Ask a German about Undeloh and he will tell you about the heather. The village lies in the middle of the Lüneburg Heath, one of the largest areas of heathland left in central Europe, and it is the quiet gate to the nature reserve that surrounds the hill of Wilsede. Thatched farmhouses sit under old oaks, there is a small church with a wooden tower, and in the main street horse-drawn carriages wait for tourists, which gives the place the look of a postcard from about 1925. Part of the track beyond the village is closed to motor traffic, so the last kilometres to Wilsede are for walkers, cyclists and the carriages. The bike stays where you leave it.
The heath itself is not wild nature but a landscape made by people. For centuries farmers cut turf, burnt the ground and let sheep graze, and the result was open, poor sandy land that only heather could live on. Heidschnucken, the grey, horned heath sheep, still keep the shrubs in check, along with juniper bushes that look like dark green candles standing in the sand. The heather turns purple from August into the first weeks of September, and on a sunny weekend then you will share the lanes with half of Hamburg. On a weekday morning in early autumn, with mist in the hollows and the heather gone brown and rust, it is a lot more private and, to my taste, better.
The riding in and out is gentle. These are narrow country roads through birch, pine and meadow, with low gradients and slow curves, and the main thing to watch is the other traffic: cyclists in pairs, tractors, and drivers looking at the view rather than at you. Surfaces are generally good but can have sand drifted on the corners after rain. It is a road for being slow, and that suits a finish. Hanstedt is the nearest place of any size with fuel, and Egestorf and the small inns around the heath serve coffee and cake in the German manner, with the heather honey and buckwheat pancakes you see on local menus.