Day 32: Hamburg to Lütjenburg

110 k to Lütjenburg.

The first 10 km was a convoy, then 99km after that. Tim was still feeling very unwell and was riding in the truck today so Judy decided to ride with us.

It was quite hot and we had some hills today, but nothing really steep or long.

It was still very hot, looks like summer has finally arrived. The convoy ended being longer than 10km, as we ended up making a turn and riding off in the wrong direction. I was pretty sure we were going the wrong way, but as those who know me are aware I have an appalling sense of direction so I didn’t say anything. Thankfully this is the last convoy for the trip.

We went through fields of crops with windmills and rode through some nice woods. The bike path changed frequently from one side of the road to another. There is a trap with lights where you have two green lights for cyclists but the turn in lane is not on the green sequence it is actually red, but you don’t see this until you are right up to it and then the drivers don’t have to give way. Michele was nearly taken out by a truck. This has resulted in increased caution coming up to an intersection, despite the fact that the majority of the time the traffic gives way to bikes.

During the afternoon passed alongside a popular lake area.

We stopped for a cup of tea at about 40 km, and I saw an interesting flower arrangement – two pairs of jeans with flowers in them. There were pots for the flowers to sit in inside. Good use of old jeans. (Editor’s note: is it though? really?)

Lunch spot under the trees.

Just after lunch we saw some cows and calves, very cute twins with their big white stripe down the middle. We thought they were belted Galloway’s but possibly were Dutch lakenvelder (laken translates to sheet or drapery). I also saw the largest thatched house so far this trip. We went through a pretty town and also along some pretty lakes for a couple of km, then back to the bike paths and through crops fields and forests. The last 10 km was a bit of a shock – no bike path and along a very busy road with no shoulder. I was very relieved to get to Lütjenburg in one piece. Because this is quite a small place, half of the group was in one hotel and half were in another 500 metres away. We are having dinner at the same hotel though.

My Garmin seems to have fully recovered from whatever was the problem earlier in trip, and has gone all day again, maybe I won’t need to replace it after all.

The rooms are quite nice, bigger and cooler than Hamburg but still it’s a tiny shower. This is the only hotel that didn’t have a hairdryer. View from the window today was buildings.

Square outside hotel in Lutjenburg

The dinner in the hotel restaurant was very nice. A bit of a slow start while they took drink orders, one person taking the whole groups orders took awhile, and we were thinking “oh no not another night like the smokehouse restaurant in Grimsby”. However once the drinks were sorted the salad came out quickly, followed by a nice white fish with potato and cheese sauce, and sorbet ice cream with kiwi fruit.

We hadn’t had a look around the town so went for a walk after dinner, not much to see. We ended up calling into the bar called Hummelklause (the only one) and talking to Gregg, a fellow TDA rider. Gregg is from the USA, this is his first TDA trip. I always come up with different names for various riders, sometimes adopted by the wider group. This Gregg is Gregg the 4th, as there are 4 Greggs on this trip. There are Tandem Gregg and Meerkat Gregg, he is called this because of the way he bobs up and down on his seat, frequently looking around. There is also Gergo (Gregg in Hungarian).

Gregg the 4th is retired, he had something to do with grain but sold out to the Chinese a couple of years ago. Gregg has a property he is doing up, surrounded by 40 acres where artists will be able to live up to 3 months rent free and concentrate on their art. Plus Gregg is planning a café/art selling place where people can come and have art lessons, buy art, or just buy coffee and food as they are passing through. I was interested to see that when you order a drink the bartender totals it up on the back of the drink coaster, and then when you pay he checks the back and totals it up.