One week after

Already one week home, time flies. My legs and knees have recovered and the tent is dry again :) People have asked about the highlights of this trip. I think the biggest highlight was that I could bike along the coast and see water every day - the baltic coast is so diverse that it did not get boring. It's also great to work towards something bigger. Every day cycling a little bit, enjoying the path, getting a bit closer to the goal, and to actually make it in the end! I am grateful that I got the chance to realize such a trip. I am also happy that some of my very good friends were able to join me for part of it and share the experience, despite major challenges.

To visualize the trip, I created a wordcloud from all my blog entries. That probably pictures the best what the other highlights were and how I saw every day. 

I will also link the google map of the whole trip again here: Google Map

The whole route, nearly 3000 kms. 

And our exact route along the German Baltic Sea coast tracked by GPS as a courtesy from Stephan: German Baltic Coast GPS

Eurovelo 10 done from Helsinki to Crivitz, what an adventure! Thanks to all of you for following and commenting again, and let's see if and what's next :)

Anja

Hello Crivitz! Arrival after 2986 kms from Helsinki

Lübeck - Crivitz 101.53 km

I cannot believe that I made it all the way home today, plus that I really biked more than 100 kms!

As I knew it's gonna be a loong day I started early from Lübeck after saying goodbye to Annalice and Theo. In Lübeck I still visited my old home. 

It was mostly a day along the bigger roads, but there were very good cycling paths. The first half was already done at 11 in the morning, when I had second breakfast in Gadebusch. My mum came to pick me up and accompany me by bike for the last 20 kms from Schwerin. What a feeling to cycle into Schwerin already. And of course we had to take pictures with the beautiful castle :)

My mum picked me up in Schwerin by bike :) 

We still had some delicious ice chocolate and a swim in the lake on the way home. And we still had to climb the hill in Muchelwitz :D That's our home hill. After that, we really and indeed arrived in Crivitz. 

Proof. I made it until Crivitz! 

It still feels unreal to have biked all the way from Helsinki until Crivitz via Sweden and Denmark. The total km count is 2986. 

Thank you to all of you who followed my blog, and even more for your comments! It was a pleasure to post here every day and keep you updated, plus it helps me to remember as well what happened. Maybe I will still write a summarising post in a few days, but until then I will be with my family and give my legs a break :) 

Bye bye coast

Lensterstrand - Lübeck 78.88 km

On our last day together we ate breakfast in a café in Grömitz. The route was beautiful today, a lot of times right on the beach. We enjoyed it especially, because it was out last day so close to the water. 

Neustadt.

Towards Travemünde.

We had really good ice cream and a swim at Timmendorfer Strand before making our way to Lübeck. There we met another old friend and her family, went out for dinner altogether and showed a little bit of Lübeck. Then it was already time to say good bye. It was such a great time!

Arrival in Lübeck.

Now, after catching up it's time to get some sleep to be prepared for the last day tomorrow. 

First puncture

Neuteschendorf - Lensterstrand 75.93 km

The morning went really fast. It was finally a bit "colder" and overcast, so the biking felt a lot easier. The first 20 kms felt like nothing. We had a lot of countryside and field views today, and as all the fields are already harvested it's quite empty.

After our second breakfast with cake and coffee/tea, I noticed that my bike tyre made some weird sound... A flat tyre! The first flat tyre I had in 2800 kms. To be honest, I would've expected it much earlier. Stephan was super helpful in fixing it. We found the puncture quickly, just a little stone, and fixed it, and at least until the end of this day it still holds. Fingers crossed it holds until home.

Another highlight especially for Anna-Lisa was the Fehmarnsund bridge. We crossed over by bike and came back, so now we can say we have visited Fehmarn :D

Heiligenhafen.

The Fehmarnsund Bridge.

View after the bridge crossing.

The afternoon part of the day led through some villages and then in the end along the coast and on the dam. For dinner we had Greek food (again) and after arrival at the campground and swim played some cards with a hot chocolate and amarillo, yum yum. 

Ostrich farm

Laboe - Neuteschendorf 70.30 km

In the morning we had a nice route along the beach and we passed Kalifornien and Brasilien within 5 kms ;) They are two villages on the coast. We also explored the pier.

Picture time

The highlight of the day was the ostrich farm where we saw many many ostriches, also the little ones, some emus and we learned that one ostrich egg equals 20-25 chicken eggs in volume. They were huge indeed.

The youngsters.

And the youth.

We also passed a few bird conservation areas with small roads, wooden bridges, and nice nature. 

The road led again quite up and down in general and it was rather hot, so we had a swim after arriving at the campground. In the evening we met an old friend of mine who lives close by and had some Greek food. 

Ferry across the Kieler Förde

Langholz - Laboe 56.13 km

We had a good mixture of up and downhills today, mostly on good biking paths. It was a pretty hot day and even the breeze felt warm on the skin. 

This is low German (Plattdeutsch) - do my German friends know what it means?

We went around the whole Förde and reached Eckernförde which is located at the end of the Förde. 

In Eckernförde. 

After our lunch break we noticed that either we have to stay very far before or very far after Kiel at campgrounds and both options were not very good km-wise. So we went for a third option and skipped the city of Kiel by taking a ferry across the Förde to the other side. Laboe is a lively touristic town where we also found a campground to stay with the second trial.

Sunflowers and sea :)

From the ferry.

Sunset in Laboe. 

Along the Schlei

Gelting - Langholz 67.17 km

Second day together and they are still fast ;) Today we had very nice biking routes with some variation. We saw the area where the Schlei flows into the Baltic sea, and went close to the water a lot of the time.



Biking close to the water. 

We had a snack stop for waffles and ice cream before, and fish bread roll and lunch stop in Kappeln, a nice little town on the Schlei. There was a bridge that opened for the boats to pass through.

Kappeln.

View from a lookout tower after Kappeln.

At some point today we even got complimented by a group saying we had e-bikes, probably because we were as fast as the wind :D

Finding campgrounds doesn't seem to be the easiest job along the german baltic sea coast - the campgrounds seem quite packed. The first one said they really don't have any single space anymore. The second one luckily took us in, to an emergency place. It is right on the beach, so we enjoyed a little swim before shower and food. The drink of the day was a "Möwenschiss" (translates to sea gull shit) which of course we had to taste.

Sunset on the lake where our tents are built. 

First day with new company

Flensburg - Gelting 57.01 km

We had a relaxed morning with an amazingly huge breakfast from the cafe next door, and after playing with the kittens we left the Airbnb to start biking out of Flensburg. 

One of the cuties.

Start with Anna-Lisa and Stephan.

The baltic sea coast route out of Flensburg went through forrests, along fields and small roads, and through little villages. We also regularly returned to the coast today on small paths. Was a beautiful ride! 

For lunch we had a break in Langballigau with delicious waffles and traditional fish bread roll (Fischbrötchen) - I had looked forward to real Fischbrötchen since I started the tour :)

Anna-Lisa and Stephan had a good speed during this first day. They say it might all change tomorrow when everything hurts :D

I received happy news also that my thesis went to the next stage of evaluation. We had a cheer on that in the evening with the house cocktail :) We found a cozy little harbour village that doesn't really have a campground, but the harbour manager still let us camp here for a tiny fee.

Cheers!

Hello Germany

Aabenraa - Flensburg 48.36 km

Today was much much nicer cycling than the previous two days. Even though it mostly led through inland, the roads were much smaller and with less cars. Often there was some forest also which was great in the heat.

When I reached the sea again I knew I must be quite close to the German border, and indeed. The border crossing was a little bridge on the coast and there was no signs at all that would make visible that I have crossed the border, nor any controls. Just by the signs that were suddenly all in German I noticed that I must have crossed the border :) Bye bye Denmark, hello Germany!

In Wassersleben I stopped for a short swim and when wanting to buy ice cream was "friendlily" reminded to wear a mask. Then it was not long to Flensburg anymore where I met Anna-Lisa and Stephan. Before I had some time to explore the city centre, buy a new cup as my old one had holes, and have the obligatory ice cream. 

The first Eurovelo 10 sign I have seen since we started in Helsinki! (It's the cycle route that goes along the baltic sea coast that I have been cycling for more than a month now)

Flensburg. The shoes are hung along the old tram line cable holders. 

Bye bye old cup. You've done a good job.

Tonight we have an Airbnb at the harbour and tomorrow is gonna be the first cycling day for Anna-Lisa and Stephan. 

Inland day

Kolding - Aabenraa 70.24 km

It was a not very spectacular day: lots of inland along small roads and fields, nothing new. The highlights were the small town Christiansfeld where I had delicious ice cream, sea views and a nice forest path when coming towards Aabenraa, and Aabenraa.

Lake to the one side.

And sea to the other side.

Aabenraa.

Next to the road

Vejle - Kolding 76.67 km

In the morning I took my time to explore a bit of Vejle. Turned out that it is a sympathetic city with a river front and a nice shopping street. 

Vejle. 

Massive Bridge for the highway across Vejle Fjord. 

I tried to start cycling only after the midday heat, as it was still very hot. In the beginning I was confronted with another uphill that stretched more than 2 km just up to the top of about 90 m or so. The way led mostly along roads yesterday which is fine if there are cycling paths or the roads are not busy. But the last stretch was very busy and not fun to cycle. This part of the Östkystruten can definitely be improved, and it even looked like they are constructing a cycle path next to the road. 

Luckily I could get a little swim in the middle of the day. When arriving to Kolding, it was already quite late, but I still got an ice cream which was dinner at the same time. The evening light was nice. 

Kolding.