Why this ride
A 141 km round trip from Hannover - roughly 2 h 28 in the saddle. On the way it passes St Mary's Cathedral and St Michael's Churc, St Michael's Lutheran Church, St Mary's Catholic Cathedral and Fagus Factory in Alfeld.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Hannover afternoon · Fagus Factory in Alfeld
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 141 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 2 h 28
- Journey
- Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
Scenic road chapters
Hannover → St Mary's Cathedral and St Michael's Churc
Speed drops and stays down. Park rather than crawl through. 38 km through ground somebody thought worth listing. The road passes it rather than bypassing it.
Chapter facts
- Length
- 39 km
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. Hannover
Hannover does not seek attention, which is part of its character. The capital of Lower Saxony, with about half a million people, is a flat, green, practical city on the Leine river, famous for its trade fairs, and for speaking what Germans consider the purest standard German. Large parts of the centre were destroyed in the Second World War, and the rebuilding is mostly plain, but there are fine things inside it: the Herrenhausen Gardens, a baroque garden of clipped hedges and fountains, the Maschsee, a big lake laid out in the 1930s where locals sail and jog, and the new town hall, a copper-domed building from 1913 with a lift that rises inside the dome.
Read the complete Hannover write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Hannover is where the day begins. Next is St Mary's Cathedral and St Michael's Churc.
2. St Mary's Cathedral and St Michael's Churc
Hildesheim is a town that was destroyed and put back together. On 22 March 1945, bombers flattened most of the old town, and the cathedral and the church of St Michael were left as burnt shells. After the war, the people rebuilt them, stone by stone, and both are now UNESCO World Heritage, listed in 1985. They are among the finest examples of Ottonian architecture in Europe, from the years around the year 1000.
Read the complete St Mary's Cathedral and St Michael's Churc write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
St Mary's Cathedral and St Michael's Churc comes up about 39 km into the recorded legs. Next is St Michael's Lutheran Church.
3. St Michael's Lutheran Church
St Michael's in Hildesheim is a church that was built to a vision. Bishop Bernward, a teacher and craftsman as well as a churchman, began it around the year 1010 and died in 1022, and the church was consecrated in 1033. He designed it with a double apse, with a choir at each end, and with two transepts and six towers, a symmetrical plan that is one of the best examples of Ottonian architecture. The layout reflects a view of the world in which the church was a model of heaven.
Read the complete St Michael's Lutheran Church write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 39 km into the recorded legs you reach St Michael's Lutheran Church. Next is St Mary's Catholic Cathedral.
4. St Mary's Catholic Cathedral
In the courtyard of Hildesheim Cathedral, a rose bush climbs the wall of the apse, and the legend says it has been growing there for a thousand years. The "thousand-year rose" is linked to the founding of the bishopric in 815, when, so the story goes, Emperor Louis the Pious hung a reliquary on the branches of a wild rose and found it impossible to remove, taking it as a sign to build a chapel. Whatever the truth, the rose survived the bombing of March 1945, which destroyed the cathedral and much of the old town, and sprouted again from its roots in the rubble. The cathedral and the nearby Church of St Michael were inscribed by UNESCO in 1985 for their outstanding Romanesque architecture and art.
Read the complete St Mary's Catholic Cathedral write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
St Mary's Catholic Cathedral, about halfway. Next is Fagus Factory in Alfeld.
5. Fagus Factory in Alfeld
Stand across the railway tracks and look at the Fagus works, and you are looking at one of the buildings where modern architecture started. In 1911 the shoe-last maker Carl Benscheidt hired a young Walter Gropius and his partner Adolf Meyer to design a new factory in Alfeld, in the Leine valley of Lower Saxony. They gave it walls of glass that seem to wrap around the corners with no column to hold them, a radical trick at the time, and the result was so influential that it became a UNESCO site in 2011. The best part: it is still a working factory making shoe lasts, not a museum frozen in place.
Read the complete Fagus Factory in Alfeld write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Fagus Factory in Alfeld sits at 68 km, about halfway. Next is back through St Mary's Catholic Cathedral.
6. back through St Mary's Catholic Cathedral
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete St Mary's Catholic Cathedral write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through St Mary's Catholic Cathedral comes up about 96 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through St Michael's Lutheran Church.
7. back through St Michael's Lutheran Church
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete St Michael's Lutheran Church write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 97 km into the recorded legs you reach back through St Michael's Lutheran Church. Next is back through St Mary's Cathedral and St Michael's Churc.
8. back through St Mary's Cathedral and St Michael's Churc
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete St Mary's Cathedral and St Michael's Churc write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through St Mary's Cathedral and St Michael's Churc, late in the day. Next is Hannover.
9. Hannover
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Hannover write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
The route ends here after 141 km.
Leg by leg
Hannover to St Mary's Cathedral and St Michael's Churc
Hannover → St Mary's Cathedral and St Michael's Churc is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
St Mary's Catholic Cathedral to Fagus Factory in Alfeld
St Mary's Catholic Cathedral → Fagus Factory in Alfeld is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fagus Factory in Alfeld to back through St Mary's Catholic Cathedral
Fagus Factory in Alfeld → back through St Mary's Catholic Cathedral is 28 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through St Mary's Cathedral and St Michael's Churc to Hannover
back through St Mary's Cathedral and St Michael's Churc → Hannover is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.