Day 9: Bremerhaven-Cuxhaven/Otterndorf

I should have taken the bus out of Bremerhaven. I considered it yesterday because the satellite pictures looked like there were no good bike lanes out of the city centre and past the harbour. I knew that behind the harbour was the dyke and probably a good road to skate on. But the part towards the harbour turned out to be tricky. First, I had to turn around a couple of times because Google Maps sent me over roads that ended in gravel. Then, there were roads that led to the harbour which were not allowed for cyclists (and skaters) and the parallel pedestrian/cycle paths were unskateable. So I made a detour through the harbour which was not too bad – good roads and not too much traffic. The whole process took me about an hour though, so I was glad when I reached the dyke.

From there, it was a pleasant skate towards Cuxhaven. Only the last few kilometres were a hassle again due to gravel roads and/or no bicycle lanes.

I reached Cuxhaven already around twelve o’clock and was lucky to be able to check into my room already. Since I still felt fresh and the weather forecast predicted rain for the next day, I decided to skate one more hour in the afternoon as well.

So, I had a quick lunch at a Chinese restaurant, put my skates on again and skated twenty more kilometres towards Otterndorf. That way, I can start from Otterndorf tomorrow and have to cover only between thirty-five and forty kilometres instead on fifty-five. If it rains the whole morning, I can still manage to do this in the afternoon.

After taking the train back to Cuxhaven, I’m now on the bus back to my guesthouse. There I’ll take a shower and then go for a well-deserved dinner after skating more than seventy kilometres today.