Kiel · Canal Roads and Rendsburg Steel Loop

A 138 km loop from Nortorf

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Why this ride

Ships, bridges and low-stress sweepers away from the city. The best part sits around Rendsburg high bridge, Kiel Canal towpath view, Gettorf return road, while the most useful town stop keeps the day practical instead of turning it into a fuel or food hunt. Check the OSM map, Google preview and GPX checkpoint order before departure; they use the same waypoint sequence. Ride it with legal pull-offs, patience through villages and enough daylight to stop without rushing.

Roadbook

1. Nortorf fuel gate fuel · 27 m

   Nortorf will not make anyone's list of great European destinations, and it does not pretend to. It is a farming town of about six thousand people in the middle of Holstein, set on the edge of the Geest, the sandy, gently rolling ridge of central Schleswig-Holstein, halfway between Neumünster and Rendsburg. Its job, in a riding day, is a useful one: a place to fill the tank, get a decent breakfast, and set off along quiet back roads.

   What you find here is practical northern Germany. The market square is small and tidy, there are bakeries that open early, supermarkets, and a good number of cafes, and the main road makes for easy access from the A7 motorway. Beyond the town the landscape is classic Holstein, with fields enclosed by knicks, the old earth banks planted with hazel and oak that farmers have used as hedges for centuries. The land is low and rolling, and the sky is huge, with big cloud formations that cross the horizon in slow processions. The Naturpark Aukrug lies just to the south, with a mixture of woodland, heath and lakes that make for winding, shaded riding.

   The roads around Nortorf are mostly flat to gently undulating, with long bends and short straights between villages. The surface is generally good, but tractors and farm vehicles are common during harvest, and the occasional gravel or mud patch can appear at field entrances. Wind is a feature all year, as the North Sea and the Baltic are both only a short distance away, and rain squalls move through quickly. Mornings in early summer are lovely, with mist in the hollows and cows grazing, while October brings the smell of woodsmoke and ploughed earth.

   The Kiel Canal is only a few minutes north, and crossing it by ferry or bridge is a pleasant part of any loop. Fuel is easy here, and a town of this size also has banks and pharmacies, so it is a good place to take care of the small things before heading out. In the shops you will find the staples of Schleswig-Holstein: smoked fish, rye bread and strong black coffee, so a slow breakfast is a good way to begin.

2. Rendsburg high bridge sight · 10 m

   The Rendsburg high bridge is the sort of structure that makes people stop and take photographs, even if they do not care about engineering. Completed in 1913, it carries a railway line over the Kiel Canal on a long iron girder, 42 metres above the water so that the tallest ships can pass underneath. The railway does not simply cross the canal, however; it loops down and around the town on an enormous spiral so the trains can lose height gently, and the result is a steel ribbon that circles over the roofs.

   Hanging from the bridge is the other attraction, a transporter ferry, a platform suspended from rails that glides across the canal carrying cars and pedestrians. There are very few of these left in the world, and this one is still running and costs next to nothing to use. Riding onto it is a small adventure, and the view of ships passing close overhead is worth the short wait.

   The Kiel Canal, which opened in 1895 as the Kaiser Wilhelm Canal, links the North Sea with the Baltic, saving ships a long trip around Denmark, and it is one of the busiest artificial waterways in the world. Watching a huge container ship slide silently past a quiet town street is one of those odd, memorable northern German sights. The roads that run beside the canal are straight, flat and quiet, with a service road on each bank and long views through the trees.

   The point lies at ten metres above the sea, close to the centre of Rendsburg, a town of twenty-eight thousand with fuel stations, supermarkets and plenty of places to eat. Büdelsdorf, next door, is big as well. The wind blows constantly over the open country, and you will feel it on the bridge approaches. Allow time for the ferry, since it only carries a few vehicles at a time, and bring a camera. The best light comes in the late afternoon, when the ironwork turns a deep red-brown and the ships glow.

3. Kiel Canal towpath view photo · 8 m

   The Kiel Canal is the most heavily used artificial waterway in the world, a claim that surprises most people who have never stood beside it. It cuts ninety-eight kilometres across the base of the Danish peninsula from the North Sea at Brunsbüttel to the Baltic at Kiel, saving ships a long detour around Denmark, and it was opened in 1895 under the German emperor. The spot on the towpath near Schacht-Audorf, close to Rendsburg, is a fine place to watch it work.

   The scene is hypnotic. A huge container ship or tanker glides past at walking pace, its hull towering above the bank, so close that you can read the name on the bow and wave to the crew. The ships seem to move across the fields, because the canal sits low in the landscape, and a freighter appears above the hedges as though it were sailing through the meadows. Cars cross the canal on high bridges, and the old low-level ferries, which are free to use, ply back and forth in places.

   The canal has an unusual place in the landscape of Schleswig-Holstein. The countryside on either side is farmland, rolling and green, with cattle, rapeseed and hedges, and the contrast between the quiet fields and the vast industrial vessels is striking. Rendsburg itself is known for an iron railway bridge with a suspended ferry hanging beneath it, one of the few of its kind in the world, a piece of engineering from the early twentieth century that still carries passengers.

   The roads along the canal are flat, straight and fast, with a good surface and light traffic outside commuting hours. The wind can blow strongly across the open land, so hold the bars firmly. Riding here is not about corners but about the pleasure of an easy road, a wide sky and the occasional ship. A picnic on the bank is a good idea.

   Büdelsdorf, about seven kilometres away, has about ten thousand people and the fuel and shops you need, and Rendsburg is next door with more. Spring and early autumn have the clearest light, and a still morning is best for photographs of the ships.

4. Gettorf return road scenic · 18 m

   Gettorf is a small town in the rolling country between Kiel and Eckernförde Bay, and the road that leads from it back toward Kiel is a pleasant, easy way to end a day. The landscape is the classic hummocky farmland of eastern Schleswig-Holstein, shaped by glaciers: low hills, hollows filled with ponds, hedgerows and patches of beech wood. It is a gentle country, rich in birds, and the lanes follow the curves of the land.

   The town is old, with a church and a number of brick houses, and it grew as a market centre for the surrounding farms. Today it is mostly a commuter town for Kiel, with a pleasant centre and a few cafes. The Gettorf area belongs to a region known as Dänischer Wohld, the Danish Forest, a name that recalls the long centuries when this land was part of the Danish realm, and the district is still dotted with old manor houses with parks and farm shops.

   The ride toward the city is calm. The road runs through villages and fields, with moderate bends and a good surface, and the traffic is light on weekends and heavier at commuting hours. As you approach Kiel the view opens toward the fjord, with ferries and ships in the distance, and the sense of arrival is satisfying. The coast of the Baltic is only a few kilometres away on either side, and on a clear day you can smell the sea.

   For fuel and food the town has what a rider needs, with stations, a supermarket, bakeries and a few restaurants. Gettorf has about six thousand people, so it is large enough to be self-sufficient, and it makes a sensible last stop before the city. Farm shops along the road sell eggs, honey and apples in season.

   The best light comes in the late afternoon, when the sun is low and the fields are golden. In May the rapeseed turns the landscape yellow, and in August the grain is ripe. A slow ride with the visor up is the way to finish.

5. Back to Nortorf finish · 27 m

   Back at Nortorf. That is the ride.

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