The route today was tough because we were always on or next to big roads, including a major but quiet road next to a motorway. Around Ludwigslust the bike lane was being renovated and we had to share the road with lorries, this was not funny. The saving grace were the flat roads making cycling really easy, maybe the odd 2% incline, but nothing too sweaty. Talking about sweaty, the weather was a lot cooler so we could really push the kilometres and cycled 120km on this day, not because we wanted to as I will explain in a moment.
The highlight of today was castle Ludwigslust, originally built as a hunting lodge in the 18th century by Prince Ludwig, who loved the area so much that he turned it into his personal retreat, the castle later evolved into a full-blown royal residence. But the castle is not just about the splendour and indulgence of past princes. Tucked within its grounds is a solemn memorial to the 200 victims of a nearby concentration camp—an understated yet powerful reminder of the darker chapters in the region’s history.
Apart from the busy roads we had to navigate, we also went through some pretty villages with beautiful thatched house. The landscape and buildings are definitely changing, it's getting noticeably flatter with scented red wood pine tree forests and people that like to say 'Moin' . This is a very important greeting here, so important that a crazy sun of a gun shouted it across the road at us over lorries and busy traffic on the stretch of road where the bike lane was closed, crazy!
Why we cycled 120km on this day. As I said in an earlier post, roadworks and diversions were a stable occurrence during this trip. Diversions and problems didn't only occur because of road works but also because of rail route works... a new connection curve near Bad Kleinen, which lies between Lübeck and Schwerin as well as major upgrades on rail routes around Lübeck, Schwerin, and Hamburg as part of Deutsche Bahn’s nationwide “Generalsanierung” (general renovation) plan, that aims to overhaul aging infrastructure across Germany by 2030. Because of disruptions to the train line almost all the hotels around Hagenow where we'd planned to stay were fully booked because of Hamburg- Berlin commuters. That is why we had to push our distance on this day to find a hotel with a free room which we found in a village called Wittenburg where we stayed in a really cute hotel that a lady had just inherited and was in the throws of renovating and looking for people to help her run it. We were allowed to book in after 19.30 because only then would she have the room ready, which was not a problem, because after not finding a place to stay in towns before and having no campsites in the area, we were just super grateful that she accepted us. I think we were really lucky! Wittenburg was a small but very open town and as recommended by the hotel owner we had breakfast at the local bakery and it was great, we also had our ears chewed of by a local lady explaining everything and everyone who came in.
We're now 65km from Lübeck!
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