Why this ride
303 km from Laboe to Lütjenburg, about 5 h 13 of riding. On the way it passes Schönberg coast road, Hohwacht bay stop, Lütjenburg old-road and Plön lake.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Kiel · Fjord, Laboe and Hohwacht Lakes Loop + Kiel · Fehmarn and Baltic Coast Long Day
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 303 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 5 h 13
- 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
Hohwacht bay stop → Lütjenburg old-road reset
14 km through ground somebody thought worth listing. The road passes it rather than bypassing it — speed drops and stays down. Park rather than crawl through.
Chapter facts
- Length
- 13 km
Eutin return lake → Back to Lütjenburg
Water arrives beside the road and stays for 39 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
- 36 km
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Laboe memorial view
The Laboe naval memorial is the tallest thing on this coast by a long way, a slim brick tower, seventy-two metres high, that rises from a bluff at the mouth of Kiel Fjord and can be seen from far out at sea. It was built between 1927 and 1936 to commemorate German sailors who died in the First World War, and later its meaning was widened to remember seafarers of all nations who lost their lives at sea, a gesture that still stirs debate. You can climb the tower, or take a lift, for a view over the whole fjord, where ferries, warships and sailing yachts cross the water in a constant parade.
Read the complete Laboe memorial view write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Laboe memorial view is where the day begins. Next is Schönberg coast road.
2. Schönberg coast road
East of the Kiel Fjord the shore settles into the long, open sweep of the Probstei, and the coast road gives you the Baltic in small glimpses between dike and field. The most famous landmark of the area stands at the fjord's mouth: the naval memorial at Laboe, a tall, narrow brick tower, around eighty-five metres high, shaped like the stern of a ship, that can be seen from far across the water. It was built in the 1930s as a monument to German sailors and was reopened after the war as a memorial to seafarers of all nations, and a lift takes visitors to the top for a view over the fjord and the sea. Beside it lies a Second World War submarine, which can be visited.
Read the complete Schönberg coast road write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Schönberg coast road comes up 43 km in. Next is Hohwacht bay stop.
3. Hohwacht bay stop
Hohwacht Bay is a wide curve of the Baltic coast in eastern Holstein, with a long, sandy beach, low dunes and shallow, gentle water that warms quickly in summer. The land here is flat and green, with the sea on one side and the rolling hills of Holstein Switzerland on the other, and the light has that clear, northern quality that painters love.
Read the complete Hohwacht bay stop write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
86 km in you reach Hohwacht bay stop. Next is Lütjenburg old-road.
4. Lütjenburg old-road reset
The land around Lütjenburg is what geologists call young moraine, which means the last ice sheet only left about fifteen thousand years ago, and the ground still looks freshly rumpled. Instead of the flat plains of the west or the old, rounded hills of the south, this corner of Holstein is a patchwork of small hills, hollows and ponds, with farmland cut into fields by hedges and lines of trees. The old roads here follow the grain of the land, dipping into valleys, crossing little streams and climbing again, with none of the dead-straight grid of the modern bypasses.
Read the complete Lütjenburg old-road reset 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, 129 km in. Next is Plön lake sweep.
5. Plön lake sweep
A circuit of the Great Plön Lake is one of the nicest easy rides in Schleswig-Holstein, and the best part of it is that the lake never really leaves you. At times the water is a bright sheet ahead through the trees, at others a dark gleam behind a field, and now and then the road comes down to the shore itself, at a harbour, a landing stage or a beach. The lake is the largest in the state, wide and island-dotted, and the glacial hills around it give the road a pleasant rise and fall.
Read the complete Plön lake sweep write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Plön lake sweep sits at 172 km, about halfway. Next is Back to Laboe.
6. Back to Laboe
By the time the road brings you back to Laboe, the day has usually done its work, and the town greets you with the particular tiredness of a seaside place at dusk. Fishing boats bump gently in the harbour, the promenade lights flicker on, and somewhere a ship's horn sounds out on the fjord. It is a pleasant place to end a ride, small enough that you can see everything in a few minutes.
Read the complete Laboe write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
The route ends here after 472 km. Next is Lütjenburg.
7. Lütjenburg fuel gate
Lütjenburg is a small, tidy market town on the Baltic side of Schleswig-Holstein, a few kilometres from the sea in a rolling country of fields, lakes and low hills. People here call the region Holstein Switzerland, a joke that is half serious, because by the flat standards of northern Germany the landscape counts as dramatic, with hills of a hundred metres or so and lakes in the hollows. About five and a half thousand people live in the town, and it has the feel of a place that has been a local centre for a long time.
Read the complete Lütjenburg fuel gate write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Fill up here — 215 km left and no pump marked after this. Next is Hohwacht bay view.
8. Hohwacht bay view
Hohwacht Bay is a wide, shallow curve of the Baltic between the Bay of Kiel and the Fehmarn Belt, and the view from the shore on a clear day opens a long, gentle arc of pale sand and low green land. The beach at Hohwacht is a broad one, backed by low dunes and a wooded cliff, and the water in front of it is so shallow that you can wade out a long way before it reaches your waist. That makes it good for families, and for anyone who wants a cool dip without the effort of swimming.
Read the complete Hohwacht bay view write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Hohwacht bay view, about halfway at 10 m. Next is Heiligenhafen harbour.
9. Heiligenhafen harbour
The first thing you notice in Heiligenhafen is the smell, a mix of diesel, salt and smoked fish that tells you the harbour is still working. A small fleet of cutters ties up along the quay, and in the morning you may see men sorting the catch of herring, cod and flatfish before it goes to the fish shops and the stalls. The harbour sits at the end of a peninsula that pushes out into the Baltic, and the town spreads around it, with a seafront promenade, a long pier and a marina full of sailing boats.
Read the complete Heiligenhafen harbour write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Food at 343 km, roughly 7 hours into the riding. Next is Fehmarn bridge view.
10. Fehmarn bridge view
Fehmarn is joined to the mainland by one of the most recognisable bridges in Germany, a steel arch about a kilometre long that spans the Fehmarnsund and carries both road and rail. Opened in 1963, it has an elegant, slightly improbable shape, and locals call it the coat hanger. The bridge was built as part of the so-called Bird Flight Line, a transport route linking Hamburg with Copenhagen via the island and a ferry to Denmark, and it has been the main way on and off Fehmarn ever since.
Read the complete Fehmarn bridge view write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Fehmarn bridge view comes up 386 km in. Next is Eutin return lake.
11. Eutin return lake
The ride back toward Eutin at the end of the day has its own light. The sun is low, the colours deepen, and the lakes of Holstein Switzerland turn from blue to a deep pewter or a burnished gold, depending on the sky. The road comes in from the north through beech and farmland, past Kasseedorf and the small lakes, and the town appears with its church tower and palace roofs above the trees. On a still evening the water is like glass, and the only sound is the tick of the engine cooling.
Read the complete Eutin return lake write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
429 km in you reach Eutin return lake. Next is Back to Lütjenburg.
12. Back to Lütjenburg
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Lütjenburg 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 Lütjenburg closes the day.
Leg by leg
Laboe memorial view to Schönberg coast road
Laboe memorial view → Schönberg coast road is 20 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Schönberg coast road to Hohwacht bay stop
Schönberg coast road → Hohwacht bay stop is 44 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hohwacht bay stop to Lütjenburg old-road reset
Hohwacht bay stop → Lütjenburg old-road reset is 13 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Lütjenburg old-road reset to Plön lake sweep
Lütjenburg old-road reset → Plön lake sweep is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Plön lake sweep to Back to Laboe
Plön lake sweep → Back to Laboe is 63 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Back to Laboe to Lütjenburg fuel gate
Back to Laboe → Lütjenburg fuel gate is 56 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Lütjenburg fuel gate to Hohwacht bay view
Lütjenburg fuel gate → Hohwacht bay view is 13 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hohwacht bay view to Heiligenhafen harbour
Hohwacht bay view → Heiligenhafen harbour is 44 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Heiligenhafen harbour to Fehmarn bridge view
Heiligenhafen harbour → Fehmarn bridge view is 18 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fehmarn bridge view to Eutin return lake
Fehmarn bridge view → Eutin return lake is 91 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Eutin return lake to Back to Lütjenburg
Eutin return lake → Back to Lütjenburg is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.