Ausflug 38

July 2nd: Eutin, Germany

Comfortably ensconced in Detlef and Susanne's condominium in Haffkrug, Germany, after short visit with Heinke and Gustl, we began to slowly explore the electric bicycles that we had Detlef purchase for us that Spring. In Germany, most e-bikes use motor-assisted pedaling, and that system took some getting used to. After two days of short, cautious trips down the coast to the next town, Scharbeutz, to shop for groceries, purchase stamps, and routine errands like that, we were ready to try our bicycles out on a longer day trip.

We settled on a ride out to Eutin because Detlef had told us that it was a picturesque small city right on a small lake. The "Hosteinische Schweiz" is a gently rolling landscape filled with moors and lakes interspersed with wheat fields and pastures, much like the Lake District in England, and we were eager to see it.

From the condo in Haffkrug we took the Waldweg Strasse (Forest Way Street) across a meadow and into, well, a small forest that had the impressive name of "Staatsforest Eutin" (State Forest of Eutin). After waiting for a regional train to zip by at crossing, we continued on a bike path through the forest and over to the small village of Suesel, where we jogged left on a small country lane type of bicycle path to the tiny village of Fassensdorf. There we zigged back to a heading of due North to Bockholt and then onward to Eutin. Although we had taken the indirect route to avoid having to ride on streets with heavy traffic, we found that the rural bicycle paths really gave us a close glimpse of the beautiful German countryside in the Holsteinische Schweiz.

On the outskirts of Eutin we paused at an Information Center that featured nice city maps--useful because our bicycle map lacked a detailed map of the city--and public bathrooms--also useful after two hours of riding our bikes! We decided to continue into town on the Luebecker Strasse (Luebeck Street) which turned into Carl Maria Von Weber Strasse. As it turned out, the famous composer Carl Maria Von Weber had been born in Eutin and the good folks of the city had obligingly named one of the town's main streets after their local-boy-made-good.

Downtown Eutin really was picturesque, having many half-timber and fancy red brick buildings from previous centuries. We carefully locked up our bikes down at a small city park and flower garden right next to the town pier, and then went exploring the old town area on foot. That is one of the biggest advantages to seeing Germany by bicycle: you just ride to where something looks interesting, then lock your bike around the nearest post and toddle off to see the sights! (No foo-feraw trying to find a place to park the dingbat car and then trying to figure out how to pay for the parking!)

First we followed the shoreline of the lake to the old castle, or mansion house really, that had a beautiful interior courtyard and even a sundial! After wandering around the adjoining gardens a bit, we cut back past the cathedral to the market square, where a "Troedel Markt" (Junk Market) caught Monika's eye and so we stopped to check out the not-quite-antiques, picking up a couple porcelain cups for Heinke.

By then it was noon and time to eat! In Germany, many restaurants offer luncheon specials from noon to around 2:00 p.m., and we found a nice cafe on the main market square that offered meatloaf, salad, and mashed potatoes with peas for 5.50 Euro (around $7). The meal was quite good. Monika also got a big, draft, dark Bitburger Bier for a couple Euros more and I got the usual teensy-weensy-itsy-bitsy glass of Coca-Cola for the same amount (maybe 8 fluid ounces?). Germans believe in beer but not really soft drinks, my impression is that those of us who choose to abstain are punished with small serving sizes!

After lunch we ambled around the market square and environs, enjoying a a coiled glazed pastry studded with raisins that goes by the name of "Rosinenschnecke" (try one--you'll like it!) for desert. We came a-cropper when we found a "Euro Store" which is exactly like a "Dollar Store" in the United States. The fun part of a Dollar Store is wandering around looking at all the weird, cheap stuff. The problem with a Dollar Store, especially when riding bicycles, is that when you BUY the weird, cheap stuff you have to somehow pack it home on the bicycles. In this case our loot included rolls of electrical tape, 4 bags of chocolates, a jar of licorice candy, 2 packages of carabiners, and hair bands.

We headed back toward our bicycles, only to find out that Monika had worn the yellow "Germany" hat she found right out of the store without paying for it! So after a quick return to pay the extra Euro, we walked back to the bikes and carefully loaded them up for the ride back to Haffkrug. Being a bit tired, we chose the direct route along the main highway 76 back to Haffkrug, and found out much to our relief that we had a completely separate bicycle path for the whole way. It was still a bit noisy with the trucks roaring by every now and then, but at least we were physically separated from the automobile traffic and completely safe. The bicycles allow "low", "medium", and "high" levels of pedaling assistance, and we were certainly using "high" more often as we returned home!