In 2023 I started cycling along the D11 (Ostsee-Oberbayern-Radweg) across Germany, doing 500km on that trip, then 300km in 2024.
This is part 3, four days and 430km.
Planning
The route was clear (duh), but not the stops. This time I wanted to push myself a bit, but I also had to take into account the availability of hotels and the price, otherwise I might have cut down the route a little bit.
What I decided on:
- Hof to Kaulsbach (close to Saalfeld): 113km
- Kaulsbach to Freyburg: 123km
- Freyburg to Alsleben: 115km
- Alsleben to Dessau: 80km (with an optional detour of 30km)
Preparations
I didn't need a lot of new gear, but I wanted new rain pants, as my 10 (or more likely 12 or 13) year old pair was already disintegrating, so I grabbed a pair for 60 EUR at Lucky Bike and happened to find a black jersey on the discount pile for 40 EUR (matching my black MTB shorts, also Endura), so I bought that as well.
My trusty Garmin eTrex that I'd bought in 2016 for 170 EUR had lost its power button on a recent hiking trip. Probably not unfixable but I'd already wanted to get a newer, proper cycling GPS for a while, so after some research I went with the Edge 840 because I'd been happy with Garmin devices in the past. The eTrex and also the car navi was fine. I ended up paying 390 EUR for it.
The irony of probably paying more for this thing than for any mobile phone/tablet I have ever owned is not lost on me. But in my defense I'm not that worried about security and plan to keep using it for 8-10 years if it holds up, just like the last one.
Day 1 - Hof - Kaulsbach
My train to Hof was scheduled for 5:44 and I need 30 minutes of (slow) riding to the train station, so I got up at around 4:15 with most things already packed and went on my merry way, forgetting I'll be passing that one club with many drunk people and glass on the street at 5 am, as on every early morning weekend ride to the main station.
The train arrived on time at 9:20, then I noticed that I should have spent a little more time famliarizing myself with the Garmin Edge, so I took a little detour because I messed up, still in Hof.
At some point I passed into Thuringia, but I don't remember seeing a sign on that gravel path.
As it was Father's Day I saw a lot of groups (mostly men, but not only) hiking, walking, drinking beer, cycling and to my surprise I was cheered on quite a few times when they noticed I'm the only idiot on this route without an e-bike.
Speaking of the route... too much elevation, too many small hills and mountains. Had to push the bike a couple times. In total around 1600m of ascent, but the scenery was mostly nice.
I had some Thüringer Rostbratwurst and a Coke for lunch, not even completely sure where it was, in a small village, my best guess is Saaldorf.
The hotel I chose was pretty nice, could bring the bike in to the closed off courtyard and they had something to lock it to the wall.
Dinner in their restaurant was also very good (Soljanka and Wiener Schnitzel).
For some reason I couldn't really fall asleep, despite that very exhausting day, but I think I still got 8h in the end.
Breakfast was also really good here.
Day 2 - Kaulsbach - Freyburg
Because of the breakfast and being slow to pack up again I only started at around 9 am and hit another climb just 1km into my tour, that's when I decided to push the bike a little more.
I think it was on this day (but not 100% sure) when a lady flagged me down in the middle of the forest because she had a flat on her e-bike. I tried to help and pump it up but I guess it was proper done for, so she had to continue pushing the bike for a km or so, but seemed relatively unfazed. Maybe I could have tried to make my spare tube fit and replace it but with 100km ahead I wasn't too enthusiastic about it so I didn't suggest it.
At some point I passed into Saxony-Anhalt, but again I didn't see any sign.
Originally I wanted to stay in Naumburg, but for some reason (on this day I think it was the price) I chose to cycle another 7km or so to the north and stay in Freyburg.
The room was decent, the bathroom was a little small for someone my size, but overall ok. Could bring the bike into the entry hall of the building.
Went to Haveli, an Indian Restaurant, for dinner, quite a big portion of Chicken Tikka Masala and some Naan, and pretty good.
Day 3 - Freyburg - Alsleben
The weather was good, but I had to backtrack 7-8km to the south, and went through Naumburg, where I had incorporated a couple photo spots into my route, then to Weißenfels and Leuna, then coming to Merseburg, where again I had changed the route slightly to take a detour into the city proper.
Because this was going to be another long day, but with less elevation and thus more time, I decided to have a proper lunch for once, so I chose the best-rated pizza place and was very disappointed. Waiter wasn't sure what to make of my order of a Pizza Prosciutto because they only had a Prosciutto e Funghi or a Hawaii but after explaining which word is the Prosciutto and which word is (are?) the Funghi, at least that part worked out. It didn't taste great though and I'm not sure when I ever left the outer part of a pizza... ah well.
On to Halle and mostly ignoring it because I've been here already a couple of years ago and further north through Könnern, to Alsleben (and still following the river Saale).
Grabbed dinner at a small pension/restaurant in the town center and talked to the only other guest at the next table, also a cycling tourist. A welcome surprise, apparently I'm not so good with chatting up other cyclists on my tours as other people are.
Because my shoulder had started to hurt the day before I had picked up some stuff from a drugstore in the morning, luckily it was Saturday and they were still open.
Either I hadn't read the booking page carefully or they were not very obvious with their offering, but I was a little surprised to find a communal shower (and toilet) next to the small log hut I'd booked. Not a problem, really - but they had failed to mention that showering was to be paid with 1 EUR coins and even the toilet was locked behind 20ct coins, but it was open when I arrived, or I would have probably been less chill about it. Also apparently the last guests had taken the only set of keys with them and those would be mailed back in the future... so I had no keys to my room, but I wasn't too worried about that, being on a property, behind another house and a fence. But they had no curtains in the hut and so the sun woke me up at 5:30...
But at least it was cheap, and it actually looked as nice as on the pictures, and I could sit on my own porch and look out on the river in the evening.
Day 4 - Alsleben - Dessau
Although I'd slept quite well, it was pouring in the morning and I wasn't actually enthusiastic about another 100km, I opted to skip my optional detour to Aschersleben, which would have added around 30km, and I felt 80 was gonna be enough for that day.
I think I liked this day less than the others, mostly because there were lots of boring stretches with no features, sometimes along bigger roads, less kilometers through forests or along rivers. Not bad, but just not as exciting.
Also this was the first day where my bum hurt, and my shoulder also hurt again.
So because my bus was going to go at 1:50 in the night, arrive 15min from home at around 7:15 and I was scheduled to be online at 8:00 to be on-call for the week at work and not completely optimistic to be sleeping well or at all on the bus I opted to take a cheap hotel room in Leipzig and try to sleep from around 8pm to 1 am, which surprisingly mostly worked. 40 EUR well spent. Also the room was pretty nice, not even taking the price into account.
At first I had planned to maybe take a bed in a hostel for 15 EUR, but for this case where the only things I wanted were a shower and silence for a couple of hours and not having to care about the bike or getting a towel or whatever... I guess the 20-25 EUR was an ok tradeoff.
To my surprise the bus thing worked out fine, and I could actually sleep a couple hours more, so I didn't feel too bad in the morning and also didn't have to instantly jump in the shower again.
The bike was hella dirty though after 5h on the back of a bus.
Oh, and here's the GPX result in comparison to the route above:
Packing list
Not too many changes to last year's setup, and also not too many changes to the 2023 setup either.
- same bike, KTM X-Strada
- same handle bar, frame, and top tube bag
- same backpack
- same pannier (single one)
- same shoes, same clothes (mostly)
Stuff I had changed before the trip:
- second bidon in the bottle holder, only for water and not sugary stuff
- new bike pump
- some voile straps in the frame bag
Deliberate changes for this trip:
- no water bladder
- new jacket, Marmot Gore-Tex Hardshell, no more Columbia rain jacket
- more rain/cold weather gear overall
- backup wall plug and cable
- banana!
- less sweets, no gels, just some store-bought oat/cereal bars
- daily dose of magnesium against cramps (it helped)
- no bulky glasses case, only a light felt pouch
Mistakes I noticed:
- accidentally took a second pair of long pants (bulky)
- forgot a normal T-Shirt for dinner
- backpack was a little too heavy on day 1/2
What I still have not figured out:
- the bike lock situation
- easy access to rain gear
- easy access to phone for pictures
- not forgetting handkerchiefs and thus relying on napkins
Stuff I didn't use:
- windbreaker jacket
- in-ear headphones
Expenses
- Preparation
- new pair of rain pants - 60 EUR
- a new black bike jersey - 40 EUR
- Garmin Edge 840 - 393 EUR
- Hotels:
- Kaulsbach: 70 EUR
- Freyburg: 77 EUR
- Alsleben: 45 EUR
- Leipzig: 40 EUR
- Trains & Buses:
- 32 + 7 EUR for a Bayernticket to Hof (+ bike)
- 13.40 EUR for the S-Bahn from Dessau to Leipzig (bike was free)
- 28 + 13 EUR for flixbus for me and the bike
I didn't really pay as much attention to drinks and snacks this time, just the "proper" meals I had.
- Day 1 lunch: ~8 EUR
- Kaulsbach, dinner: 30 EUR
- Day 2 lunch: ~13 EUR
- Freyburg, dinner: 25 EUR
- Day 3 lunch: 24 EUR
- Alsleben, dinner: 30 EUR
- Day 4 lunch: ~5 EUR
- Leipzig, dinner: 18 EUR
Final thoughts
It was fun, but I underestimated the elevation on day 1. Day 2 should have been a bit more relaxing but still quite a few kilometers, and I guess that's why I ended up cutting day 4 a bit short. A rough estimation tells me that I have about 550km left to reach the Baltic Sea now. I hope to complete this in 2026 and not have to split it into two parts, but we'll see. Getting to the start and getting back is becoming increasingly annoying. The way back in 2023 was only about 2:20h by train, getting to the start was already 3:30h this time, and getting back was 5:30h on a bus.
Having the new Garmin and connecting it to the phone was really great, I used brouter and gpx.studio for on the fly checking and planning my routes when having breaks and in the evening.
And yeah, this should have been published last summer, it was even mostly written but I never came around finishing it until February 2026.