The EU has given its approval for a 19km road and rail tunnel to link Denmark and Germany, with construction scheduled to begin in January 2016.

Currently unappetisingly-titled the ‘Fehmarn Belt Fixed Link’, the €8.7 billion tunnel is planned to connect the German island of Fehmarn with the Danish island of Lolland. Both islands are already well plugged into their respective national infrastructures.

Unlike the Channel Tunnel, which is only accessible to trains, the plan is to run a four-lane motorway through the tunnel, alongside a double track railway. And this tunnel is to be immersed, rather than bored; it will effectively lie in big pipes on the sea bed.

Germany of course already has a long land border with Denmark, but the latter’s archipelago of islands has always dictated tediously circuitous travel routes. The undersea tunnel creates straight-line access between Hamburg and Copenhagen, with an aimed-for travel time of just two hours.

Moreover the tunnel plus the existing Denmark-Sweden Øresund Bridge will bring mainland Scandinavia three hours closer to Germany, with a very substantial effect on the economies of the regions concerned.

The funding and construction of the tunnel is being led by Denmark, with contributions from the EU, whilst Germany is merely developing the land-based facilities on the German end. There will, of course, be a substantial toll.

One casualty, however, is likely to be the present ferry link between Gedser and Rostock, the only European ferry which still accommodates trains.

Tunnel security will need to be very tight. This will be the first general access international undersea tunnel in Europe, and as such will be an obvious target for terror attacks.

There are some great long distance cycle routes in Germany. Down the Danube from Donaueschingen to Passau, along the Rhine from castle to castle, up the Elbe from Dresden to the coastal mudflats, or from the Allgäu to the Austrian border along the foothills of the Alps. Take your pick.

But given that the public is keen on novelty, we’d thought we’d profile the newest of the lot in this section, and one of the most interesting, at least from a cultural perspective, because it runs from capital to capital, from Berlin to Copenhagen.

This 630 km itinerary has ingredients that others do not: two big cities, a short sea voyage across the Baltic, three relatively unspoiled regions – Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, East Denmark – and a lot of friendly people, people who respect the bike as a means of travel. Furthermore, although it is cross-country, this is not a route which tackles hills. With much of it on dedicated tarmac cycle track, you should be able to cover the ground relatively quickly.

This itinerary has ingredients that others do not

The route starts just outside Berlin in Hennigsdorf, where it breaks into the serene expanse of the Brandenburg countryside, passing the Dutch-style Oranienburg castle and a couple of sobering former concentration camps, Sachsenhausen and Ravensbrück. From here it starts to weave through the thousand-odd lakes and watercourses of the Mecklenburg Lake District, a watery playground whose biggest expanse of water – Müritz – is Germany’s second largest lake.

The cycleway spends a lot of time dawdling around coastlines

From the lakes there’s a mellow stretch of around 130 km of mainly heathland and farmland to cross before reaching the Baltic shore at Rostock, a handsome Hanseatic red brick city with three monumental churches. Although Rostock is itself a port, the ferry actually sails from Warnemünde, a seaside resort with wide sandy beaches, a lighthouse, and a colourful harbour. From here, you could find yourself sharing the three-hour crossing with rail passengers, because this service is one of the few that still provides a roll-on, roll-off facility for trains, swallowing up Copenhagen-bound expresses whole. They’ll barely notice your bike.

Once on the other side, you’ve still got around 250km to go to reach the Danish capital, in a series of circuitous loops that will allow plenty of time to acclimatize to the change in culture. This part of Denmark is all islands and peninsulars, so the cycleway spends a lot of time dawdling around coastlines, going nowhere in particular. If you are in a hurry to get there, you could always put the bike on a train!

Berlin to Copenhagen route description