With about eighty thousand people, it is a real city, with fuel, restaurants, shops and a railway station. The Weser here is wide and calm, with a promenade and a few cafes, and the old cathedral stands on a terrace above the water.
Minden is the place where one great waterway crosses another. The Mittelland Canal, which links the Rhine and the Elbe, runs across the Weser on a huge aqueduct, so that ships pass over the river high above the heads of anyone on the bank. The first bridge dates from 1914, and a second one was built in the 1990s, and a visit to the site on a weekday often means a glimpse of a barge sailing across. The Weser itself is a busy waterway, and the lock and the old harbour are worth a walk.
The cathedral is a fine Gothic hall church, rebuilt after the war, and the old town has a fair number of historic buildings, including the Rathaus and several handsome houses on the Weser embankment. Just north of the city, the Porta Westfalica, a narrow gorge between the Wiehengebirge and the Weser Hills, is marked by a monument to Kaiser Wilhelm I, standing on a hilltop and visible from far away. The colossal figure inside a stone canopy dominates the gap, and the view from the terrace is excellent.
The ride from Minden is gentle and pleasant, along the river or over the hills. The road to the Porta passes through woods, with a few bends and a smooth surface. There are bathing places on the river and the lakes nearby, but the Weser itself is not clean enough for swimming and has strong currents. Pick a designated spot and read the signs. A stop at the river terrace with a coffee, watching barges and cyclists drift by, is a pleasant way to pass the time before moving on.