Start: Bad Oldesloe
Finish: Lubeck
Distance: 15
Total: 1766
This morning I needed to make a decision on whether to walk today or take a day off due to the weather. I woke up when the sun came up at 4:30, looked outside, and it was raining straight down. I went back to sleep and woke up again at 7:00 and it had stopped raining. I looked at the weather on my iPad and the radar looked like the rain had moved through. I looked at the hourly forecast and it predicted rain again starting at 12:00 noon. With 15 miles to walk, it would normally take me five hours. So I quickly jumped up and got ready.
I left the hotel at 7:45 after quickly eating breakfast and checking out. Because it had been raining all night, I was skeptical about the first part of my route that looked like a dirt trail, so I walked a little out of the way and stuck with the paved bike path. Also, google maps had me walking on the highway for about a mile rather than follow the bike path through a town along the way. I once again followed the bike path rather than walk in the wet ditch along the highway. All together, these two diversions added a mile to my day.
When I was within about three miles of my destination, it started to sprinkle. It was just heavy enough that I needed to cover my pack, but not my body. It continued to rain lightly until I got into Lubeck, my destination for the day.
I’ll have more to say about Lubeck over the next couple of days, but it is an amazing old medieval German town built on an island in the middle of the Trave River which flows into the Baltic Sea. It is one of Germany’s major ports, and is listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. At one time, the city could only be entered via one of four gates, of which two remain. I walked into town through one of those, the Holstentor Gate, built in 1478.
Tomorrow I have to make another decision on whether to walk or take a day off. If I walk, I will take the train back here at the end of the day and take my day off Friday. Either way, I look forward to seeing the sites in this very old and historic town.
That’s it for today. It’s raining outside now, as forecast, and 68 degrees. No need for air conditioning here! I hope it stays that way. JB.
