CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
Wind, dikes and horizon therapy for days when mountains are not the point. 203 km round from Itzehoe - plan on about 2 h 56 of riding. The stops in between: Friedrichstadt canal stop, Sankt Peter-Ording beach air and Eider barrage. It keeps close to the shore for long stretches.
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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Next is Friedrichstadt canal stop.
Friedrichstadt looks, at first glance, like a piece of Holland that has wandered north and settled down in Schleswig-Holstein, and the resemblance is no accident. Duke Frederick III of Holstein-Gottorf founded the town in 1621 as a haven for Dutch Remonstrants, a Protestant sect that was being persecuted at home, and he hoped they would bring trade and skills to his marshy corner of the country. They brought canals, gabled brick houses and a tidy grid of streets, and the town is still laid out that way today.
Read the complete Friedrichstadt canal stop write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Friedrichstadt canal stop comes up about 71 km into the recorded legs. Next is Sankt Peter-Ording beach air.
Sankt Peter-Ording has one of the widest beaches in Europe, a vast plain of pale sand that stretches for some twelve kilometres along the western edge of the Eiderstedt peninsula and runs out so far at low tide that the sea is a thin line on the horizon. On the dunes stand the famous stilt houses, wooden restaurants and beach huts on tall legs, built that way because the North Sea sometimes comes right up to the dune foot at high water and storm tides. They look like something from a child's drawing, and they are a charming place for a coffee.
Read the complete Sankt Peter-Ording beach air write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 114 km into the recorded legs you reach Sankt Peter-Ording beach air. Next is Eider barrage photo.
For photographers, the Eider barrage is a study in lines. The great steel gates, the concrete piers and the long road across the structure make strong geometric shapes against a sky that is usually enormous, and the water on both sides changes colour with the weather and tide. It is a very graphic subject, and it rewards a bit of planning. Morning and evening light bring out the texture of the metal, and a low sun from the west turns the water silver and the sky pink.
Read the complete Eider barrage photo write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Eider barrage photo, late in the day. Next is Back to Itzehoe.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Itzehoe fuel gate write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Back to Itzehoe. That is the ride.
This Friedrichstadt canal stop → Sankt Peter-Ording beach air stretch is for rhythm and scenery. Keep your head up, let the view breathe, and resist turning every open bend into a target. Stop once properly rather than half-stopping everywhere.
This Sankt Peter-Ording beach air → Eider barrage photo stretch is for rhythm and scenery. Keep your head up, let the view breathe, and resist turning every open bend into a target. Stop once properly rather than half-stopping everywhere.