Lütjenburg is a small, tidy market town on the Baltic side of Schleswig-Holstein, a few kilometres from the sea in a rolling country of fields, lakes and low hills. People here call the region Holstein Switzerland, a joke that is half serious, because by the flat standards of northern Germany the landscape counts as dramatic, with hills of a hundred metres or so and lakes in the hollows. About five and a half thousand people live in the town, and it has the feel of a place that has been a local centre for a long time.
The market square, with its church and its stepped gables, is the heart of town, and on market days it fills with stalls selling vegetables, fish, flowers and cheese. A hill above the town, the Hohe Lütjenburg, offers a view over the roofs and the bay, and a short drive takes you to the beaches at Hohwacht, where the Baltic is shallow, grey-blue and quiet. The coast here is gentle, with dunes, reed beds and long beaches, and in summer it fills with holidaymakers from Hamburg and Kiel.
The surrounding country is manor-house land, with big estates, brick farm buildings and long avenues of beech and lime trees, a legacy of the Danish and German nobility who owned most of the land until the twentieth century. Several of these estates, with their moats and parks, can be seen from the road.
The riding is easy and relaxed. Narrow lanes follow ridges and valleys, bend through villages and cross low rises, with wide views over the fields, and traffic is light outside the summer weekends. The wind from the sea is the main hazard, and on exposed stretches, it can push a bike around. Fuel is available in town, along with bakeries, cafes and fish shops, where you can get a smoked fish roll, a local favourite. At about thirty-five metres above sea level, the town is not high, but the surroundings roll gently. Spring and early summer are lovely, with yellow rapeseed fields, and autumn brings misty mornings and golden light.