Kiel is a city with a fjord at its heart, and the west side is where you most feel the practical, working character of the place. The Kiel Fjord cuts deep inland, giving the city a sheltered harbour, and the Kiel Canal begins at its western edge, so the neighbourhoods here are tied up with ships, locks and shipyards. This was the home of the German Imperial Navy in the nineteenth century, and the sailors' revolt in 1918 that helped end the First World War started here. The city was bombed almost flat in the Second World War, which is why so much of the centre is plain postwar architecture rather than old brick.
Today Kiel is a university city of about two hundred and thirty thousand people with a lively waterfront, and every June the sailing event called Kieler Woche fills the harbour with boats and the streets with music and food stalls. If you leave to the west you pass through Kronshagen and Mönkeberg, suburbs that are mostly residential, and the first part of the ride is urban, with traffic lights, cyclists and commuter flows. Allow a bit of time for the first few kilometres and do not expect much until you clear the ring road.
Once outside the city the landscape opens into farmland and woods, with roads that pick up gentle curves and small climbs, and the Baltic sea air makes the whole place feel fresh. The surface is generally fine. The wind can come in sharply off the water, so layers are useful. A short walk along the fjord before you set off is a pleasure on a clear morning, with ferries and sailboats crossing the water and the smell of salt and diesel rising off the quay. The Kiel Canal crossings, by bridge or small ferry, add a bit of variety to the ride.
Fuel is everywhere in the city, with stations on every main road, so fill up and eat a proper breakfast before you leave. Fish rolls are the local fast food, and a Fischbrötchen with a coffee on the waterfront is a good way to start. Plan to leave early on weekends in summer, when the city fills with visitors and the roads toward the coast can be slow. The reward comes after the first half hour: lakes, hedgerows, small villages with brick churches, and a big sky that belongs entirely to the north.