Ausflug 38

July 6th: Bad Malente, Germany

A high pressure area over Germany gave us a bright, sunny day with a clear blue sky. I wanted to push the bikes a bit to see how the batteries would hold up, so we planned a meandering route first North to Suesel and Bujendorf and then meandering westward over to Lake Eutin and around that. (Note: The Gentle Reader should not expect to find these towns on his or her map of Germany--the Germans call them "kuhdorf" which literally translates as "cow town" and they are very small.)

It was a picture perfect day and we saw horses and cows out in the pastures and field upon field of ripening grain. Interspersed were the bucolic farmhouses and quaint little towns. From Bujendorf we continued North to Vinzier and Griebel where we arced westward through Zarnekau to Lake Eutin. Those last two kilometers, by the way, were on an unpaved, narrow (1-foot wide!) path straight across some farmer's fields.

Once again we joined European Path E 1 to curve around the northern shore of the lake, and that was a beautiful wide horse riding trail through the woods. I rather enjoyed blasting along over hill and especially down dale, a definite adrenalin rush. The forest canopy was so thick and green, however, that it really was dark enough on the forest floor that we had trouble making out exactly what kind of surface we had right in front of us. And that does make a difference! Small twigs and leaves didn't cause too many problems, but mud made the bikes skid around a bit and thick layers of sand bogged us down and made the bikes wobble. For me, there was never a dull moment and I was having the time of my life. Monika, being more sensible, had more misgivings about driving hell bent for leather through the woods.

We crossed a small foot and bicycle bridge to get to the northern edge of Eutin, which gave us some great views out over the lake and some people paddling a kayak around. We weren't tired yet, but we were both getting hungry, so we decided to extend our ride north and west to Bad Malente and have lunch there.

By the time we arrived in the center of Bad Malente, it was 12:00 noon and we had been riding for three hours, so when we found a restaurant right beside the town's boat dock, we were happy to lock up the bikes, sit back, and have a relaxed meal. We had a great view out over the lake from our table and a very restful and tasty lunch of Wiener schnitzel and bratkartoffeln and Monika trying out the local beer.

We decided to take a somewhat more direct route back to Haffkrug, roughly a diagonal path to the southeast, but we kept off the bike lanes along the highways as we both preferred the bike paths along the secondary or tertiary roads, or even better directly across the fields and forests. Backtracking to Eutin, we took the bike paths to Bockholt and further south to Fassensdorf before turning more eastward to get back to Suesel and ultimately Haffkrug. The way back was roughly 19 kilometers compared to about 25 kilometers on the way out to Bad Malente, and we managed it in maybe a bit more than two hours.

After five hours in the saddle, however, our butts were sore and our leg muscles were pretty much worn out. The more tired we became, the more we both used the higher levels of power assistance, but despite leaning heavily on the electric motors for coming back the batteries still indicated a 60% state-of-charge at the end of our ride. That may not be completely accurate, but it was clear to both of us that we would wear out physically long before these bikes exhausted their electric charge. Apparently the bikes are really good for somewhere over 50 kilometers of riding on each charge, which is something I wanted to know.

Storing the bikes in the cellar of the condominium, we somewhat stiffly walked upstairs to have a snack. For the rest of the afternoon, Monika went swimming and I had a nap, and then we just lazed about that evening. Detlef had told us about a music festival in Travemuende, about 12 kilometers down the Baltic shoreline, but we were just too wiped out to ride there even if the bikes could have made it! So our experiment in taking e-bikes across the German countryside resulted in one of the most enjoyable days of sightseeing that we have ever had.