With it's broad streets and grand Allées, diversity of architecture, beautiful rivers, lakes, bridges, parks and gardens, and infinite layers of history and culture, Berlin is close to the top of the list of great cites for immersing yourself in culture and history, anywhere in the world.

On the way southeast out of Berlin, you should take a ride along Mühlenstraße and visit the East Side Gallery. Famous for many reasons, the East Side Gallery is one of the largest open-air art exhibitions in the world, as well as the one that has existed for the longest time. It features murals by artists from all over the world, painted in 1990, just after East suddenly became West, and the overpowering desire for freedom dissolved what was known as the "Anti-Fascist Protection Rampart" (In German: Antifaschistischer Schutzwall).

As part of an Industrial Heritage tour of Europe, I arrived at Zeche Zollverein in Essen at about 3pm, after a great ride through the backroads of northern Germany. I spent 6 hours that evening floating around the eerie, deserted landscape of Zollverein, a huge and widely spread mining complex.

Every year, we take the short ride from Denmark to the Hanseatic town of Lübeck in northern Germany, to check out the annual Hanse-Weekend motorbike event. After a great start in 2009, and over 200,000 visitors and 15,000 motorbikers in 2010, they expected around 25,000 motorbikes this year, from all over northern Europe and Scandinavia.

With 120 rooms spread over 5 floors, the bunker holds approximately 3,000m² of exhibition space, and temporary exhibitions are planned in close cooperation with with artists such as Olafur Eliasson, Elmgreen and Dragset, Robert Kusmirowski, Sarah Lucas, and Tobias Rehberger. A 500m² penthouse extension at roof level provides living space for the art collector and his family.