The Panke is a 29-kilometre stream rising on the Barnim plateau near Bernau and joining the Spree inside Berlin, making it the city's third-longest river after Spree and Havel. For most of the industrial age it served as an open sewer for tanneries and breweries, and 19th-century Berliners nicknamed it the Stinke-Panke, the stinking Panke. Stretches through Pankow and Wedding have since been renaturalised and lined with footpaths and small parks. Following the Pankeweg takes you past Schoenholzer Heide, Schloss Schoenhausen and the backyards of Wedding, a quiet slice of Berlin away from the boulevards. Cyclists use the route as a calm shortcut from the northern outskirts into the centre.