Hannover has a gate in every direction, at least in this ride's plan, and the one in the west lies near Seelze, a town on the Leine river a few kilometres outside the city. The Leine is a quiet and rather muddy stream that winds through flat country, and from here the ride sets off west, into the Weser hills, toward Bückeburg and onward into the Harz foothills. For a rider the gate is simply a convenient place to start with a full tank, light traffic and an easy road out, and it avoids the knot of the city centre.
The city itself deserves more than a glance. Hannover is better known for trade fairs than for beauty, and the Messe, the biggest exhibition ground in the world, fills the south-east of town, but the older story is more interesting. In 1714 the elector of Hannover became King George I of Great Britain, and for more than a century the two countries were linked under one crown. The Herrenhausen Gardens, laid out for the electors in the baroque style, are one of the finest in Europe, with clipped hedges, fountains and a long avenue of lime trees. Hannover is also the home of the Bahlsen biscuit and a well-known school of industrial design.
The landscape west of the city is the north German plain turning into the first low ridges of the uplands. Roads are generally straight and fast across the flat sections, then wind through villages and over low ridges in the Weser and Deister hills, with brick farmhouses and half-timbered barns. Tree-lined lanes shade the road in summer, and the surface is generally good, though mud from farm vehicles can be slippery. Wind can be strong on open stretches.
Seelze, with about thirty-three thousand people, has fuel stations, supermarkets and bakeries, and the larger city of Hannover supplies anything else. A good coffee and a slice of cake in a local bakery is the standard German start to a ride. Spring and autumn offer the best light, while winter brings fog and ice, and in summer weekends the roads of the Weser hills fill with motorcyclists, so choose a weekday when you can.