Steffen Albrecht

25 years in Hamburg and I'd never seen the notorious ghetto quarter of Mümmelmannsberg, so I took my bike there today on the U2. Rumors are greatly exaggerated. It's a rather peaceful looking, very green, though of course quietly decaying assembly of moderately sized blocks of flats, with only a…

Just a little nice quiet rural Schleswig-Holstein. Generally enjoyable, the only part I didn't like quite so much was the Jersbek-Elmenhorst road. Some previous Komooter found it "scenic". For me, just a straight narrow road along a golf course and through woods, with too many cars passing me way too…

Cruised a bit around the harbour specifically looking for motives for retro-looking high-contrast b/w pictures, which I found a-plenty. Unfortunately, I kind of too naively trusted Komoot's routing which resulted in a couple of dead ends I had to retrace my steps from, rather than the round trip I had…

I had planned a trip starting from Bad Oldesloe again, going there by train. But on the platform in Rahlstedt I waited for 50 minutes for the train, in vain. It was late, then later, then even later, the official reason given being "repairs on the train", and when it…

U1 to Ohlstedt and back, nice roundtrip in somewhat cool and windy weather.

Recently I learned that medieval Hamburg's first port was not on the Elbe (as I'm sure some people think) nor on the Alster (as I'm certain practically everybody else thinks), but on a branch of the Bille. Since then I seem fascinated with this tiny creek on which so many…

S2 to Aumühle outbound and U1 from Schmalenbeck on the return trip.

Nice soft level forest tracks above the Bille on the initial stretch in the Sachsenwald. Not normally a great fan of unpaved forest paths, they tend to be bumpy and stoney and disagree with my long road bike,…

Forests and summer fields. I started at Oldesloe Station of course, but Komoot refused to track until I restarted the app 1 km out. Obviously, I also rode the bike from my home in Bramfeld to Rahlstedt to catch the train to Oldesloe, and back home from the U1 in…

Hugely enjoyable trip with perfect weather, quiet country roads, and next to no traffic. On the return trip I met just two bikers and even cars were scarce. Though as a side note, I must say I'm surprised that even in the countryside there are people who feel that playing…

Not my best idea, cycling 42 km through almost shadowless rural Stormarn in an extreme summer heat wave. And here I was thinking I could escape the oven in the city, but even in the middle of nowhere out there in the country it was 38 C (that's 100.4 F…

More scenic Schleswig-Holstein countryside, made a bit risky by plenty of speeding motorbikers cutting corners where they can't see. Took the train to the starting point and back again. This has really increased my reach.

Took the train both outbound and back, for the first time, to see some new things, those new things being almost exclusively somewhat uniform but really peaceful rural Schleswig-Holstein. Mostly narrow well-paved country lanes almost without motor traffic, and all in really nice weather

First bike trip this spring, starting small and visiting mainly places I'd been before. Not such a good idea to leave the beaten track in Höltigbaum nature reserve, because deep in the forest, betwen a ditch, a fence, and a pond, I found myself faced with the nastiest version of…

Started with overcast weather and met a few people going up to the first pass, Degollada de la Manzanilla. Passing into the wilderness beyond, there was nothing but mountains and pine forests all the way to the horizon, until I descended from the second pass, Degollada de Rosiana, and returned…