Why this ride
A one-way ride of 262 km, Bad Doberan to Ribnitz-Damgarten - roughly 5 h 02 in the saddle. It goes by way of Kühlungsborn sea road, Rerik coast view, Satow inland bends and Bad Doberan minster. The coast is the point of it.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Kühlung Hills and Baltic Balcony + Darß Peninsula Air and Bodden Roads
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 262 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 5 h 02
- Journey
- One way; return travel is separate
Distance and timing basis
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. 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.
Scenic road chapters
Baltic Coast Scenic Road
For 26 km this is Baltic Coast Scenic Road, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it — expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast.
Chapter facts
- Length
- 23 km
- Named road
- Baltic Coast Scenic Road
Baltic Coast Scenic Road
Water arrives beside the road and stays for 26 km. The line follows the shore because there is nowhere else for it to go. Slow enough to look. The surface follows the shoreline, so the corners arrive where the water decided, not where an engineer did.
Chapter facts
- Length
- 23 km
- Named road
- Baltic Coast Scenic Road
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Bad Doberan minster
Bad Doberan has one of the finest brick Gothic churches in Europe, and it was built by monks. The minster, the Doberaner Münster, was the church of a Cistercian abbey founded in the twelfth century, and the present building, finished in the fourteenth century, is a tall, plain, pale-red brick basilica whose clear lines and soaring interior are the essence of the Baltic Gothic style. The abbey was dissolved at the Reformation, but the church survived, and the dukes of Mecklenburg were buried inside. Its stained glass, carved altars and a huge cross from the Middle Ages are still there.
Read the complete Bad Doberan minster write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Bad Doberan minster is where the day begins. Next is Kühlungsborn sea road.
2. Kühlungsborn sea road
Kühlungsborn is the largest seaside resort on the German Baltic coast, and from the top of the sea road you see why. A promenade runs for several kilometres along the beach, backed by rows of white villas in the old seaside style, with turrets, balconies and carved woodwork, many of them built in the decades before the First World War, when this was a fashionable resort for the Mecklenburg court and for visitors from Berlin. The beach is wide, pale and fine-grained, and the sea beyond is calm and shallow.
Read the complete Kühlungsborn sea road write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Kühlungsborn sea road comes up 53 km in. Next is Rerik coast view.
3. Rerik coast view
Rerik lies on the Salzhaff, a sheltered lagoon on the Mecklenburg Baltic coast, separated from the open sea by a long narrow peninsula called Wustrow, and the viewpoint looks across a landscape of water, reeds and low hills. It is a place of birds: in spring and autumn migrating geese, cranes and waders fill the lagoon, and the quiet shore draws birdwatchers with binoculars. The air smells of salt, seaweed and grass, and the light is wide and pale.
Read the complete Rerik coast view write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
107 km in you reach Rerik coast view. Next is Satow inland bends.
4. Satow inland bends
Satow is a village on the long, low plateau behind the Mecklenburg Baltic coast, a few kilometres inland from the sea and well off the usual tourist track. The town of Satow-Oberhagen has about six thousand people, and the countryside around it is a mix of cornfields, small woods and the avenues of old lime and chestnut trees that line so many roads in Mecklenburg. Following them is half the pleasure of riding here.
Read the complete Satow inland bends write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Satow inland bends, about halfway. Next is back to Bad Doberan minster.
5. back to Bad Doberan minster
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Bad Doberan minster 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 Bad Doberan minster. That is the ride. Next is Ribnitz-Damgarten.
6. Ribnitz-Damgarten fuel gate
Ribnitz-Damgarten is really two towns that were stitched together by a river. The Recknitz, sluggish and brown as it slides toward the Saaler Bodden lagoon, was for centuries a border: Ribnitz belonged to Mecklenburg, Damgarten to Pomerania, and the two places looked across the water with different rulers and different habits. They merged only in 1950, and the bridge that joins them is still the most important thing in town. It sits on the old main road to the Baltic coast, at the neck of the Fischland-Darß-Zingst peninsula, so nearly everyone riding toward the beaches has to pass through.
Read the complete Ribnitz-Damgarten write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Ribnitz-Damgarten is the fuel stop for this leg. Next is Ahrenshoop coast art stop.
7. Ahrenshoop coast art stop
Ahrenshoop is a village where artists came first and tourists followed. In the 1890s painters from Berlin, Munich and elsewhere found this thin strip of land between the Baltic and the Saaler Bodden, drawn by the light, the sea, the reed-thatched cottages and the wide sky, and they founded an artists' colony that still defines the place. The landscape painter Paul Müller-Kaempff was among the first to settle, and the village has been a haven for creative people ever since.
Read the complete Ahrenshoop coast art stop write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
321 km in you reach Ahrenshoop coast art stop. Next is Darß forest road edge.
8. Darß forest road edge
The Darß forest is the wildest piece of woodland on the German Baltic coast, and the road that skirts its edge between Born and Prerow runs along the border of a landscape that has been left largely to itself. The Darß Urwald, as it is called, is a mix of beech, alder, pine and birch growing on old dune ridges and wet hollows, where fallen trunks are left to rot and the undergrowth is thick with fern. It belongs to the Western Pomerania Lagoon Area National Park, and walkers follow marked paths among trees draped in moss.
Read the complete Darß forest road edge write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Darß forest road edge, late in the day. Next is Stralsund old town.
9. Stralsund old town
Stralsund sits on a strip of land between the Baltic and a chain of shallow lagoons, facing the island of Rügen across a narrow sound, and its old town is one of the finest assemblies of brick Gothic in Europe. UNESCO listed it in 2002 together with Wismar, and the reason is plain as soon as you walk onto the Old Market: the great town hall with its ornate, almost theatrical gabled facade, and across the square the enormous church of St Nicholas, built when the town was a rich member of the Hanseatic League and wanted everyone to know it.
Read the complete Stralsund old town write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Stralsund old town sits at 428 km, late in the day. Next is Back to Ribnitz-Damgarten.
10. Back to Ribnitz-Damgarten
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Ribnitz-Damgarten write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Back to Ribnitz-Damgarten closes the day.
Leg by leg
Bad Doberan minster to Kühlungsborn sea road
Bad Doberan minster → Kühlungsborn sea road is 23 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Kühlungsborn sea road to Rerik coast view
Kühlungsborn sea road → Rerik coast view is 23 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Rerik coast view to Satow inland bends
Rerik coast view → Satow inland bends is 48 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Satow inland bends to back to Bad Doberan minster
Satow inland bends → back to Bad Doberan minster is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back to Bad Doberan minster to Ribnitz-Damgarten fuel gate
back to Bad Doberan minster → Ribnitz-Damgarten fuel gate is 81 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Ribnitz-Damgarten fuel gate to Ahrenshoop coast art stop
Ribnitz-Damgarten fuel gate → Ahrenshoop coast art stop is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Ahrenshoop coast art stop to Darß forest road edge
Ahrenshoop coast art stop → Darß forest road edge is 23 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Darß forest road edge to Stralsund old town
Darß forest road edge → Stralsund old town is 83 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Stralsund old town to Back to Ribnitz-Damgarten
Stralsund old town → Back to Ribnitz-Damgarten is 92 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
More motorcycle rides nearby
- Kühlung Hills and Baltic Balcony · 74 km
- Fischland-Darß Coast Ride · 87 km
- Baltic Coast · Kühlung Hills · Wismar · 108 km
- Darß Peninsula Air and Bodden Roads · 293 km