Radweg?

Despite the fact that I spent several hours today looking for segments of the Hambug-Ruden Radweg. I ended up not riding any of them. That wasn't a big deal since I had had good alternative routes between all the places, but it was kind of frustrating.

In the literature for this route, they say it isn't consistently signed. Today bits were so poorly signed that I couldn't find signs for them, even starting from the part I had I already ridden and asking for local help in the cities on the route. The only one I may have found - it wasn't signed - started with a long section of cobblestone road. In the description, it mentioned unpaved sections, but it didn't mention cobblestone...

The first town I rode to this morning - Gielow

I started out trying to follow the route from where I left it yesterday, That was complicated by the fact that I didn't choose to leave the route yesterday, but rather I lost it. Today I went back to where I was on it and tried other alternatives. None of them turned out to be the route, but one of them left me heading south toward Gielow and I knew I could get to Basedow, which was on the route, from Gielow. It was a nice ride on a pretty, small, road and Gielow was a neat town, even if it did have concrete slab pavement.

The road to Basedow

The road from Gielow to Basedow started with a hill so steep that it required my lowest gear, but then then was a long gentle descent and no other serious climbing. The light was beautiful, the area is beautiful, and the riding was excellent.

Coming into Basedow

A church in Basedow

Basedow, even more than Gielow, is a really neat town and well worth the ride to see. After a bit of searching, I found signs for radwegs and followed the one that looked most promising. Several of the radwegs went off on a dirt single track that looked like a hiking trail. I continued on and the small road came to a bigger road that was signed for Malchin in one direction and Teterow in the other. I was headed for Teterow so I went that way, still looking for the Hamburg-Ruden Radweg. If I had looked at my map more carefully, I would have seen that the Hamburg-Ruden Radweg was between me and Malchin and I should have gone the other way.

I ended up riding around the south end of Lake Malchiner instead of the north end, but it was a nice ride. That small road ended at B108, a medium big road that went to Teterow. I could have diverted off that road onto another radweg, but the riding was OK and B108 went where I wanted to go for lunch. I stopped for a snack and a get out of the wind break just before I reached B108. The wind was strong out of the north east and I was getting a headache from the wind blowing on my right eye. The break and the change of directions - on B108 I was riding mostly into the wind - helped my headache go away.

A view of Lake Malchiner, behind a harvested wheat field, from the south

When I got to Teterow, I wasn't impressed. It seemed like a town that was asleep. However, I did find a good place for lunch - a doner and a beer - that didn't cost much and kept me from feeling hungry for more than three hours of riding.

After lunch I started looking for the Hamburg-Ruden radweg in Teterow. The sign for radwegs didn't include it and pointed down the long central street where you were not allowed to ride your bike. Ugh. I basically rode to the north edge of town and then explored all possible routes out of town between the north and the west. None of them were signed as radwegs, but the middle one, of three, was signed for place that was also on the Hamburg-Ruden Radweg. That was the long cobblestone road. I rode it for a few hundred yards hoping the the cobblestone would end. It didn't so I went back and took B104 to Gustrow.

B104 where it intersects and autoroute

B104 goes mostly west from Teterow to Gustrow. By this time, the wind was strong out of the east. I cruised at 14 to 20 mph for much of it, feeling only gentle breezes. Roughly five km after Teterow, B104 acquired a good bike path and I rode it most of the way to Gustrow.

In Gustrow, I could find no signs for the Hamburg-Ruden Radweg, but I noticed from one of my maps, that it followed the Gustrow-Butzow canal. I found that canal but couldn't find the radweg. I stopped at a bike store and got some directions. I still couldn't find the radweg, so I found the road to Butzow, and rode that instead. It was hillier than a canal route and the first few km had too much traffic, but most of it was very nice riding.

On the road to Butzow

When I rode into Butzow, there was a line of traffic waiting on bridge construction. I took the pedestrian route around the bridge and found a long stretch of road construction followed by another missing bridge. I was beginning to worry that the town was simply closed for construction! Fortunately, the part of town with places to stay is after the second bridge, so I found a restaurant/pension for the night. I don't know how breakfast will be, but the room is nice and supper was good. My cost for supper - room - breakfast was 43 E which is about $10 more than last night, but I only had a light supper last night and I spent more for lunch yesterday, Breakfast at my inexpensive hotel this morning was excellent, in variety, quantity, and quality. Definitely better than the places where I paid more than twice as much for the night. It is the old hotel on B104 just north of the place where B104 makes a right angle corner and heads north.