Berlin/Reinickendorf and Spandau

The northwest of Berlin consists of the boroughs of Spandau and Reinickendorf was urbanized in the 19th century. Before that, it largely consisted of small towns. In the early 20th century, it was the working-class area with heavy industry where Siemens was founded; indeed, part of Reinickendorf is called Siemensstadt. The area is more residential today, though big industrial complexes remain.

Understand
Spandau is the westernmost borough (Bezirk) of the German capital city of Berlin. It is a green area near the Spree and Havel rivers. Once a town in its own right, Spandau is one of the oldest areas in the Berlin region and retains much of its unique character, having been spared the worst of the Allied bombing in the Second World War that so devastated the rest of the city. The center of the district is formed by a dense network of medieval streets and a market square, retaining a large number of timber-framed buildings. Spandau was the site of the military prison in which Hitler's deputy Rudolf Hess was imprisoned after the 1946 Nuremberg trials until his death in 1987. The prison was then demolished. Despite being part of Berlin, neither Berliners nor Spandauers usually consider that fact to apply in popular thought. If for example, you ask a taxi driver to take you to the "city center", they will most likely take you to the center of Spandau, not necessarily Mitte or the old heart of West Berlin. It's as much in the boondocks as some Berliners ever venture, and even those who consider Potsdam in BVG zone C to be at the edge of civilization might consider Spandau basically another planet.

Reinickendorf is a borough in the northwest of Berlin. It consists of the localities Tegel, Reinickendorf, Märkisches Viertel (1970s-era apartment blocks area) and some small village-like areas. Reinickendorf loves to use fox symbolism as "Reinicke" is a poetic term for fox (the standard term is "Fuchs") which is used in fables. The coat of arms thus shows a fox, and Berlin's most successful handball team, Füchse Berlin, is from here though they now play their home games in Max Schmeling Halle in the former east.

In general, it is a very green district with much water, and the neighborhoods have a typical small town cityscape. There are some minor sights interesting for tourists (especially architecture in Tegel). Within the borough of Reinickendorf, Märkisches Viertel (sometimes derisively called "merkwüdiges Viertel" - peculiar quarter) is one of the most notable West Berlin new constructions, dating to the 1960s when housing was scarce. When the housing units were constructed, a subway connection was promised, but it took until the 1980s to extend U8 towards the area (by then in questionable parallelity to the S-Bahn) - and Berlin ran out of money just about one or two stops before actually reaching the neighborhood, causing considerable frustration among residents. The extension of U8 to the center of Märkisches Viertel is one of the most talked about U-Bahn extensions whenever proposals to extend the network are debated, and the Bezirk Reinickendorf is among those clamoring the loudest.

While both areas might feel almost "rural" in parts to Berliners, Spandau alone would be the largest city in Brandenburg were it not part of Berlin, so the "ruralness" of this district is a very relative term.

Get in
Spandau is the terminal station for a couple of public transport lines (especially the backbone line ). Some long distance and all regional trains stop at Spandau.

By public transport
The main backbone for the western parts is the U-Bahn line, Berlin's longest, with the major stations  and  The S-Bahn lines  and  end/start here as well.

The BVG (the public transport company) runs a public ferry between Kladow and Wannsee which is primarily designed for commuters.

The main U-Bahn routes for Reinickendorf are for the more easterly parts and  for the more westerly parts.

Get around
Both Spandau and Reinickendorf cover a pretty large area and as they are rather outlying, the U-Bahn is only of limited use. The S-Bahn meanwhile has stops too far apart to be useful for local transport in most cases. Unfortunately, there is not yet any tram in the area, the West Berlin tram having been shut down in the 1960s. For the most part, you'll thus have to rely on buses for your public transit needs. As elsewhere in Berlin a leading "M" in the line-number means "Metrobus" and they are more frequent, and also run at night but they can be crowded during peak times. Buses with a leading "X" in the line number meanwhile are express buses that skip some stops and will hopefully arrive a bit faster than the "regular" bus. An infamous phenomenon on busier Berlin bus routes is "bunching" when despite nominal five minute headway no bus comes for ten or even fifteen minutes as the first bus gets delayed by boarding and alighting passengers and the following buses catch up. This will lead to the strange experience of three buses arriving all at once the last notably emptier than the first one. The red-red-green government elected 2016 would love to replace the busiest bus lines with tram lines which don't show this problem but funds and planning capacity are limited and it can take years from the first idea to build a line to trams running.

Do

 * Swimming, watersports and boat trips on one of the biggest Berlin lakes, the Tegeler See.