Schaalsee and Ratzeburg Lakes

A 179 km loop from Hamburg east

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Why this ride

Borderland lakes and small roads where pace comes from patience. Out of Glinde and back again: 179 km, roughly 3 h 43 in the saddle. On the way it passes Mölln, Ratzeburg lake road and Zarrentin water edge. Schaalsee biosphere stop is the high point. The line favours views over speed.

Roadbook

1. Hamburg east gate start

   This one is a boundary rather than a destination: the place where Hamburg stops being a city and the roads become something a rider might enjoy. The east side of the metropolis frays out through Stormarn district, with Stapelfeld just a few kilometres away, and the motorway and the main roads funnel in toward the centre. For a returning rider, it is a moment to take stock, check the fuel and slow down after a long day of countryside.

   The land to the east is gentle, a mixture of Holstein farmland, small woods and commuter villages with brick houses. A few kilometres to the north-east is Ahrensburg, whose Renaissance moated palace, built in the later sixteenth century, is the most notable building in the area, a neat white and red brick pile with a water-filled moat and a long avenue of trees. To the south-east lies the Sachsenwald, a large forest that once belonged to Bismarck, who lived at Friedrichsruh. Its roads are quiet, shaded and good for an hour of relaxed riding.

   Practical matters are simple. The towns around here have all the fuel you need, with stations at the main junctions and along the roads into the city, and supermarkets and bakeries open early. Hamburg's rush hour, which can last from about half past six to nearly ten in the morning and from three to seven in the evening, is the thing to avoid, as the arterial roads clog and the motorway can crawl. If you are coming from Mecklenburg, as this ride does, a Sunday evening return can be very slow, so consider stopping for a coffee and letting the traffic pass.

   For comfort, this is a good place to put on or take off layers. Northern Germany is flat, wide open and windy, and the temperature drops quickly after sunset, even in summer. The light in the evening over the fields is often beautiful, and a short pause at the edge of town is worth it.

2. Mölln fuel gate fuel

   Mölln is a small town in the Lauenburg Lakes, southeast of Lübeck, and it carries one very odd claim to fame. According to local tradition it is where the famous prankster Till Eulenspiegel died of plague in the fourteenth century, and his gravestone is built into the wall of the church of St Nicolai. The stone shows an owl and a mirror, which is what his name means in German. A fountain on the market square shows him as a cheerful figure, and the town's tourist trade is lightly sprinkled with jokes about it.

   The town itself is a pretty, compact place on a hill between lakes, with a medieval core of narrow streets and old brick and half-timbered houses. In the Middle Ages Mölln was a staging point on the Old Salt Road that ran from Lüneburg to Lübeck, and in the fourteenth century the city of Lübeck even took over the town for a time to protect the route. A canal known as the Stecknitz canal was built nearby to carry salt by barge, and traces of it remain. It is a good place to walk and wander before you ride again.

   For riders, Mölln is a sensible refuelling point, with eighteen thousand people and fuel stations on the main roads, supermarkets and restaurants. Parking near the centre is easy, but the old streets have cobbles that are rough and slippery after rain, so be careful in the lanes. The lakes around town, the Schulsee, Stadtsee and several others, give pleasant views, and a stroll along their edges is a good way to stretch your back after a long morning in the saddle.

   The roads in and out of Mölln are among the better ones in the region. They run through the Lauenburg Lakes Nature Park, a country of low hills, beech forest and still water left behind by the last ice age, with smooth tarmac and gentle curves. Traffic is moderate on weekdays and busy on warm weekends, when day-trippers from Hamburg arrive. Early morning gives you the best of the lakes, with mist on the water and the roads nearly empty.

3. Ratzeburg lake road swim

   Ratzeburg's lakes are long, narrow and clean, the leftovers of ice that gouged out troughs across this part of Schleswig-Holstein, and the road along them is one of the nicest pieces of easy riding between Hamburg and the Baltic. It follows the shore, rising and falling over small bluffs, and gives glimpses of water through the trees, with sailing boats and rowing eights moving in the distance. In the calm hours of the morning, the surface of the lake looks like polished metal.

   The rowing is not an accident. Ratzeburg has been one of Germany's centres of the sport since the middle of the twentieth century, and the long, straight lake is ideal for it. A famous coach worked here and trained crews that won Olympic gold, and you will often see slim boats gliding on the water with a trainer cycling or motoring alongside. On weekends there are regattas, and the shore comes alive with spectators.

   Behind the lakeshore, the country is gentle and rural: rolling fields, woods and neat villages with brick churches. This area was once on the edge of the Iron Curtain, since the border with East Germany lay just a few kilometres to the east, and the quiet that fell on the region after 1945 has left it undeveloped and peaceful. The road is smooth for most of its length, with a mix of long, easy bends and short, sharp corners where the road dips to cross a stream. In summer there are cyclists and families heading for the lake beaches, and the speed limits through the villages are enforced.

   If you want to swim, there are public beaches along the lake in warm weather, and the water is clear enough for it, though you should check local signs and stay near the lifeguarded areas. Ratzeburg itself has about fourteen thousand people and plenty of places for fuel, food and coffee, so you do not need to plan around services. The town's old centre on its island is a short walk away, and it is worth a visit. Come on a weekday in June or September if you can, when the water is warm enough for a dip and the roads have room on them.

4. Schaalsee biosphere stop pass

   The Schaalsee is the deepest lake in northern Germany, a long, dark, cold trough more than seventy metres down in its deepest part, gouged by a glacier and then filled with meltwater. The area around it is a UNESCO biosphere reserve, and it is one of the least spoiled landscapes in the north: lakes, reedbeds, meadows, beech forest and small villages with brick farmhouses and church towers.

   The reason it is so undisturbed is political. For forty years the inner German border ran through the middle of the lake, with the western shore in the Federal Republic and the eastern in the GDR, and a strip of land on either side was off limits. Fences, watchtowers and patrols kept people out and nature in. When the border opened in 1989, the strip had become an accidental wildlife refuge, and it now forms part of the Green Belt, the chain of protected land that runs along the former frontier from the Baltic to Bohemia. White-tailed eagles nest here, cranes gather on the fields in autumn, and the reedbeds hold bitterns and otters.

   On a bike the biosphere is a landscape for slow, curving riding. Roads run between hedges and fields, through villages and along the lake in places, with a rolling pattern that keeps things interesting. The tarmac is generally good, and traffic is light except on summer weekends, when the lake beaches fill up. Be alert for cyclists and farm vehicles, and for deer at dawn and dusk. Autumn is a spectacular time, with mist on the water, migrating geese and the beeches in colour.

   There is not much in the way of services right at the water. Zarrentin, a few kilometres away, is a small town with a lake beach and a ruined monastery and has shops and cafés, and Wittenburg, about thirteen kilometres off, is the nearest place with a good range, including fuel. Plan fuel in advance. A visitor centre in the area explains the reserve and the history of the border, and it is worth a short stop if you have time. Bring a layer, because the wind off the lake can be cool even in July.

5. Zarrentin water edge swim

   Zarrentin sits at the southern end of the Schaalsee, and the town's whole personality is turned toward the water. A path runs along the shore past a small beach, a boat landing and a row of cafés, and on a warm day it is as close to a seaside promenade as you can get in the middle of the country. Reeds fringe the edge of the lake, ducks and swans patrol the shallows, and the water is clear and cold, a reminder of how deep this lake is.

   Zarrentin has a long past that is easy to miss. In the thirteenth century Cistercian monks founded a monastery here, and its ruins and some of its buildings still stand beside the church, with a gentle, grassy character. The brick church, with its high roof, can be seen from some distance across the water. After the Reformation the monastery was turned into a ducal residence, and later the area fell under Mecklenburg, which is why the place has a different feel from the Schleswig-Holstein towns just across the former border.

   That border is the dominant fact of the recent past. Until 1989 the lake was split between East and West, and Zarrentin was on the eastern side, so people here could not freely travel to the western shore a few hundred metres away. Today you can wander freely along the lake, and information boards tell the story of the divided shore. It is a quiet, moving thing, set against the cheerful sound of children splashing in the water.

   For a swim, the lake beach in town is the straightforward option, though in cooler months it is for looking at rather than entering. The roads to Zarrentin are good, and the approach from the west runs through rolling country with the lake glinting between trees. The town is small, around three thousand people, so there is food and a shop or two but not much more, and the nearest place with proper fuel and supermarkets is Wittenburg, about twelve kilometres away. Gudow, in the opposite direction, is a smaller village. A drink on a terrace by the water in the late afternoon is the best use of an hour you could think of.

6. Lauenburg old town sight

   Lauenburg is built on a steep bank above the Elbe, and its old town is a strip of narrow, cobbled lanes squeezed between the cliff and the river. It is the most southerly town in Schleswig-Holstein, a small place of about twelve thousand, and its position as a crossing point of an important river explains everything about it. Ships have passed here for centuries, and a museum devoted to Elbe river shipping, housed in an old building on the waterfront, tells the story of the barges and steamers that once carried salt, timber and grain between Hamburg and Magdeburg.

   The old town stands at about twenty metres above sea level, only a little higher than the river, and the Elbe has often claimed it. Marks on the walls of houses in the lower town record the heights of floods, including the great flood of 2013, when the water rose to levels not seen for centuries. The buildings are narrow and often half-timbered, with steep stairs leading up to the upper town, and walking along the riverside, you can watch the barges pass close enough to count the cargo.

   The ride has crossed Schleswig-Holstein by way of the Wingst forest, a low wooded hill on the other side of the Elbe, and the Elbe ferry crossings. It also visits Schaalsee, a deep, clear lake that lies right on the former border between East and West Germany, and the Ratzeburg lakes, a chain of waters where the cathedral stands on an island in the middle of the town. The roads in this area are narrow and winding, with oak avenues, farm fields and frequent views of the water.

   In Lauenburg itself, the cobbles can be slippery, and the street layout is awkward for a large bike. Parking at the riverside is easy and the walk is short. At the Elbe, the Elbe-Lübeck Canal begins, a historic waterway that was dug in the Middle Ages to carry salt from Lüneburg to the Baltic, and it is a pleasure to ride along its towpath roads.

   Fuel and food are easy, with stations on the main road and a few cafes and fish restaurants by the river. Try a plate of smoked eel or a bowl of fish soup if you want to eat in the local way.

7. Back to Hamburg east gate finish

   Back to Hamburg east closes the day.

Where this sits

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