Schönkirchen is the kind of place that rarely gets a mention in guidebooks, a commuter village of about six thousand people east of Kiel, spread along a ridge of farmland a few kilometres from the Baltic. Everything you need is here: a fuel station, a bakery, a supermarket and a few places to eat. It makes a calm start or finish for a day that avoids the busy city.
What makes it useful is its position. Kiel lies just to the west, a port city of nearly a quarter of a million people that grew up around its fjord, a long narrow arm of the Baltic reaching deep into the land. The shipyards that build submarines and warships still line the shore, and ferries to Norway and Sweden leave from the quays beside the city centre in the evening, big white ships gliding out past the sailing boats. The Kiel Canal, opened in 1895 and now the busiest artificial waterway in the world by ship numbers, begins in the north of the city at Holtenau, and you can watch freighters pass through the locks.
East of Schönkirchen, the land gives way to open fields and small villages, with the Baltic never far away. Roads run straight between hedgerows, then bend sharply around a farm or a church, so it is a landscape that rewards attention and a relaxed pace. The surface is generally good, though farm traffic leaves mud on the bends in harvest season. The wind off the sea is a constant, and the clouds move fast, so a layer is useful even in summer.
In the last week of June, Kiel hosts Kieler Woche, the biggest sailing festival in the world, when the fjord fills with thousands of boats and the city fills with music, food stalls and crowds. Accommodation is scarce then, and traffic is heavy, so book early or avoid it. In quiet times, a ride through the villages and along the coast, with a stop for fresh fish at a harbour kiosk, is a fine way to spend a day.