Celle is a town that looks like it has been preserved in a jar. More than four hundred half-timbered houses, with carved beams, painted inscriptions and crooked upper storeys, line the streets of the old centre, and the whole place has survived with very little damage because it escaped bombing in the Second World War. About seventy-one thousand people live here, on the banks of the Aller, at the southern edge of the Luneburg Heath.
At the centre stands the Schloss, the castle of the dukes of Brunswick-Luneburg, a large building with a baroque theatre inside, said to be the oldest in Germany still in use. It has a sad link with Danish history, because Queen Caroline Matilda of Denmark, banished after a scandal at the court of Copenhagen, spent her last years here and died in 1775 at the age of only twenty-three. A small memorial stands in the castle garden.
The Heath, a broad area of heather, juniper, birch and sandy soil, begins just north of the town. In late August and September, the heather blooms purple, and the whole country glows. Flocks of Heidschnucken, a hardy local breed of sheep with curling horns, graze the heath to keep it open. The landscape has been shaped by centuries of grazing and burning, and it is a rare habitat, protected as a nature reserve.
For riders, Celle is a place to fill the tank and have a coffee. Fuel stations are on the roads into town, the old town is closed to most traffic and parking is easy near the edge. A walk past the half-timbered houses and a cake in a cafe makes a good break. From here, the roads north and south run straight and smooth, with long views over farmland, forest and heath, and traffic is moderate. Wind can be strong over open ground, and on summer weekends, the heath roads fill with day-trippers. Early morning light on the heather is the finest, and a thermos of coffee helps on cool days.