Riding all over northern Germany to visit old friends and new places
After my successful Tour de Norddeutsche Tiefebene in March 2018 this second edition was a bit more ambitious - maybe because the people I wanted to visit have spread out further. The plan was to arrive in Hamburg from Mallorca on a Wednesday, pick up a road bike and ride to the island of Poel (to the north east of Hamburg) on the same day. The second day should bring me back to Hamburg. On day three and four I would ride to Wischhafen on the Elbe (west of the city) and back to Hamburg respectively.
The first day started under less than perfect circumstances: A major storm with winds up to 100 km/h was predicted to hit the area right that day - well at least it was supposed to blow me (and my very small backpack) in the right direction. During the 150 kilometers leading me out of Hamburg, around Lake Ratzeburg, into Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and via Wismar to the island of Poel the wind picked up more and more - almost to the point of not being able to stay on the bike! Somehow I made it however and spent a nice evening on Poel with good food and better talks.
My motivation to ride the same distance into a headwind on day two was very very small. So I decided to reroute and ride the 100km (still into a headwind) along the Baltic sea coast to Lübeck. The Baltic sea cycleway is very well developed and picks a great route through nice villages right by the sea. However there were quite a few signs of the storm the day before - e.g. fallen trees blocking the track. Arriving in Lübeck I actually caught the train to Hamburg without any waiting time and spent the evening with Jost - who you might remember from other articles on this page.
The next morning I started late by crossing the river Elbe via the old tunnel and continued my ride towards Wischhafen - a small village and new home of a friend I have known since school. After clearing the Hamburg harbor the route crossed the fruit growing area known as the "Altes Land" and then just followed the river. On the way I picked up another cyclist who was all geared up for bike packing. Turns out his name is Kevin and he was on a weekender towards Cuxhaven and we decided to ride a bit of the way together. In the end we had to build in a 15 kilometer detour due to an open drawbridge and had quite some time to talk. By the way, another 90 km headwind day...
Day 4 and another mode of transport: I took the ferry from Wischhafen to Glückstadt and made my way back to Hamburg. Not without detours of course! But 75 km later I was back at Josts place and at the final destination of my Re:Tour. Oh yeah and the wind had turned over night making this another... Headwind ride!
They say Sunday is for rest and I adhered to that and only attended the first public reading of a book I co wrote with Jost about our adventures as a heavy metal band in the early odds (that’s a completely different story and well I wrote a whole book about it).
Could this have been made easier by just taking trains all around? Sure. But that's not how I roll.
PS: Thanks to Melanie, Dalila, Ela, Jost and Tim for hosting me!
Adventurer: Bengt