Stade's old town is built around a harbour, and the harbour is built around a tidal creek, the Schwinge, which loops into the centre and ends in a basin lined with merchants' houses. Brick gables, a wooden treadwheel crane on the quay and cobbles polished smooth by centuries of cartwheels make the Hansehafen look like something from a Dutch painting. In the Middle Ages Stade was one of the main ports on the Elbe, a rival of Hamburg, and its prosperity shows in the old buildings. The place went quiet when the river silted up, and the quiet saved it.
Another chapter shaped the town in the seventeenth century. After the Thirty Years' War, Stade came under Swedish rule, and for about seventy years it was the Swedish capital of the German territories, with a garrison and an administration. The Swedes left their mark in the street layout and in the Schwedenspeicher, a large brick warehouse by the harbour that now serves as a museum. It is a reminder that this quiet Lower Saxon town was once a piece of a northern empire.
As a food stop it is a very good one. The old town has a good range of cafés, bakeries and restaurants, many of them with tables on the quayside in summer, and the food leans toward fish, with plaice, herring and eel on offer along with simple dishes of potatoes and sausage. The Altes Land is next door, so apples and cakes are excellent, and apple cake with cream is the town's unofficial dessert. Prices are reasonable, service is relaxed and no one minds if you linger over a coffee.
With about forty-five thousand people, Stade has fuel stations on the outskirts and supermarkets in the town, and parking a bike near the old centre is usually easy, though the cobbles are rough and slippery when wet. The ride in from Jork or Hamburg is flat and easy, with orchards, dikes and the occasional view of the Elbe. A weekday visit means quieter streets. If you have an hour, walk around the old moat ramparts, which are now a green ring of park. The light on the water in late afternoon is lovely.