Why this ride
A 209 km loop that starts and ends near Kiel, about 2 h 43 of riding. It goes by way of Westensee, Nortorf and Neustadt.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Kiel · Westensee, Nortorf and Canal Sweep + Kiel · Neustadt Bay and Lake Return
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 209 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 2 h 43
- Journey
- Loop
Distance and timing basis
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. 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
Nortorf coffee stop → Rendsburg canal view
62 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
- 14 km
Baltic Coast Scenic Road
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For 42 km this is Baltic Coast Scenic Road, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Chapter facts
- Length
- 42 km
- Named road
- Baltic Coast Scenic Road
Neustadt bay → Back to Plön lake road
Water arrives beside the road and stays for 83 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
- 83 km
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Kiel
Kiel is a city that faces the water in every direction. It sits at the head of the Kiel Fjord, a long inlet of the Baltic, and at the eastern end of the Kiel Canal, which cuts across the base of the Jutland peninsula to the North Sea and is the busiest artificial waterway in the world by ship traffic. Cargo ships, tankers and ferries pass in a line, and from the high bridges you can watch giant vessels slide past apparently at roof level. The canal was opened in 1895, and for its size and importance it deserves more visitors than it gets.
2. Westensee
3. Nortorf
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.
4. Neustadt
5. Kiel
Return visit. Read the place description above.