Travel blog: Bicycling in Germany July 2008 (Day 1)

Day 1: Hamburg - Bispingen

Distance : 72 km
Average : 16,2 km/h
Time on bike : 3 hours 56 min
Max speed : 53,6 km/h

For a week in July one of my friends (Mathias Kvolsgaard) and I took a week on the German roads. We took a couple of trains from Odense to Hamburg and than set out from the southern part of the harbor and crossed the Südelbe and left the Jutland Peninsula.
On the Southern shore of the Südelbe we rode through the city (or Hamburg's suburb) of Harburg where we found some fuel for our legs in the form of grilled chicken and a can of Red Bull. Fresh on the red power we drove up hill to Seevetal and southwards towards the outskirts of the Lüneburg Heath.

On the way there was a heavy rain shower, but we were lucky enough to find quick shelter at a bus stop and could sit and enjoy the rain knowing that we had just had the good luck of finding instant shelter.
As the day progressed the weather improved and the sun came out, however the temperature was on the cold side round 15-20 degrees.

We had started around 14:00 from Hamburg, and we arrived in the hamlet of Bispingen (90 meters above sea level) around 20:15 with a healthy appetite and tired legs. Before we looked for a place to sleep we got ourselves a good solid meal, and left the restaurant with slight nausea from overeating.

Finding a place to sleep in the little town proved to be no problem as we were in the middel of the Lüneburg Heath. Conveniently enough there where numerous hotels, pensions and even a hostel. We settled in a private pension and got a room for € 20 per person including a good breakfast with an old couple who had made parts of their house into a pension.


See the route on bikenet.