Alfeld has a secret that surprises many visitors: a factory building that changed the history of architecture. On the edge of the town stands the Fagus Works, a shoe-last factory designed by a young Walter Gropius in 1911, with great sheets of glass wrapped around the corners of the brick structure, so that the building seems to float. It was one of the first buildings to use a curtain wall of glass, and it is a forerunner of the Bauhaus style that Gropius would found in the 1919. The works still produce shoe lasts and are a World Heritage site, with a visitor centre and guided tours that explain how the place worked.
The town itself is a quiet, handsome one on the Leine river, with a marketplace framed by half-timbered houses and a remarkable town hall from the sixteenth century, with elaborate carved decoration and a stepped gable. The old streets are quiet, the squares have fountains and benches, and a number of the timber houses have long inscriptions along the beams. It was one of the first towns in the region to adopt the Reformation, and its churches carry that history.
As a food stop, Alfeld is easy. It has about nineteen thousand people, so fuel stations, supermarkets and bakeries are close at hand, and there are several cafés and restaurants around the market, with tables outside in good weather. Local fare is plain Lower Saxon, with sausage, potatoes, cabbage and cake. Parking a motorbike near the market is simple, though the cobbles are rough and slippery when wet. The roads leading into town are quiet and pleasant, running along the Leine valley between wooded hills, with long views over meadows and fields.
Riders passing through often use the town as a base for the surrounding hills, since the Sieben Berge, a ridge of wooded hills to the west, offer curving roads through beech forest, and the Hils rises to the south. The weather here is changeable, with sudden showers possible, and a waterproof layer is wise. If you are interested in architecture, allow at least an hour for the Fagus Works, since a rider rarely gets a chance to stand in front of a building that altered modern design. A coffee and a slice of plum cake in the market, after the tour, makes a gentle afternoon.