100 Schlösser Route: East Route

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Just joining me on the 100 Schlösser Route in the Münsterland region of North Rhine-Westphlia? This thousand kilometer long bike path forms four circles in each of the cardinal directions starting roughly from the bike-friendly city of Münster. Each route is unique and contains several noteworthy castles along the way. Already curious for more? You can read about the north, south, and west routes after checking out the east route below.

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EAST ROUTE

The east route of the 100 Schlösser Route is 250 km long and overlaps a good amount with the north and south routes. The concentration of castles isn’t as high on this route, but the gently rolling hills offer plenty of beautiful views.

Day 1: Warendorf to Bad Sassendorf – 85 km

Since the east route connects to both the north route and the south route, a lot of the trail is doubled. For this reason I decided to begin the east route in Warendorf. The 100 Schlösser Route east begins the same as the north route heading through West- and Ostbevern, the monastery in the tiny village of Vinnenberg, the twin castles at Schloss Harkotten, and to the asparagus village, Füchtorf (about 60 km). From there, I did skip 20 kilometers from Füchtorf to Warendorf, missing Sassenberg, because there were no closer train connections.

Church Steeples and Castles

Because I knew this section would be long, I took an earlier train as it was Saturday and permitted on my 9 o’clock monthly ticket. So I was kind of still sleeping as I cycled through Warendorf, although I am sure the town famous for its horses is worth a visit. All day long, I could see the next villages before I arrived because of the church steeples in the distance, like in Westkirchen and Ostenfelde. In between the two I passed another golf course. I hadn’t known the sport was so popular in Germany (this has been my fourth or fifth course on the trail). At the edge of the golf course was Haus Diek which had the loudest ducks swimming in the moat that I have ever heard. They quacked up a storm.

Disastrously Lost

In Ostenfelde I had a rude awakening to no longer being on the well signposted north route because I was horribly lost. I had been following bike signs, but apparently not for my route. Using my phone, the situation got even worse. The app kept taking me on non-roads, like the ones tractors use through fields. This might have been OK, but they were covered in thigh high grass. Then it told me to turn down a road which was signed as a dead end with no cycling signs. At the end of the road, I saw a woman with her dog. When I asked for help, she said I could continue on the gravel road to get where I was going. Finally! I would be back on the trail.

At Haus Geist I met up with the 100 Schlösser Route again but was too frustrated to stop and take pictures. I took my first break in Oelde at a beautiful rose garden. Oelde is known for its Vier-Jahreszeiten-Park, a garden that I would love to visit another time.

Stromberg

The map warned me about the upcoming big hills, but they weren’t anything compared to the ones near Tecklenburg on the north route. Just before Stromberg, I saw a multitude of hikers out on walks. This meant two things: great views and hills! But really, the views were worth all the hills today. And either I’m getting stronger and better at handling them or they weren’t so bad. The market square was full of cute half-timbered houses. Leaving Stromberg, my map differed from the signposted route. Instead of following the signs, I went with the guidebook.

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Bike(ing) struggles

After so many kilometers on the 100 Schlösser Route, my bike, Mischi, is getting pretty worn out. Every now and then he needs a bit of love to keep going. After a long down hill out of Stromberg, I greased Mischi’s chain to help with the next succession of rolling hills on the way to Wadersloh.

It is not often that I see deer while cycling, but twice on the same road I kicked up a pair of deer in the fields who ran their terrified hearts out. In Wadersloh, there was a big church there and some cute houses. 50 km down and flat land ahead, the rest should be easy.

The weather for the day seemed to always be contradicting itself. It was swampy with heat and humidity, but overcast and windy. I could feel the warm water evaporating up from the asphalt. At the same time there was no hope of blue sky and the wind was getting worse as the day went on. Cycling on to Liesborn and Herzfeld was sometimes a struggle with the headwind, but I made it. Leaving Herzfeld I got a glimpse of Schloss Hovestadt, which seems to be a private horse farm now for the Counts of Plettenberg.

Leaving the trail

Then I began to make my way away from the trail to Bad Sassendorf, approximately 12 km south of Herzfeld. I had also toyed with the idea of going to Soest, but it was further and I felt finished. The last 5 kilometers seemed to go by really fast. Maybe that promise to myself of ice cream when I got there was pulling me like a magnet towards my destination. From Weslarn, I found a bike trail to Bad Sassendorf and it led me right by the thermal bath. In Bad Sassendorf I was in pensioner city; perhaps because of the thermal bath. Anyways, I found the pedestrian zone and looked for an Eis café without any luck. I was hungry and sat at a restaurant to get some fries before taking the train through Hamm back to Münster. Bad Sassendorf is the only train station I’ve been to which was not covered in my monthly Münsterland ticket.

Day 2: Bad Sassendorf to Ahlen – 50 km

The wind woke up this morning ready to fight, but so was I. It was my final day on the 100 Schlösser Route. I hadn’t intended to cycle today because rain was forecast. But after checking the weather report when I woke up, I decided to get out there and finish it up. It rained all through the night and was apparently finished, but I didn’t bother to check the wind stats before leaving.

More wind and rain

Just outside of Bad Sassendorf, rain sprinkled down on me. This was confusing because the sun was bright and all clouds were lightly colored and non-menacing. When that stopped the wind started to get to me. It felt like I was crawling the whole way! I hadn’t even made it back to the actual route yet!

Oestinghausen

Luckily, Google didn’t take me any crazy route today and I arrived just fine in Oestinghausen. I stopped to take a break outside of the church in the picturesque square before continuing on to Hultrop. Along the way was a lookout tower and I just had to stop to see the view. I was in a nature preserve and had a view over heath-like fields with cows and a stork’s nest (although no one was home).

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Between Hultrop and Lippborg, the route passes over the Lippe River. The crystal clear water and tiny beach next to the bridge looked so inviting. After Lippborg I went the extra mile (Literally.) to try and see Schloss Assen. No luck. It is private and I couldn’t even get a peek of the castle through the gate.

Beckum

If I was crawling at the start of the day, then I don’t know what you’d call my speed on the way to Beckum. The wave-like hills and whipping wind slowed me down like molasses. When I finally reached the woods, I could cycle normally again. A reward was waiting for me there – a beautiful panorama was visible beyond the trees.

I didn’t see much of Beckum itself as the trail rides along a river the whole way. At first it was the Rüenkolk and then I met the Werse River again. At the edge of Beckum is a preserved natural zone. There I cycled on a narrow path between two large lakes, which looked like the results of a quarry. In one of the ponds, I watched a deer get a drink of water, the second deer I had seen that day. But sadly, this one was missing a hind leg. I hope it’s now safe in this protected area. As beautiful as the park was, the Autobahn was loudly audible in the distance.

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Finding a train station

From Beckum, I broke again from the 100 Schlösser Route. The east route is really challenging in terms of train stations. My plan was to cycle to Sendenhorst or Albersloh. The south route meets the east route in Albersloh and both return 35 km to Münster. But neither town has a serviced train station. According to Wikipedia, the Münster region is getting a big update in terms of regional train services. This means that many stations which would make the east route more convenient will be activated. Instead, I rode to Ahlen, which is one of the excursion destinations in the guide book. This cut off about 30 kilometers of route which I had not previously completed. However, there were no additional castles along this stretch.

Ahlen

On the way to Ahlen, the trail continues along the beautiful Werse River. I was annoyed that I missed seeing Haus Pustekrey along the way since it would have been my only chance to see a castle today. In Ahlen, I did a quick cycle around the city center before heading off for the train.

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Despite the wind and lack of castles, there were positives today. The signs were more reliable and I really love long stretches of cycling along rivers.

By the time I had made it to the east route of the 100 Schlösser Route, I have to admit I was getting tired. I mean, there were over 700 km behind me. Mischi was also getting worn down. But we still really enjoyed the landscape with its gentle hills, rivers, and beautiful views. If I did it again, I would like to take more time to learn about the horse town Warendorf, take the excursion to Freckenhorst, and spend some time at the garden in Oelde.