Uelzen sits on the edge of the Lüneburg Heath, a mid-sized town in a landscape of sand, pine and sugar beet, and its station is the strangest sight in Lower Saxony. The Hundertwasser railway station, rebuilt in 2000 as a project connected with Expo in Hanover, is a riot of colour, with tilting columns, golden onion domes, tiled mosaics and trees growing from the roof. The Austrian artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser had planned the redesign before his death, and the result is a cheerful, slightly mad entrance to an otherwise orderly town.
Uelzen is also where the Elbe Lateral Canal runs through, built to link the Elbe with the Mittelland Canal, and the double lock here lifts boats by about twenty-three metres, among the larger ones on the German waterways. Watching a barge rise in the chamber is oddly hypnotic. The town was a Hanseatic trading place, and has an old church, the St. Marien, with a tall brick tower, and a market square. Beyond the town lies the Heath, famous for the purple bloom of heather in late summer, and for sheep, the horned Heidschnucken, that keep it open.
As a fuel gate, Uelzen is convenient and practical. The main roads cross here, the stations are large and open late, and there is a good choice of cafés and bakeries near the station. The ride south runs through flat country of farms and forests, with straight, quiet roads, long avenues of oak and birch, and little traffic on weekdays. Winds can be strong on the open land, and rain in autumn comes in grey, steady sheets.
For a longer day toward the Harz mountains, this is the place to top up. Fill the tank, get a coffee and a Franzbrötchen if you can, and head south. Late August and September are best for the heather, and spring brings fresh green.