North Sea Dikes and St. Peter-Ording Long Day · part 1

Scenic road chapters

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Hamburg north-west edge

   Rellingen and Halstenbek lie on the north-western rim of Hamburg, in the Pinneberg district, and for anyone heading toward the North Sea they are the last of the city before the land opens out. This is tree-nursery country: Halstenbek and its neighbours form one of the largest centres for growing trees and shrubs in Europe, and in summer the fields are filled with orderly rows of young oaks, beeches, rhododendrons and roses, which gives the district a clean and scented feel.

   Read the complete Hamburg north-west edge write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Hamburg north-west edge is where the day begins. Next is Itzehoe.

2. 2. Itzehoe fuel gate

   Itzehoe does not have a famous skyline, and that is rather the point. It is a solid town of about thirty thousand on the Stör river in the flat marshland of Schleswig-Holstein, and its job in this ride is that of a gate, the last reliable fuel and breakfast before the open country of the North Sea coast. The town sits some sixty kilometres northwest of Hamburg, and the name goes far back, with a fortress called Esesfeld said to have been built here in the early ninth century during the wars of Charlemagne against the Saxons.

   Read the complete Itzehoe fuel gate write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Itzehoe is the fuel stop for this leg. Next is Husum food stop.

3. 3. Husum food stop

   Theodor Storm called Husum the grey town by the sea, and he meant it kindly. The poet and novelist, who was born in the town in 1817, wrote about the dykes, the fog and the wide, grey skies of the North Frisian coast, and the phrase has stuck. His house is a museum, and his novella The Rider on the White Horse, about a dyke-builder fighting the sea, is the great story of this coast.

   Read the complete Husum food stop write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   A break here. Next is St. Peter-Ording beach edge, 88 km on.

4. 4. St. Peter-Ording beach edge

   The beach at St. Peter-Ording is so wide that the sea is sometimes a long walk away. The sand stretches for about twelve kilometres along the west coast of the Eiderstedt peninsula, up to two kilometres wide at low tide, and is one of the broadest in Germany. The restaurants on the beach stand on tall wooden stilts, like something from a fairy tale, because the tide and storm surges can cover the sand.

   Read the complete St. Peter-Ording beach edge write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   St. Peter-Ording beach edge closes the day.