Kiel is a city that faces the water in every direction. It sits at the head of the Kiel Fjord, a long inlet of the Baltic, and at the eastern end of the Kiel Canal, which cuts across the base of the Jutland peninsula to the North Sea and is the busiest artificial waterway in the world by ship traffic. Cargo ships, tankers and ferries pass in a line, and from the high bridges you can watch giant vessels slide past apparently at roof level. The canal was opened in 1895, and for its size and importance it deserves more visitors than it gets.
The sea shaped the city's history. Kiel was a German naval base for a century, and the sailors' mutiny of 1918 here sparked the revolution that ended the German Empire. In the Second World War it was bombed so heavily that most of the old centre vanished, so the modern city is mostly postwar, with a sensible but plain look. What you will enjoy is the waterfront, with its ferries to Norway and Sweden, the promenade, the harbour with old sailing ships, and the beaches of the fjord, which are used for swimming from May to September.
Sailing is the big thing. Every June, Kiel Week turns the whole fjord into a festival of regattas, with thousands of boats, music stages and street food, the largest sailing event in the world, and the city hosted the Olympic sailing competitions in 1936 and 1972. At Laboe, across the fjord, a tall brick tower serves as a naval memorial, and the old submarine U-995 sits on the beach as a museum. The view from the tower over the water is wide and good.
The riding is flat to gently rolling, with roads around the fjord and into the farmland of Schleswig-Holstein, where fields of rapeseed shine yellow in May and roadside avenues of old beech create tunnels of green. Wind off the Baltic is often strong, and sudden showers come in from the sea. Fuel stations are plentiful, and the city has about two hundred and thirty thousand people. Fish is the thing to eat, with a Fischbrötchen from a harbour stall or a plate of fried herring. Spring and early autumn are best, and Kiel Week is wonderful but crowded, with hotels full for weeks.