Day 7 - Cycle to Hamburg

We are headed to Hamburg today. I love leaving in the morning when I am fresh, the air is cool and the morning light so beautiful. It is my favorite time of day. Lübeck with its brick Gothic architecture looks lovely as we make our way out of town. It is a little busy but soon we are back in rural areas with bike paths through the woods. I am on the e-bike today and Kathy the regular one. At 25 km we stop at a British type coffee/tea place run by a German woman who lived in Britain for many years and her British husband. It was decorated with flower wallpaper and we use china tea cups. I have apple pie and Dave has the carrot cake. There are many other delectable choices. 

We stop in Lütjensee at a bakery to pick up sandwiches for lunch. We eat them later in a pretty park with a WW1 memorial. I wish we had this type of lunch more often. It is just the right amount of food and we don't spend a lot of time on lunch. The weather is beautiful. We come to the edge of Hamburg but are still on bike paths through woods until almost there. The rest of the ride into Hamburg is precarious. We make many turns while dodging pedestrians and cyclists. They are used to bikes here so no one gets upset about moving for you, but it nevertheless requires full concentration to avoid a collision of some sort. I'm sure the arrows were difficult to mark but they are clear and easy to follow. I am so glad to have the e-bike today because several kilometers of the bike paths today are on gravel with ruts and mud. The e-bike's wider tires and more substantial weight make for a more stable ride through this rough part. The e-bike is a little trickier though to handle in traffic as my response times are not as quick. It takes me longer to slow down, make turns, get clipped back in.  All make it safely to Hotel Henri. We walk together to dinner at a place near the water for a delicious meal. 

I am pleasantly surprised by how nice Hamburg is. I have the picture in my mind of a gritty, industrial city that isn't very interesting. I can see that I am wrong. I like the variety of architecture and find the modern buildings interesting. In fact, few American tourists come here. Hamburg is Germany's second largest city and  largest port. Hamburg was a very successful Hanseatic city and has engaged in business with the world ever since. It is the nation's premier media hub and wealthiest city.

It has been a great day. We rode 70 km today.

                                       Leaving Lübeck in the morning light

                                          Some of our group at the coffee stop

                                       Charming coffee/tea shop

                                       WW I Memorial at our lunch stop

                                   Another beautiful bike path through the woods

                                   Wallpaper in our room at Hotel Henri in Hamburg

              Beef Tartare for dinner appetizer

Day 6 - Cycle to Lübeck

We leave Eutin amid clouds and cool weather. Perfect for riding though. We made our way out of town to  more bike paths through woods. Kathy is feeling better though still has a sore throat. She rides the e-bike today and I the regular one. We eventually come to the Baltic Sea and ride on the path along the sea along with other bikers, walkers and runners. The sun comes in and out. We stop for coffee at a place along the beach. We have only 49 km to go today so no hurry. Philipp is the sweep today and we enjoy his company. We head southwest to Lübeck, our next stay. Before entering town, we get on the bus set up specially to carry us and our bikes through the Herrentunnel underneath the Trave River. 

Lübeck is referred to as the Queen of Hanseatic cities. It's extensive brick gothic architecture is listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage site. The Hanse or Hanseatic League was a commercial and defensive confederation of merchant guilds and their market towns. This area was a source of timber, wax, amber, resins, and furs, along with rye and wheat brought on barges from the hinterland to port markets. Lübeck achieved domination of trade in the Baltic with striking speed during the 13th century by building trading posts which stretched from the Baltic to the North Sea and inland during the 15th to 19th centuries. 

Lübeck is also called the city of seven spires because of its medieval skyline mainly composed of seven gothic-style church towers. It is also known for one of the best marzipans in the world made by Niederegger. 

We meet for our briefing and then go for a tour of the Niederegger marzipan store.  The store is pure eye candy with its colorful displays of different marzipan products. We go upstairs for a talk about the process of making marzipan by a pastry chef. It is very labor intensive! No wonder it costs a lot. We are given a sample of marzipan and a marzipan based drink. Very interesting.

We want to go to a concert at 7:00 that Philipp told us about at St. Marian in Lübeck church. Since we had a late lunch, we just get a quick bite with Frank and Jeannie before going to the concert. The concert is an organ concert with pieces by Schweelinck, Bruhns, Franck and Liszt. I really enjoy the opportunity to go to something like this. 

It has been a fun, relatively relaxing day. Evelyn, Philipp's wife and his 5 year old daughter, Carlota, have arrived to spend three nights with us. 

                              Our luggage piled up ready to be packed in the van

                                     A stop by the Baltic Sea with Joanne and Dave

                                 Another beautiful bike path

                                 Bikes on the bike bus to take us through the Herrentunnel

                                    Our hotel - Hotel Ko15

                                                         Marzipan!

Day 5 - Loop ride through the Holsteinische Schweiz

Another beautiful weather day! Couldn't be nicer. We are two nights in this place. It's always nice not to have to pack up our stuff and move on. We will do a loop ride today, short or long, or you don't have to ride at all. Unfortunately, Kathy is sick and will stay in bed today. Fortunate that we are staying in the same place and fortunate that we have a doctor on the trip (Billy) who brought some antibiotics with him. 

Dave and I choose to do the short ride (45km) so we can get back and have time to explore the town and perhaps go to the flower show.  We pedal through the ever changing landscape of the Young Drift moraines formed during the last ice age. Small woods alternate with hedged, arable fields and many lakes are nestled among the low hills. It is about as hilly as yesterday so I am glad to have the e-bike. It is a beautiful ride! We pass through several towns with neatly kept brick homes with beautiful flower gardens. We stop for coffee in Plön. Linda B shares a huge Danish with me. Yum! Several people are doing the long route and when we reach the town of Malente we don't see anyone else eating lunch so Dave and I have a delicious bowl of fish soup at a restaurant right on the Dieksee in front of us. Our leader Jessica joins us. She is from Basel, Switzerland, a German speaking part of that country. She is friendly and competent and loves working for Experience Plus! This is her first season with the company. Her boyfriend is also leading tours and the two of them will do the Danube tour after ours. She says this is the best job she has ever had. It is 10 km back to the hotel after lunch. We run into Don and Jane and ride back with them. 

After a rest, we meet up with Kathy and John and go to the flower show. Kathy is feeling not great but better. The flower show, called 2016 Landes Garten Schau is a big thing. It takes place in a different city each year and runs from May to October. It spreads over a wide area right on the lake. There are many places to eat, playgrounds for children and displays of different kinds of gardens. 

We meet for our briefing at 5:30 and walk to dinner together at a castle near the garden show. It is a lovely place and we have a delicious meal. I am enjoying the earlier dinner times! It has been a very nice day. Not only have I biked 45 km but my step counter tells me I have walked 14,000 steps, or 5.5 miles. I am ready for a good sleep.

                Cows seen in the lake from the restaurant where we ate lunch in Malente

         Can you find  Sylvester the Chicken?

                                                Riding along

               Who can guess what this is? (Answer:  a charging station for e-bikes)

                                Rhubarb seen growing along the road everywhere

Day 4 - Shuttle/train/ferry/bicycle to Eutin

I am still so mad that I lost my post last night that I hope my rewrite today doesn't reflect on our really fun, varied day yesterday. Weather is picture postcard perfect, the nicest we have had. It is sunny and warm enough to take off our jackets but not too warm. A bus picks us up at our hotel and takes us to the train station, about a 45 minute ride. We board the Berlin-Copenhagen line and go to the ferry where we drive directly onto the ship. (A side note here. We become so dependent on our Experience Plus! trips that we become like robots. We had a little trouble finding the right train car to get on. Even Jessica our leader had trouble. So we get on the one we think is correct. We have reserved seats so we all find one and sit down. It seems a little strange that no one else is on this car but whatever. We reach some station down the line and a woman conductor comes in the car and tells us that this car is being taken out of service so we have to move. She asks us where we are going. Unbelievably and hilariously we all look at each other dumbfounded and say "we don't know!" Then Jessica comes and we all follow her to the proper car, her little sheep in tow. ) We have lunch on the ferry during our 45 minute ride and cross the Fehrman Belt to enter Germany. We spend the last of our Danish kroner on lunch and somehow come out with just 2 kroner left! The train drives right out the end of the ferry and we are on our way. We get off at Oldenburg, the second stop. Philipp is waiting for us with the van and bikes. Kathy is riding the e-bike today and I have the regular bike. 

We ride 38 km to the city of Eutin (oy-tin) for our two night stay at Das kleine Hotel Eutin. The terrain is rolling hills, farmland, crops and cows not so different from what we have come from in Denmark. We learn that this part of Germany has gone back and forth between being part of Germany and part of Denmark. This area is known as the "Holstein Switzerland" because it is reminiscent of Switzerland in some ways. However, the highest " mountain" is just 394 meters so the comparison is questionable. It is beautiful though. We ride on many bike paths some of which are through dense woods with dappled sunlight. This is cycling at its best! This area is also known as the German lakes region for all the little, and large, lakes here. 

Our hotel is in an old renovated building that has been turned into a hotel. It is charming and interesting since they have kept some of the original parts such as the floor and doors. The door to our room is very narrow as if perhaps this used to be a closet or maybe a maid's quarters. There are large windows to let in lots of light. Our room is rather small while some of the others have very large spacious rooms. We are greeted by a friendly welcoming person at the reception desk who shows us to our room. 

There is a nice garden area in back where we meet for our briefing. We are on our own for dinner and we go to the Bacchuskeller Restaurant near the hotel. The friendly hotel woman takes us there herself. It is a lovely brick place and the food is wonderful. I have the pulled pork and Dave has the salmon. Others have the veal. All are large portions and are delicious.

This is the end to a really nice day. I am tired but will sleep with pleasant memories of the day.

Day 3 - Bicycle to Stege on the Island of Møn

Today is a great day of riding. It starts out overcast and cool but the sun comes out in a couple of hours. I ride the regular bike today and Kathy rides the e-bike. I'm sure the cool temperatures contribute to my good energy level all day. We ride 75 km today. We pass lots of farms, grain fields of some sort, cows and pastoral landscapes. Some of the time we are in woods with filtered sunlight coming through the trees, one of my most favorite environments in which to cycle. You can see from the pictures below some of the landscapes we passed through. Our route today has a few small rolling hills. I like that because it gives relief from having to constantly pedal on the flat. Philipp is our sweep rider and we always enjoy the opportunity to visit with him. 

We pedal south to Præstø Fjord and the small town of Præstø which began as a merchant village in the 14th century. We stop to view the Nysø Mansion which is where Hans Christian Andersen wrote many of his stories. It is now privately owned so you can't go in. In the first half of the 19th century, this was an artist colony. Many artists, writers, painters of all sorts came here to be creative and share in an artist community.

We stop for lunch in Præstø where we have absolutely huge and delicious sandwiches which Denmark is known for. Yummy! 

We cross over Wolf Straight (Ulvsund) on the Queen Alexandrine Bridge to get to the Island of Møn. This beautiful bridge is pictured on the 500 kroner bank note. The island is famous for its natural beauty and sandy beaches as well as the majestic Møns Klint white chalk cliffs. We stop in the charming town of Stege just a few kilometers from the hotel for delicious coffee and chocolate cake. Denmark serves really good coffee!

Our hotel tonight is right on a golf course - Hotel Præstekilde Møn Alps. Our dinner is delicious served by a chatty man who seems to be both chef and overall manager. Before dinner we have a beer tasting led by Philipp. That man knows something about everything I think. We tasted four different beers and he explained the differences and how beer is made.

                          Example of charming farmhouses we passed today.

                                 Our route takes us through beautiful woods like these

                                  We passed through many fields of grain like this one

                                      A typical farm

            Love the way this is pretty busy highway but the cars have to share the lane in the middle

         And there are well marked, smoothly paved bike paths on both sides. 

                   Road sign along the highway with the bike path in the previous picture

                           My delicious sandwich for lunch. Good thing I was hungry!

Day 2 - Bicycle to Rødvig

Weather looks good as we get ready to start about 9:00. Being Sunday morning, traffic is light as we leave Copenhagen making it much easier to navigate our way out of the city than it was yesterday. We ride on the bike paths of the city along with the locals. We goof up a couple of times trying to make a "Copenhagen left turn" but it is really nice to be in a place where bicycles are a respected form of transportation and not viewed as just an annoyance on the road. In fact, in many cases, cyclists get priority. Cars wait for cyclists to go through the intersection before making a right turn and in general are aware of cyclists on the road. Cycling is actively encouraged in Denmark's effort to make their carbon footprint zero by 2023. We asked what cyclists do in the winter and were told they ride bikes year round because that is their transportation. Apparently, Denmark doesn't get a lot of snow. 

As we ride out of Cooenhagen, we go past the nature reserve of Kalvebod Fælled. It is a popular destination for the people of Copenhagen to connect with nature on weekends, go for a bike ride or enjoy an ice cream. Most of the ride today is in peaceful rural areas characteristic of Denmark. There are fields of grain, a few cows and a few farm houses. The sky provides unending beauty with ever changing cloud formations that make constantly changing patterns on the landscape. For a few minutes, sun filters through and a few minutes later, it gets cloudy and looks like rain. 

We are on bike paths most of the day. Every town of any size has them. It is windy most of the time! Temperature is pleasant for riding. Our route Is perfectly flat. I've never seen a flatter elevation profile! We stop in Køge for lunch and eat in the town square at a restaurant that offers a Sunday brunch. I am hungry so Dave and I avail ourselves of the many choices at the buffet table. There are delicious salads of all sorts as well as egg dishes. The final part of our ride is on a very pretty rural road with old farm houses. I wish I had taken some pictures of them. We arrive at The town of Rødvig to Hotel Klingen right on the Baltic Sea in a little harbor. There are boats in the harbor and It is quiet and peaceful here, welcome after being in a big city for four nights. It rains just a little during the last few kilometers. We have a nice view of the water right from the big floor to ceiling windows in our room.

We have ridden 74 kilometers. I was so happy riding my e-bike. I still worked hard but had a little energy left at the end of the day. I think this may be the bike of the future for me at least if we want to continue doing these bike trips. 

We have dinner at the hotel. It is a delicious buffet of traditional Danish foods. We eat at 6:30 and are back in our rooms by 8:45. I like this schedule!

                                   Getting ready to go in the morning. Check those tires!

                                                Bicycle route sign

     The ever changing clouds and light made for a light show on these buildings and silver

       silos in the distance

                                         Lunch in Køge

                                     Our hotel right on the Baltic Sea

Further exploring and Bike Fitting

It was cloudy and overcast today with periods of light rain, a typical Copenhagen summer day according to the locals. As we were leaving the hotel, we saw Philipp and Jessica, two of our leaders. They had unloaded our bikes and left us a welcome note with time schedule. We walked to the National Museum and spent an interesting couple of hours there. Danish history is depicted chronologically starting with the Stone Age and progressing to modern times. The museum is huge and we could only see a small part of it. We had a light lunch before walking back to the hotel in time for our 2:00 meeting for safety talk and bike fitting. Kathy and I plan to share the e-bike. Since I didn't bring my seat from home, I am very happy that one just like it is on the bike! 

It is raining lightly as we start out for our test ride. Riding on bikes in Copenhagen is an experience. As I mentioned before, bikes reign supreme here. They are a major form of transportation so people aren't out for a Sunday afternoon ride. They are going someplace and often riding fast. One has to pay attention and follow the rules of the road including the unfamiliar to us, "Copenhagen left turn." When in the bike lane and wanting to turn left at a major intersection, you keep going straight on the green light and then stop in the waiting area on the other side until the light turns green in that direction and you proceed ahead in that direction. The waiting area quickly fills up with bikes so it was a little confusing. The rain had washed away the arrows and we quickly got off course. This is the first year that Experience Plus! has given us GPS tracks and I had downloaded them just to see what they were like. I didn't intend to use them but we were very glad to have today's route which helped us get back on track and to navigate the route. It worked really well but main problem in using them "live" on a long ride is that they use up the phone battery quickly. Kathy is almost knocked over by a man exiting a bus just as she is riding by. She manages to stay upright. We finally make our way back to the hotel after going just 7.49 km but it was an adventurous 7 km!

We meet at 5:00 for a glass of wine and briefing for the next day. We walk together to dinner at Höle, an avant garde Danish restaurant. We have many small plates based on molecular food preparation. The chef comes and tells us what we are having. He is kind of cute - tall, slender, young (30's?), a mop,of curly hair. There are combinations I have never heard of. It's one of the most interesting meals I've ever had. We finish at the early hour of 8:30 which we appreciate. 

It's been a fun, interesting day and we are looking forward to starting our ride tomorrow. Off to bed now!

                                        Bike parking at the train station

                                     View along riverfront at New Harbor

                               Kathy and Dave trying to figure out where the heck we are!