Hamburg · Holstein Switzerland Lakes Sweep

A northern lake-road day with soft bends, water views and café timing.

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Why this ride

A northern lake-road day with soft bends, water views and café timing. Out of Bad Segeberg and back again: 183 km, roughly 3 h 10 in the saddle. The stops in between: Plön lake balcony, Malente forest lanes and Eutin castle roads.

Roadbook

1. Segeberg fuel and exit fuel

   Bad Segeberg is known to every German of a certain age for one reason: Karl May. Every summer since the early 1950s, an open-air theatre cut into the side of a hill in the town stages dramas based on the adventure novels of the Saxon writer, with real horses, stunt riders, gunfights and a cast of cowboys and Native American characters in a mock Wild West setting. Hundreds of thousands of people come for it. The setting is an unusual hill, the Kalkberg, a block of gypsum and limestone that rises about ninety metres above the flat land around, and that is itself a rarity in this part of the country.

   Inside the hill is a cave, one of the biggest bat roosts in Europe, where thousands of bats gather to hibernate in winter. The cave system is closed to visitors during that time, but a visitor centre explains the animals, and in late summer there are guided evenings for watching the bats emerge. The hill once carried a castle, which was destroyed in the Middle Ages, and a nearby lake adds to the scenery.

   For riders the town is a gate. It lies at the northern edge of the Hamburg area, on roads that lead out toward Lübeck, Kiel and the lakes of Holstein, and it makes a practical place to start a day or to take a last chance at fuel. With about sixteen thousand people, Bad Segeberg has several fuel stations, supermarkets, bakeries and cafés, and it is simple to find a cup of coffee and a roll at an early hour. The old town has a pleasant square and some old houses, though nothing grand.

   The roads to the north and east are the attraction. Within a few kilometres of the town, you reach the quiet lanes of the Holstein country, with soft hills, Knick hedges and small lakes. The surface is generally good, the traffic is thin outside the commuter hours, and the corners are easy. In the summer weeks of the Karl May festival, traffic around the town on show days can be heavy, so allow time. Take a windproof layer, and note that the weather can change quickly. Early morning, with the sun low and mist in the fields, is a gentle start.

2. Plön lake balcony swim

   Plön has a castle on a hill, and the hill is what makes the town. The big, white, many-windowed building stands on a rise between two lakes, and from its terrace the view runs over the water, the islands and the wooded shore. The castle was built in the seventeenth century as a residence for the dukes of Holstein-Plön, and later served as a Prussian military school, where sons of the Kaiser were among the pupils, and then as a boarding school. It is not open in all parts, but the grounds and the terrace give a fine look at the lake.

   The lake balcony is one of those places where the whole region becomes legible. You can see the way the glacier shaped the land: the long troughs of water, the rounded hills, the islands that are hills drowned to the neck. A small island called the Prinzeninsel lies in the lake, once the retreat of princes and now a quiet park with a bathing place. The town has a public beach on the lake, and swimming there is pleasant in summer, with the water clean and mild. A lifeguard is on duty in the high season, and the shallow, sandy entry is good for children.

   Getting up to the castle is a short but pleasing climb on a cobbled road that is steep for a few hundred metres. Take it slowly, since the cobbles are uneven, and park at the foot if there is no space at the top. The road around the lake from there is among the best in Schleswig-Holstein, a smooth, curving ribbon with views of water between the trees, and it rewards a slow, unhurried pace. Evenings in summer are the best, when the lake takes on the colours of the sky.

   Plön itself has about thirteen thousand people, with fuel stations at the edge of town, supermarkets and many cafés. A drink at a terrace on the lakefront is a fine way to end the afternoon. Be aware that the wind can pick up quickly on the open water, and sudden showers are common, so keep a jacket nearby. If you have time, take one of the little passenger boats that cross the lake, since from the water you can see the castle's full outline above the trees.

3. Malente forest lanes scenic

   Away from the cafés and promenades, Malente has another face, and it is made of beech trees. The forests around the town, between the Dieksee and the Kellersee, are among the finest broadleaf woods in Schleswig-Holstein, tall and grey-barked, with a high canopy that turns the light green in summer and copper in autumn. The ground beneath is soft with leaf litter, and the quiet is broken only by woodpeckers, jays and the sound of wind in the crowns.

   A small lake called the Ukleisee lies hidden in the woods, a dark, still sheet of water surrounded by steep banks, which is reached by paths from the road and is a favourite with walkers. The highest ground in the whole state, the Bungsberg, rises only a short way to the northeast, and though at less than 170 metres it sounds modest, it gives the forest lanes a tilt and a pattern, with small climbs and descents that keep the riding interesting.

   The lanes themselves are narrow, winding and quiet, often with a low tunnel of branches over the road. Corners come quickly, often blind, with soft verges and occasional patches of moss or leaf where the sun does not reach, so take them with respect. In autumn the road surface can be treacherous with wet leaves, and in winter, shaded sections hold ice long after the open roads have cleared. In summer the forest provides a cool refuge on a hot day, and the scent of damp earth and beech mast is unmistakable.

   Wildlife is plentiful. Roe deer cross the road at dawn and dusk, and foxes and badgers live in the forest, while red kites and buzzards circle over the clearings. The woods are managed with care, and you may see signs of selective felling and the green markers that foresters use. Ride quietly and you are likely to see something.

   For services, Malente is close, with about ten thousand people, fuel stations, supermarkets and bakeries, and Eutin is a few kilometres farther with a larger range. The forest itself has nothing, apart from the occasional forest inn or lake kiosk, so carry water. An early morning ride on a weekday in May, when the beeches are in fresh leaf and the forest floor is carpeted with wood anemones, is a pleasure hard to match.

4. Eutin castle roads sight

   Eutin had its literary moment long before it had a reputation for roses. In the late eighteenth century the little residence town of the prince-bishops of Lübeck became a quiet meeting place for poets and painters, and people spoke of it as the Weimar of the north. Johann Heinrich Voss, who gave Germany its beloved translation of Homer's Odyssey, taught at the Latin school here, and the painter Wilhelm Tischbein, famous for his portrait of Goethe in the Roman countryside, spent his last years in the town and died here in 1829.

   The roads that lead out from the castle quarter do so with an easy, rolling grace. They run east through a landscape the glaciers shaped, a quilt of lakes, low ridges, beech woods and rape fields, and then drift towards the old Hanseatic city of Lübeck and the long, thin lakes of the Lauenburg country. The surfaces are mostly good, the junctions are sparse, and the bends are the kind that let you lean without a worry. In May the fields are a shock of yellow, and in October the beech woods burn copper, so the ride rewards the calendar twice.

   The goal of this stretch is the edge of the Schaalsee, a clear, deep lake on the old border with East Germany that is now part of a biosphere reserve. For forty years the line of the inner-German frontier ran through the water, which meant the shores stayed undisturbed, and today they are rich with cranes, sea eagles and rare orchids. That strange gift of history makes this one of the quietest landscapes in northern Germany.

   Eutin itself is a town of seventeen thousand and offers all the practical comforts: stations on the edges, supermarkets, bakeries, and a pleasant market square where you can sit and watch the town go about its morning. Malente, five kilometres away, is the neighbouring spa town on the next lake. Start with a full tank and a decent breakfast, because once you leave the lakeland and drop into the farming country further east the services thin out, and the cafés will not open until ten.

5. Back to Segeberg finish

   Bad Segeberg is the town with a limestone hill in the middle of a flat plain, and everything about it follows from that odd fact. The Kalkberg, a lump of gypsum and limestone pushed up by an ancient salt dome, rises sharply from the surrounding fields, and for a thousand years it has been the natural place for a fortress. Dukes and kings built castles on it and fought over it, and the stones of the last one are still scattered about its flanks. Today the hill's chief purpose is theatre: since 1952 the open-air stage at its foot has staged the Karl May Festival every summer, with galloping horses, gunfights and Winnetou, drawing hundreds of thousands of spectators from across Germany.

   Under the hill is a cave system, and it holds one of the largest winter roosts of bats in Europe, which is why the cave is closed to visitors for part of the year. The town around it, some sixteen thousand people strong, has a spa heritage built on salt springs, a pleasant lake, the Great Segeberg Lake, and a long main street of shops and cafés. It is a handy place to arrive, because everything is close together.

   For a rider, Segeberg is the final stop after a long day coming out of the Holstein lake country and the Mecklenburg border region. The last stretch of road is gentle and often straight, over low fields with long views to the horizon. The land is only slightly rolling here, so the Kalkberg stands out from far away, a landmark that tells you the end is near. Weekdays are quiet. On a summer evening when the festival is playing, the town fills up, and finding a parking spot near the hill takes patience.

   There are several filling stations around the ring roads and supermarkets in the centre, and Klein Rönnau and Fahrenkrug, the nearby villages, have little more than a bakery. Finish the day with a plate of something hearty and a stroll along the lakeside, and watch the sky darken over the hill.

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