July 4, 2013
Twenty-four: Kellinghusen to Flemsburg
I should be getting on the road of a morning as early as possible, because, there are so many roads and signs leading this way and that way, that it's easy to be led astray; at lease if I get away early, I've time to get lost and find my way again, back on the desired route.
The forest where I'd camped started immediately on the northern edge of the town of Kellinghusen and this morning I continued north for many kilometres on a road enclosed either side by trees. The next town was Hohenstedt, beyond which the cycle-route became a path alongside the busy N77, where the roadsign read: Flemsburg 81km. Great, I thought. I'll knock that distance out by noon.
With ten kilometres to the city of Fendburg, I came to a big interchange where the 77 crossed the Autobahn and the path descended down an embankment. There was a sharp left turning at the bottom in underneath the road, which would have necessitated stopping in order to see the sign for Jever on the route onwards. Instead, I whizzed by and along a road through a village where I halted long enough to see a cycle-sign for Jever pointing straight on. So I continued on. The wind which previously had been a southwesterly was now in my face. With the overcast morning I couldn't see the sun but it glowed through the grey gloom to my right. I began thinking I couldn't have done a complete hundred and eighty degrees turn. A little further I came to a cross where the sign ahead was for a place I'd passed through earlier. Damn! I had. I doubled back and with a tailwind soon past back-by the sign for Jever which pointed in the wrong direction, back to the start where the path ascended up the embankment; and, the turning underneath the road, with a sign for Jever, could be clearly seen from this direction, whereas it was hidden coming the other way.
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I wanted to continue directly north from Fendburg, so followed a cycle-sign for Schleswig. But after the initial few signs for this town I saw while riding out off the city, I saw no more and was on a cycle-path along the main road to a town called Eckerforde to the north east and not too far out of the way, so I kept going; until, I saw a cycle-sign turn-off, which I though would be a short cut; but, after a few turnings, there was no more signs to point me in the right direction; so, after trying to work the way out myself and wasting an hour, I ended up back on the main road to Eckerforde.
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Most of the villages today had Scandinavian names or places where the ending was "by" pronouned bu; "reiseby" for example, where a middleaged woman on a bike, thinking Is lost gave me directions. I was sure her dialect was a mix of German and Danish.
It was another long day and Is feeling run down towards the end. On the way into Flemburg Is glad to see a Lidl supermarket on the right. Cheap and they've a bakery. Just the thing. The appleturnovers were finished, they always are this late in the day; so I made do with croxiantes instead. To drink, I'd a carton of ready made coffee, a Macchiato. It just tasted like sweetened coffee flavoured milk and the croxiantes had lost their freshness having been out of the oven since morning.
Riding on, the way to Denmark wasn't too obvious. There was only the Autobahn. In the city-centre I asked a pretty girl on a bike, the cycle-route into Denmark. She looked at my bike and opened her eyes wide in disbelief, then spat in guttural German something which sounded like "on a bike!". She pointed me in the direction of Tourist information and when I'd crossed over the street, I could see her still starring at me when I glanced back.
It was seven when I stood outside the glass building which contented the tourist office. The business hours on the door were 09.00-18.00, so they were shut. But there was a city-plan to the side of the door, from which I saw if I follow the waterfront along the north side of the harbour, the road should lead to Denmark.
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Expenditure: 9 Euros 17.
Lydl shop in Fendburg: 6 Euros 47.
Lydl shop in Flemsburg: 2 Euros 70.
Today's ride: 135 km (84 miles)
Total: 2,056 km (1,277 miles)
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