The really experienced mountaineers recoup their powers by bivouacking one day before summiting the final piece of an 8000 m high peak. So I decided to adopt this practice before descending from 10 m above the sea level to zero. Our Hamburg friends Sabine and Ulli invited me to “bivouac” in their lovely house on the suburbs of Hamburg. Moreover, Ulli suggested a car trip to Lübeck, his hometown, including a guided tour there. A proposal I could not resist. So I saw this wonderful Hanseatic town. And walked the same streets as Thomas and Heinrich Mann whose novels like “Professor Unrat” or “Der Zauberberg” impressed me so much.

Ulli further drove me to Travemünde, a picturesque port at the Baltic Sea filled with a leisure spirit of a seaside spa resort.

Now back in Hamburg I feel well-balanced. Since thanks to this extra “bivouacking day” I have a chance to see during my journey both Seas surrounding Schleswig-Holstein. The Baltic Sea eastward and the North Sea westward. All of these assuming the remaining 140 km cycling alongside the Elbe to Cuxhaven will go smoothly 🙂