Hamburg · Schaalsee Borderland and Ratzeburg Lakes

A 169 km loop from Mölln lake town

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Why this ride

Old borderland lanes, clear water and enough distance to feel away. A 169 km loop that starts and ends near Mölln, about 2 h 57 of riding. It goes by way of Zarrentin water stop, Schaalsee biosphere edge and Ratzeburg island.

Roadbook

1. Mölln lake town start

   Mölln is the town where Till Eulenspiegel is said to have died, and the town has never let anyone forget it. The medieval trickster, a figure from German folk tales who made fools of everybody he met, is supposedly buried near the church of St Nicolai, and a gravestone with an owl and a mirror is a favourite photograph spot. The tales are of uncertain origin, but the town is proud of the legend, and you will find owls and mirrors on souvenirs, fountains and signs. It gives the little lakeside town a sense of humour that many places lack.

   Mölln lies on a chain of lakes in the Herzogtum Lauenburg, a gentle landscape of glacial hills and water that feels more Scandinavian than central European. The Stadtsee in the middle of town has a pleasant promenade, and the old centre climbs a small hill with cobbled lanes and half-timbered houses. Salt used to travel along the Old Salt Route from Lüneburg to Lübeck, and Mölln was one of the stations on the way, which is partly why it has such an old and handsome centre. About eighteen thousand people live here, so you will find fuel, supermarkets and plenty of places for coffee and a Fischbrötchen.

   The riding around town is quietly enjoyable. Roads wind between lakes and beech woods, with many sections shaded by old trees, and the surface is generally good. The corners are short and smooth rather than demanding, and there are a lot of villages with 30 km/h zones, so patience is useful. Traffic is moderate, with the heaviest flow on summer weekends when Hamburg residents head for the lakes. Beyond Mölln the Schaalsee biosphere region lies to the east, a protected area of clear water and quiet villages along what used to be the border between East and West Germany, and the landscape there is particularly peaceful.

   Early autumn is lovely, when mist hangs over the lakes in the morning and the beeches turn copper. The smell of the place is wet leaves, still water and woodsmoke, and the air always feels cooler than it does in the city, thirty or forty minutes to the west. A short walk along the lakeshore before you set off, or when you come back, is a good way to end the day. You will not need to look hard for a bench and a view.

2. Zarrentin water stop swim

   Zarrentin is the kind of lake town where you finish a ride sooner than planned because a bench by the water makes a better argument than the map does. It sits at the southern tip of the Schaalsee, on the Mecklenburg side of a line that for four decades was the most heavily guarded boundary in Europe. Riders coming from Hamburg cross it without noticing, apart from a subtle shift in the roads, which are a little rougher, a little emptier and lined with the tall avenue trees that Mecklenburg does so well.

   The swimming spot is the town's own beach and landing stage, on a lake that is clean, cold and extremely deep by northern standards. You walk in over firm sand and within a few strides the bottom drops away, so it suits a quick dip better than a long paddle. Locals bring their children in July and August, and the water, helped by a protected lake status that keeps motorboats away, stays clear. Out of season the water is for looking at, and the reed margins fill with coots and great crested grebes.

   What to eat is simple. Fish from the lake, usually smoked whitefish, is sold by small producers in the area, and a bread roll with it, eaten on the shore, is the right lunch. Cake and coffee are never hard to find in the village, and an ice-cream window does a roaring trade on warm days. Do not expect a big choice, but do not expect to go hungry either.

   The ride in from the west threads through the Lauenburg lakes and past the old Elbe-Lübeck canal, on gently undulating lanes with good tarmac and the occasional wet leaf-fall patch under the trees. Farm tractors are the main obstacles. In the late afternoon the low sun comes through the avenue trunks in flickering bars, which can be disorienting at speed, so ease off.

   Zarrentin is small, with around three thousand people. It has a baker, a shop or two and a few places to sit, but if you need a proper fuel station and supermarkets, Wittenburg is the answer, twelve kilometres away, with just over five thousand inhabitants. Fill up before you come, and keep a dry towel in the pannier. It is easy to forget one, and the sun does not always last.

3. Schaalsee biosphere edge scenic

   The edge of a biosphere reserve is not a line on the ground, it is a change in mood. Somewhere around here the farmland of western Mecklenburg stops being merely quiet and starts being protected, and you notice it in small ways: hedgerows left wild, meadows cut late, ponds with frogs in them, and the sight of cranes stalking across a stubble field as if they owned it. Which, for part of the year, they do.

   The land was shaped by the last ice age, which dropped a ridge of rubble, the terminal moraine, across the region and left behind a basin that became the Schaalsee. The soil around it is a rich mix of clay and gravel, and the pattern of low, rounded hills and hollows runs for kilometres. The lake lies just out of sight to the west, and the road traces a looping course around the farmland to the east, dipping into villages with brick churches and thatched barns, then out again into wide fields.

   The road itself is one of the pleasures of this part of Mecklenburg. Many of the country roads here are lined with old avenue trees, mostly lime, oak and maple, planted generations ago, and riding down one on a bright day is like riding down a long green corridor with the sun strobing through. The tarmac is patchy, some of it narrow and with broken edges, so it rewards a measured pace, and in damp weather the shade holds moisture on the bends. In autumn, when leaves lie on the road, extra care pays off.

   Birdwatching is the main reason people linger. In October and November cranes gather in the evening in large numbers before roosting, and the sound of their calling carries over the fields. White-tailed eagles hunt over the lake, and on a clear winter morning with frost on the grass a rider might see two or three in the sky. Bring binoculars if you have room in the luggage.

   There is nothing in the way of fuel or shops at the road edge itself. Zarrentin, six kilometres off, has a few small shops and a place for a coffee, and Wittenburg, about eleven kilometres, has the proper supermarkets and petrol stations. Carry water, and keep to the roads that look as though people use them.

4. Ratzeburg island photo stop

   Ratzeburg sits on an island, and you notice it only when you ride onto it. The old town lies on a long, narrow strip of land in the middle of the Ratzeburg Lake, joined to the shores by three causeways, and as you come in along one of them the water opens out on both sides, with the cathedral rising ahead like a ship's bridge. Photographers love it, with good reason: from the western shore the whole town hangs on the water, brick and green copper, with the reflection doubling it.

   The cathedral is one of the oldest brick buildings in northern Germany. Henry the Lion, the powerful Duke of Saxony and Bavaria, founded it in the twelfth century, and its Romanesque austerity still feels commanding today, with thick walls and a restrained, almost severe beauty. The sculptor Ernst Barlach spent part of his childhood in Ratzeburg, and there is a museum to him in the town. Rowing has a serious history here too, since the lake became a training ground for German rowers, and on a fine morning you may see eights gliding past, with a coach cycling along the bank.

   A less cheerful piece of history is the line of the former inner-German border, which ran through the lake. For decades the east shore lay in a restricted zone, and the dead zone left behind a strip of wild shoreline that is now a nature reserve. The Lauenburg Lakes region around it is wooded, hilly and full of water, with quiet, winding roads that suit a relaxed pace, though tractors and cyclists are common.

   Ratzeburg has about fourteen thousand people and has fuel, supermarkets and plenty of cafés, many with a view across the lake. A good approach is to arrive in the morning, park on the island, and walk the causeway for the classic view. The old town streets are cobbled and narrow, so leave the bike on the edge. Schlagsdorf, five kilometres away, is a small village on the old border, with a museum about the frontier. If the day is fine, take the long way round the lake before you leave.

5. Back to Mölln lake town finish

   Back at Mölln lake town. That is the ride.

Where this sits

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