Bergen is a small town on the southern edge of the Lüneburg Heath, close to the sandy plain that the army has used for training for more than a century. It has little to show by way of fame, but it is a useful, friendly, ordinary place with a sensible set of services, and for riders crossing the heath it makes a natural break. The town's surroundings are pine woods, heather and sandy fields, laced with quiet lanes.
Bergen's name is known to many people for another reason. A few kilometres to the northwest lies the site of Bergen-Belsen, the concentration camp where tens of thousands of people died in the last years of the Second World War, among them Anne Frank and her sister Margot. The camp itself was burned after liberation to stop disease from spreading, and the memorial today is a landscape of heath and birch with mass graves marked by grassy mounds, along with a documentation centre. It is a place of great quiet and weight, and it is open to visitors. If you go, allow time and go on foot, and leave the bike's noise behind.
The roads around Bergen are straight and smooth, running through pine plantations and open heath, with few bends and plenty of long views. Because the area is part military zone, you will sometimes see signs and barriers, and on some days there are convoys of army vehicles on the road, so keep your eyes open. The landscape has the dry, sandy smell of the heath, and in late summer the heather turns the ground purple. Wind on the open stretches can be fierce.
For food, Bergen has bakeries, snack bars and a few restaurants, and regional dishes such as Heidschnucken lamb and buckwheat pancakes are on the menus. The town is big enough, about fourteen thousand people, for fuel stations and supermarkets, so it is an easy place to fill the tank and have a sandwich. Traffic is moderate. If you find yourself in the area on a weekday in spring or autumn, you will have the roads almost to yourself, and the heath will be quiet.