A gray morning as usual. It’s ice cold in the wind when I start to ride.

I am starting to be a bit annoyed with these cold mornings with 8C-10C, it’s the last week of July, it should be warm and summer. But the good thing is that there are no wasps or mosquitoes.

The first hour is fast, I make up my own route as I go and skip the D7 for a while. It’s all quiet and empty and gray. There are no people out and about, less than 10 cars. Then it starts to rain for a while.

Riding the flat and hard and smooth bike lanes is super fast, I manage almost 20 km the first hour.

The goal today is to stop just south of Hamburg, the signs said 100 km to Hamburg when I started, then I cheated a bit and biked very fast, and all of a sudden I only had 60 km to go.

The day remains very cold but the rain stops after 30 minutes or so, just after everything got properly soaked for the rest of the day.

At about 11 I start to meet people with bikes and bags, it looks like happy campers leaving Hamburg for the weekend going south. So I really have to force myself to stop before Hamburg, the kilometers go by very fast on the Bullitt.

Riding the D7 I ride some of the worst roads for a heavy bike with small and narrow wheels, cobble stones mixed with sand. It’s a few kilometers that are really bumpy and sandy. Then there are some forest trails with narrow and muddy single tracks. All went well with the Bullitt but it was very slow compared to riding sealed roads.

I had some sections of hard packed gravel today, and that is no problem with the Bullitt, as long as the tyres doesn’t dig in it’s fast.

As I get near to Hamburg I find this fun 6 km long uphill, not very steep but still uphill. That was fun, the gearing of the deore 27 drive line makes it easy to climb. Today’s average speed was 15.8 km/h, pretty good.

So tomorrow is Hamburg and crossing the river Elbe, I hope there are no nasty surprises like needing to lift the bike or go up stairs or something like that.

I gave the saddle a small Proofide treatment tonight and tomorrow I might stop at a bike shop and fill some air.

The hotel I managed to find was very new and modern in 1967 when it was built, after that it has just gone downhill. But the Internet connection is the best so far in Germany, perhaps because the other people that are staying here are +80 years old.

After Hamburg the D7 will take me towards Flensburg and Denmark. I guess it’s flat all the way and with some luck it will also be sunshine and warm.