It has about twenty-four thousand inhabitants, fuel stations, supermarkets and cafes, and the main road passes right through, so it works well as a fuel stop on the journey between the two great Hanseatic cities. The motorway runs a few kilometres west, but the old road is more interesting.
The town grew rich on salt. Brine springs rise here, and the salt works provided a living for centuries, in competition with nearby Lüneburg and Lübeck. The town added the title Bad, meaning spa, to its name when it became a brine bath, and visitors came to take the waters in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The salt works have gone, but a pleasant spa park and a museum recall the trade, and the Trave runs through the town in a pretty, tree-lined course.
For a rider, the road to Bad Oldesloe from Hamburg runs through gently rolling farmland, with sections of avenue lined with old trees, and the surface is generally good. The speed limit changes frequently, and speed cameras are common near the town, so keep a watch. It is a convenient stage on a day that heads towards the Baltic coast or the lakes of Holstein, and the surrounding countryside is pretty in a quiet way: hedgerows, small woods, and meadows full of cattle.
The Trave is a small, winding river that begins in the Holstein hills and flows through Bad Oldesloe and Lübeck to the Baltic at Travemünde. Along the way, it passes through reed beds and wet meadows that are rich in birds, and canoeists enjoy the quieter stretches. Rümpel, a village three and a half kilometres away, is a small place with a few houses and a church. Fill up here and have a coffee before setting off.