Schöningen has a reputation that has nothing to do with riding, and it is a startling one. In the 1990s, archaeologists working ahead of the lignite diggers found wooden spears here that were about three hundred thousand years old, the oldest known hunting weapons in the world, along with the bones of horses butchered by the people who threw them. The finds changed what scientists thought early humans could do, since the spears were balanced like modern javelins and made with real skill. A modern museum beside the old mine, shaped like a lump of glass and steel, tells the story and shows a reconstruction of the shore where the hunters worked.
The ridge that carries the road lies on the eastern side of the Elm and Lappwald hills, the low upland that runs near the old border with Saxony-Anhalt. For forty years this was a frontier zone, and the quiet, thinly populated feeling of the villages still carries some of that. The ridge is not high, just a couple of hundred metres, but after the flat farmland it gives long views across fields and wind turbines, and on a clear day you see the outline of the Harz far to the south.
Riding here is open and easy. The road follows the crest and rolls over a number of gentle rises, with wide, forgiving bends and patchy but generally acceptable tarmac. The traffic is light, apart from the occasional coal or farm truck, and the wind is the main thing you notice. It is a country of big skies, harvested fields and church spires, and the light at the end of the day turns the stubble gold. Spring brings the bright yellow of rape and a sharp, green smell.
Schöningen town, a few hundred metres away, has about thirteen thousand people, a handsome old castle and some half-timbered streets, and services are not a problem: fuel stations, supermarkets and bakeries along the main roads, plus a few cafés near the market. Park near the centre and spend ten minutes at the castle. If the museum interests you, allow an hour or two, since it is well done and worth more than a quick glance. Bring a windproof layer, because the ridge is exposed and the weather can change.