The old Cistercian abbey of Loccum stands among the fields and forests of western Lower Saxony, about four kilometres from the town of Rehburg-Loccum, and it has been here since 1163. That alone makes it an unusual place, since it survived the Reformation and became Protestant without being dissolved, and it is still a Lutheran monastic community, where trainee pastors study and monks live much as they did centuries ago. The long brick church, with its plain, high-vaulted interior, is a fine example of the austere Cistercian style.
The Cistercians chose their sites with care, favouring quiet valleys with clean water and good soil, and Loccum is a textbook case: a green, well-watered hollow, with ponds and meadows around the cloister buildings. The monks cleared forest, drained marshes and improved the land, and over the centuries the abbey grew rich and powerful. The abbot still has a special status in the Lutheran church, a curious relic of that past.
Riding here from Hannover brings you through a flat, green landscape, with the Rehburg hills rising gently to the south and the great shallow lake of Steinhuder Meer lying to the east, the largest lake in Lower Saxony. The roads are quiet and straight, with the occasional bend through woodland, and cyclists are common. Sandy soils and pine woods mix with fields of maize and wheat, and the villages are small and prosperous.
Rehburg-Loccum has just under eleven thousand people and has fuel, shops and a few places to eat, while Leese and Wölpinghausen are smaller. The abbey grounds are open to visitors, though church services and events can limit access, so check before you come. Walk through the cloister if you can, and listen to the silence. It is a rare quiet spot for a rider, and a good place to turn the engine off for ten minutes and think about nothing at all.