Day 10: Cuxhaven-Glückstadt

As expected, the day started with heavy rainfall. I gave myself some extra time for breakfast and checked out first at ten o’clock. I took a bus to Cuxhaven centre and enjoyed another coffee at the pier. Then, around an hour later, the sun came out, the streets started to dry, and I boarded the train to Otterndorf where I had stopped skating yesterday.

The first ten or fifteen kilometres I skated next to a Bundesstraße with a lot of traffic. There was a separate bike lane, so for skating it was fine, but the traffic was a bit annoying. For the second half of the day, I was mainly on small roads between fields with no traffic at all, but with a road surface that wasn’t always great. In addition, where there were trees, the roads were not dry and partly very soapy-slippery.

The last few kilometres towards Wischhafen, from where I wanted to take the Elbe ferry to Glückstadt, were next to a bigger road again with a bike lane that was pretty damaged and that slowed me down a bit. Two kilometres from the ferry harbour, it started raining again. In addition, I noticed cars getting off the ferry coming towards me, so I hurried up a bit to catch this ferry, which I barely managed.

Just before reaching the other river bank, the rain became heavier, and the streets were very wet. So I decided to call it a day for skating and walked the four kilometres to Glückstadt. (Surprisingly, there was no bus from the ferry to the centre.)

The town looks quite nice, founded by Danish king Kristian IV. I just passed through the centre on the way to my B&B. Ironically, the sun was shining again when I reached my accommodation. In a bit, I will go back to the town centre for a drink, before preparing for my last and final stage to Hamburg tomorrow. Looking forward very much to reach my destination.