Bad Segeberg has a hill that should not be there. The Kalkberg rises out of the flat Holstein plain like a stray piece of the Alps, a block of limestone pushed upward by an underground salt dome, and on its flank there is an open-air arena where, every summer since 1952, the Karl May Festival has staged Wild West adventures with real horses, stuntmen and fireworks.
The Kalkberg also contains a cave system that is the largest bat hibernation site in Germany, with tens of thousands of bats, including several rare species, that spend the winter there. The caves are protected and closed to visitors in the cold months, but you can join guided tours in summer. The quarry that once cut into the hill has been turned into the performance venue, and the town's old brick houses and its lake, the Segeberger See, make a pleasant place to wander.
The riding around Bad Segeberg is easy and enjoyable. Roads run through the rolling country of central Holstein, with beech woods, small lakes and hedgerows, and the traffic is light outside the festival season. When the festival is on, the town is crowded and the roads clog with coaches, so avoid the Saturday evenings in July and August. The surface is generally good, and bends are gentle, with a few tighter turns around villages.
To the north, the lakes of Holstein Switzerland begin around Plön and Eutin, and to the south the road leads to Hamburg through the quiet farmland of Stormarn. Klein Rönnau, a village close by, has a small museum of rural life. Try a plate of Holsteiner Katenschinken, a smoked ham, in one of the old inns, and take a walk around the Segeberger See before you set off. In autumn the beech woods are glorious, and the lake mists linger over the water until mid-morning.