Hamburg · Schlei Fjord and Angeln Loop + Hamburg · North Sea Dikes and Eiderstedt Air

Scenic road chapters

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Neumünster fuel escape

   Neumünster is not a town people ride to, but it is a very good town to ride out of. It lies in the middle of Schleswig-Holstein, where the motorways from Hamburg, Kiel and the north meet, and it has the practical, working feel of a place built by industry. For centuries it was a centre of cloth and leather, and the textile mills lined the little Schwale river, though most of them closed in the twentieth century. The town grew from a monastery, founded in the early twelfth century by the missionary Vicelin, and his name is still borne by the main church.

   Read the complete Neumünster fuel escape write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Neumünster fuel escape is where the day begins. Next is Schleswig harbour sight.

2. 2. Schleswig harbour sight

   Schleswig lies at the head of the Schlei, a narrow, winding arm of the Baltic that reaches forty kilometres inland and looks more like a river than a fjord. The harbour is small and cheerful, with sailing boats, a few pleasure steamers and a promenade where people stroll and eat fish rolls. Across the water you can see the roofs of the old town, and above them the slim spire of the cathedral, whose tower rises to well over a hundred metres and dominates the skyline for miles.

   Read the complete Schleswig harbour sight write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Schleswig harbour sight comes up 79 km in. Next is Geltinger Birk coast edge.

3. 3. Geltinger Birk coast edge

   The Geltinger Birk is the north-eastern tip of Angeln, a low, windy peninsula that pushes out into the Baltic where the Flensburg Fjord opens to the sea. It is one of the largest nature reserves on the Baltic coast of Schleswig-Holstein, a landscape of dunes, salt meadows, lagoons and old alder woodland, with large areas given over to semi-wild grazing. Hardy cattle and small horses roam the meadows, and their grazing keeps the land open and rich in flowers and insects. On a clear day, you can see across the water to the Danish island of Als.

   Read the complete Geltinger Birk coast edge write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   158 km in you reach Geltinger Birk coast edge. Next is Kappeln Schlei bridge.

4. 4. Kappeln Schlei bridge

   Kappeln lies on the Schlei, a long narrow inlet of the Baltic that reaches forty-odd kilometres inland, like a fjord that forgot to be steep. The bridge itself is the town's emblem: a lifting bridge from the 1920s that opens to let ships through, so be prepared to wait a few minutes while the roadway rises and the sailing boats glide past.

   Read the complete Kappeln Schlei bridge write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Somewhere to get off the bike, 237 km in. Next is Back to Neumünster.

5. 5. Back to Neumünster

   Neumünster is a town of seventy-eight thousand, the biggest between Hamburg and Kiel, and it earns its keep as a place where roads, railways and fortunes cross. It grew rich on cloth, and for much of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries its mills and tanneries made it one of the great textile and leather towns of northern Germany. A museum of cloth and technology tells that story, and the old industrial buildings still stand in the quarters near the river.

   Read the complete Neumünster write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Finish at Back to Neumünster. That is the ride. Next is Itzehoe.

6. 6. 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 Friedrichstadt canal stop.

7. 7. 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.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   474 km in you reach Friedrichstadt canal stop. Next is Sankt Peter-Ording beach air.

8. 8. 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.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Sankt Peter-Ording beach air, late in the day. Next is Eider barrage photo.

9. 9. 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.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   Eider barrage photo sits at 632 km, late in the day. Next is Back to Itzehoe.

10. 10. Back to Itzehoe

    Return visit. Read the place description above.

    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

    Back to Itzehoe closes the day.