Baltic Coast Scenic Road

Scenic road chapters

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Lubeck

   At the northern edge of the city, in the district around Stockelsdorf, the road leads to the Baltic coast, and the ride begins here, heading north-east through the forests and fields of Ostholstein towards Travemünde, Timmendorfer Strand and the sea.

   Read the complete Lübeck write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Lubeck is where the day begins. Next is Timmendorfer Strand.

2. 2. Timmendorfer Strand

   Lübeck Bay curves round in a long, shallow arc, and Timmendorfer Strand sits halfway along it, which is why the whole stretch from Travemünde to Neustadt in Holstein feels like one continuous holiday. The beach is wide and pale, the water is shallow enough that children paddle out a long way, and in July the sand is dotted with Strandkörbe, those hooded wicker beach chairs that Germans treat as portable living rooms. Behind the dunes, the promenade is lined with big hotels, ice cream stalls and a pier, and in the evening it fills with people in sandals pretending not to look at their phones.

   Read the complete Timmendorfer Strand write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Timmendorfer Strand comes up about 19 km into the recorded legs. Next is Wismar.

3. 3. Wismar

   Wismar is a red brick town on the Baltic, on a sheltered bay in Mecklenburg, and its story is that of the Hanseatic League, the medieval trading network of North German cities that dominated commerce in the Baltic and the North Sea. The town grew rich on beer, grain and the herring trade, and put its wealth into huge Gothic churches in dark brick, with towers that serve as landmarks at sea. Together with Stralsund it was listed by UNESCO in 2002 for the quality of its Hanseatic architecture, and the market square, one of the largest in northern Germany, is the heart of the place, with gabled houses of many centuries and a curious twelve-sided fountain house, the Wasserkunst, built in the Dutch Renaissance style in the early seventeenth century.

   Read the complete Wismar write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   about 111 km into the recorded legs you reach Wismar. Next is Kuhlungsborn.

4. 4. Kühlungsborn

   Kühlungsborn is long and thin because it was three villages that grew together. Brunshaupten, Arendsee and Fulgen were joined in 1938 and given a single name, and the result is a seaside resort that stretches for several kilometres along the Mecklenburg coast, with a continuous promenade backed by white villas and grand hotels from the Bäderarchitektur period. Behind the town the land rises into the Kühlung, a low wooded ridge that gives the place its name and protects it from the worst of the wind, an unusual luxury on this coast.

   Read the complete Kuhlungsborn write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Kuhlungsborn, about halfway. Next is Warnemunde.

5. 5. Warnemunde

   Warnemünde is where Rostock goes to the sea. The old fishing village at the mouth of the Warnow river was swallowed by the city long ago, but it keeps a stubborn independence, with a narrow canal called the Alter Strom lined with low fishermen's houses, rows of small fishing boats tied up at the quay, and stalls selling fish sandwiches straight off the cutters. The smell of smoked fish and diesel is the first thing you notice, and the second is the wind.

   Read the complete Warnemunde write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Warnemunde sits at 318 km, late in the day. Next is Stralsund.

6. 6. Stralsund

   Stralsund's skyline tells you at once that this was a rich merchant town. Red-brick Gothic gables, pointed spires and the enormous bulk of the Marienkirche, whose tower rises more than a hundred metres, crowd the old town island, which is surrounded by water and linked to the mainland by causeways. In the Middle Ages, Stralsund was one of the leading members of the Hanseatic League, the trading alliance that dominated the Baltic, and together with Wismar its old town is a World Heritage site. In the harbour, the three-masted Gorch Fock I, a sail training ship, is moored, and the Ozeaneum, a striking modern museum of sea life, stands beside it.

   Read the complete Stralsund write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   The route ends here after 306 km.