Mecklenburg's tourist gems are not easy to discover from the saddle of a road bike. Only here and there does a lake shimmer blue from a distance or sparkle close by between the trees. Yet the Mecklenburg Lake District, with its more than a thousand bodies of water, is one of the largest lake landscapes in Europe. They were formed during the Ice Age, when more than 12,000 years ago mighty glaciers pressed rubble underneath them, pushed it in front of them and deposited it as moraines when they stopped or retreated, which today criss-cross the region as low chains of hills. Between the debris, the meltwater washed out depressions and gullies and filled them. Otherwise, the landscape is flat, with no trace of mountains. The altimeter has little to do. If you want to get an overview of the flat land, you have to climb a church tower. To that of St Mary's Church in Röbel, for example. Park your bikes and climb 148 steps up the tower. At the top, 48 metres above the ground, you can finally see the lakes. At least a few of them.
You can find these routes in the PDF download:
- Tour 1: Müritz loop (102.1 km)
Quiet roads in the Müritz National Park lead around the Müritz, the largest lake that lies entirely on German territory. Less than 300 metres in altitude are ideal for training basic endurance.
- Tour 2: Off to Switzerland (113.3 km)
In Mecklenburg Switzerland, you cycle through fields and villages with pretty fishermen's cottages. There are also a few hills this time.
GPS DATA: TOUR offers the tour data for free download. You can download the tracks in GPX format directly onto a GPS device or view them on your computer in Google Earth or Google Maps.
