Baltic Bay and Lübeck Old Roads

A 211 km loop from Hamburg east edge

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Why this ride

Sea air, brick towns and sweeping north-east roads. Out of Barsbüttel and back again: 211 km, roughly 3 h 53 in the saddle. On the way it passes Ratzeburg road, Travemünde ferry view, Timmendorfer beach road and Lübeck.

Roadbook

1. Hamburg east edge start

   Nobody writes songs about the east side of Hamburg, and that is part of its charm as a starting point. Out here the city thins into Stormarn, a district of hedgerows, low brick villages and big sky, and the places on the map, Stapelfeld, Barsbüttel and Glinde, are the sort of towns that exist mainly so that people have somewhere to sleep within reach of the harbour. Glinde has about sixteen thousand people and a good supply of supermarkets and petrol stations, and Barsbüttel is not far behind, so there is no need to worry about fuel before you leave.

   What you get in exchange for the lack of drama is access. The motorway to Lübeck is close, but you do not have to take it. Small roads head off toward the Sachsenwald, a large old forest to the south-east that was once Bismarck's estate, and the little river Bille winds through meadows on the way. The hedgerows here are the typical Schleswig-Holstein knicks, earth banks planted with hazel and blackthorn, which have divided the fields for centuries and give the lanes their narrow, enclosed feel. Corners are short and often blind, so keep a little in reserve, particularly when a tractor appears with a trailer wider than the road.

   Nearby Ahrensburg has a Renaissance moated castle, white and red with a tidy reflection in its pond, that is worth a detour if you have time before the day begins. The surrounding country was shaped by the ice age and the local brick tradition, and you can see that in the farm buildings and the churches. The air in summer smells of cut grass and rapeseed, and in autumn of ploughed earth and woodsmoke. Cyclists use these lanes heavily at weekends, so a calm pace pays off.

   The best time to leave is early morning, when the commuter flow is still building toward the city and the road east is almost empty. Evenings are good for the return, with the sun dropping behind you and the lights of the city glowing on the horizon. This is not a place for photographs or long visits, but it is a practical, friendly kind of start where you can check your tyres, buy a roll and a coffee, and set off with a full tank and a clear head.

2. Ratzeburg return road photo

   The old town of Ratzeburg sits on an island in the middle of a lake, joined to the land by three causeways, and the best way to photograph it is from the road that heads back out. As you leave the town and climb the gentle slope toward the east shore, the island appears across the water: the red-brick cathedral with its twin towers, the roofs of the old houses, the line of trees along the shore, and the long, calm surface of the lake in front. It is a view that has not changed greatly in centuries, and it is at its best in the low light of late afternoon.

   The lake is the other half of the story. Ratzeburg's water is long, narrow and clean, left behind by the ice, and in the early morning it can be flat enough to double the cathedral perfectly upside down. The town became the capital of a small duchy, Saxe-Lauenburg, and later a quiet country seat, and that long, peaceful history is part of why the island looks so well preserved from the shore. For forty years the inner German border lay only a few kilometres east, which kept development low and the surroundings calm.

   The road itself runs along the lake shore and into farmland, with a gentle series of bends and glimpses of water. It is pleasantly empty on weekday evenings, and the tarmac is mostly good. A few stretches under trees stay damp, and in autumn the leaves can be slippery. Cyclists use the road heavily in summer. There are laybys and small car parks where you can stop for a photograph, and a few benches look out across the lake. The water is calm in the evening, and rowers sometimes pass in slim boats.

   Ratzeburg has about fourteen thousand people, so fuel stations, supermarkets and cafés are easy to find in the modern part of town on the mainland shore. The road back toward Hamburg is a straightforward run through farmland and small towns, with some traffic at rush hour. If you have time before leaving, buy a cake or an ice cream and eat it on the bank. The lake has a way of keeping you there a little longer than planned.

3. Travemünde ferry view photo

   Travemünde is where the Trave river reaches the sea, and the ferry view is the best way to take in that moment. A small passenger and vehicle ferry crosses the river mouth to the Priwall peninsula, and from the quay on the town side you can watch it go back and forth, with the lighthouse, the harbour mouth and the open Baltic framing the scene. Across the water lies the Priwall, a long spit of dunes, holiday homes and a small marina, and moored there is the Passat, a steel four-masted barque built in 1911 that once carried grain from Australia and now serves as a museum ship.

   The river mouth is a busy place. Large ferries from Scandinavia and the Baltic states dock at the terminal just upstream, and their huge white shapes slide past the beach with surprising quiet. Cargo ships and tankers make their way to Lübeck's port, and sailing yachts dodge between them. In July the town hosts Travemünde Week, one of the great sailing regattas of the Baltic, when hundreds of boats fill the bay and the quays are packed with visitors.

   Travemünde belonged to the Hanseatic city of Lübeck for centuries and still does administratively, which explains the Lübeck-style brick buildings and the sense of a town that has always looked outward. The lighthouse, dating from the sixteenth century, is claimed to be the oldest in Germany, and it still stands on the waterfront. The seafront promenade, with its hotels, casino and old pavilion, has the slightly faded air of a nineteenth century resort, and a stroll along it before dinner is a good way to unwind.

   Riding in, you come off the long, flat roads of Ostholstein into a town that is often busy, with tourist traffic and ferry queues. The cobbles near the harbour are slippery in the wet, and parking near the ferry can be tight in summer. Travemünde has about fourteen thousand people, so fuel stations, supermarkets, and cafés are all available, and fish rolls and ice cream stands crowd the quay. The ferry itself is short and cheap, and carrying a motorbike across is simple, though queues can build on summer weekends. Bring a windproof layer, since the breeze at the river mouth is brisk even on a warm day.

4. Timmendorfer beach road swim

   The coast of the Bay of Lübeck is the closest thing northern Germany has to a riviera, and the road that links Travemünde, Niendorf, Timmendorfer Strand, Scharbeutz and Haffkrug is its promenade. It runs a little inland from the sea, through a string of resort towns that merge into one another, with villas, hotels and shops on either side, and gaps between them that show the beach, the sea and the long wooden piers. This is a landscape of holiday, and it has been since the late nineteenth century, when the first bathing guests arrived by train from Lübeck and Hamburg.

   The beaches are the draw. Long, wide stretches of fine pale sand slope gently into shallow water, backed by dunes, and in summer they are packed with striped wicker beach chairs, which are a local institution. The Baltic is calm and brackish, and warms quickly, and families come for weeks at a time. Timmendorfer Strand has the broadest promenade, with a pier and a smart, slightly showy air, while Niendorf has a small fishing harbour and a more relaxed character. A walk along the shore at the end of the day, with the sun going down behind the sand, is one of the pleasures of the coast.

   For riders the road is not about corners. It is a series of stop-and-go stretches through resort traffic, with speed limits and crossings, and in July and August it can be slow and crowded. The best way to enjoy it is to come outside peak season, in May, June or September, when the beaches are still warm enough for a paddle and the roads are manageable. Early morning is the quiet hour, with the light soft and the first walkers on the sand. Watch for pedestrians stepping out between parked cars.

   Services are everywhere. Timmendorfer Strand has about nine thousand people, which in season swells to many times that, with fuel stations, supermarkets and a hundred places to eat and drink. Fish rolls, ice cream, coffee and cake are all on offer along the promenade. Parking a motorbike near the beach is easy in the off-season and a struggle in July, and some car parks charge a fee. If you want to swim, lifeguarded stretches are marked, and the flags give the conditions. Take a towel, sun cream and a spare layer, because the sea breeze cools quickly after sunset.

5. Lübeck fuel gate fuel

   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.

   The city's cathedral, begun by Henry the Lion in 1173, stands at the southern end of the old town, and the Burgtor gate is on the north side, just before the road leaves the town. The brick Gothic of Lübeck's churches, especially St Mary's, which served as a model for many churches around the Baltic, is the first sight of a style that you will see again and again on the coast, in Wismar, Stralsund and as far as Tallinn. The Salzspeicher, the old salt warehouses beside the river, are a reminder of how the city grew rich.

   The Baltic coast road, which the Germans call the Ostseestraße, is a mixed pleasure. The first stretch is a flat road through farmland, with the sea hidden behind the dunes, and the resort towns along the coast are crowded in summer. But the roads inland, among the hedges and rolling fields, are much quieter and more pleasant. The best time to ride is in the evening or early morning, when the light is soft and the roads are empty.

   Travemünde, at the mouth of the Trave, is the seaside district of Lübeck, with a long beach, a casino and the four-masted barque Passat, which is moored there as a museum ship. Ferries to Scandinavia and the Baltic states leave from the harbour, and the ships coming and going are a fine sight. A walk on the beach promenade, with an ice cream and the sea breeze, makes a good way to start the day.

6. Ahrensburg coffee stop stop

   Ahrensburg owes its character to a single building, the castle. Schloss Ahrensburg is a Renaissance moated residence of pale rose-pink stucco, built in the late sixteenth century by the Rantzau family, one of the great noble houses of Holstein, and it stands in a green park beside a mirror-like pond. The house has a fairytale shape, with gables, turrets and a drawbridge, and it is now a museum. Behind it stretch lawns and an avenue of ancient limes, and the town's coffee houses and bakeries cluster nearby.

   The area has a far older claim to fame. About twelve thousand years ago, reindeer hunters roamed the tundra of what is now Stormarn, and the remains of their camps were found in the Ahrensburg tunnel valley, a long, glacial channel just north of the town. The culture is now known to archaeologists as the Ahrensburgian, named for the town, and it is one of the best-known late Ice Age hunter cultures in northern Europe. A walk through the wooded valley gives a hint of that wild past.

   Ahrensburg is a town of thirty thousand, a prosperous commuter place on the northeastern edge of Hamburg, and it has the comforts you would expect: filling stations, supermarkets, good bakeries and a pleasant pedestrian zone. It is an easy place to take a break, because it is close to the city and has easy parking. Großhansdorf, three kilometres to the north-east, is a woodland suburb with a large nature reserve of beech forest, where the ground rises into low hills.

   For the rider, the coffee stop is a gentle pause between the city and the lakes beyond. The roads east of Ahrensburg wind through woods and fields, with sandy lanes lined with oaks, and the traffic thins quickly once you pass the last roundabouts. In spring the beech woods are a fresh, bright green. Take your coffee in the castle park if the weather allows, and watch the ducks on the moat. It is a calm place to start the day.

7. Back to Hamburg east edge finish

   back to Hamburg east edge closes the day.

Where this sits

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