Hamburg · Harz Long Day Doorway

A 494 km loop from Uelzen

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Why this ride

When the north needs altitude, this is the serious long-day option. A 494 km loop that starts and ends near Uelzen, about 9 h 29 of riding. On the way it passes Rappbode dam, Goslar old town and Goslar overnight option. The climb of the day is Torfhaus high road. It is a high-mountain day.

Roadbook

1. Uelzen fuel gate fuel

   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.

2. Rappbode dam photo photo

   From the road, the Rappbode Dam is a surprise. You ride through the quiet Harz forest, on gentle roads with spruce on either side, and then the trees open and a vast curved wall of concrete and stone appears across the valley, with a long lake behind it and a long drop below. It is the highest dam wall in Germany, rising a little over a hundred metres, and the scale is the thing: it makes the cars on the road below look like toys.

   The dam was built in the 1950s as part of a chain of reservoirs in the Harz mountains to supply drinking water and control floods, and the lake it holds is the largest in the Harz, the Rappbode Reservoir, a long, branching body of water that winds through steep wooded hills. The water is cold and clean, and it supplies a large part of the drinking water of the region around Halle and Magdeburg. In recent years, the dam has added a more daring attraction, a pedestrian suspension bridge of nearly five hundred metres across the valley, among the longest of its kind in Europe, and a zip line, if you are in the mood.

   The roads that lead to the dam are a joy. The Harz is the northernmost range in Germany, and its roads climb through spruce forest in gentle, flowing bends, often with the sound of streams. Near Rübeland, there are limestone caves, among the best in the country, with huge halls of stalactites. The forest here has suffered badly from drought and bark beetle in recent years, and large patches of dead spruce stand on the slopes, a sad sight but a reminder of climate change. Fog and low cloud are common, and the weather is often cooler than in the lowlands.

   Fuel is available in Blankenburg, about seven kilometres to the north-east, where the stations, shops, and restaurants are, and the villages of Hüttenrode and Rübeland have only small shops and cafes. A parking area near the dam provides the best views, and a footpath leads out onto the wall. Best seasons are late spring and autumn, when the light is clear and the crowds thin. In winter, snow and ice can make the Harz roads tricky, and a good set of gloves is not a luxury.

3. Torfhaus high road high

   Torfhaus is where the Harz stops pretending to be a gentle hill country. The settlement is little more than a cluster of buildings strung along the B4 at somewhere around 800 metres, between Bad Harzburg on the northern edge and Braunlage to the south, and it stands on open moorland where the spruce forest gives way to bog and wind. On a clear day the Brocken, at 1,141 metres the highest summit in northern Germany, stands over the horizon as a bald, slightly sinister dome, and it is the reason most people stop here. On a bad day you will see nothing at all, because this is one of the foggiest and wettest corners of the country.

   The climb from Bad Harzburg is the part a rider remembers. The B4 leaves the town in a series of long, well-built bends through beech and then spruce forest, and the temperature falls with every few hundred metres. In early spring there can still be snow beside the road when it is dry and warm in the lowlands, so check the weather and carry a layer. Surfaces are good, but this is a popular road for cars, camper vans and other bikes, and a Saturday afternoon in summer can mean a slow convoy behind a lorry. A weekday morning, or early evening when the day-trippers have left, is when you get the road for yourself.

   Torfhaus has a National Park information centre and a few places for coffee and sausage, and a short marked walk across the moor to a lookout point. Goethe walked up to the Brocken from here in the winter of 1777, which is why the main path to the summit is still called the Goetheweg. The Brocken has a long literary reputation: in the old stories it is where witches gather on Walpurgis Night at the end of April, and you can still buy witch dolls at every kiosk in the Harz. The nearest proper fuel is down in Bad Harzburg or in Braunlage, so do not count on filling a tank on the hill, and bring a warm drink. The wind up here finds every gap in your jacket.

4. Goslar old town base food

   Goslar is one of those towns where history is not a museum but the architecture itself. It sits on the northern edge of the Harz mountains, with a perfectly preserved old town of half-timbered houses, slate roofs, and cobbled lanes, and in 1992 it was added to the UNESCO World Heritage list, together with the old Rammelsberg mine above it. Silver, copper, and lead were mined at the Rammelsberg for roughly a thousand years, until the mine closed in 1988, and that wealth built the town.

   The riches also attracted emperors. In the eleventh century, the German kings made Goslar a favourite residence, and the Imperial Palace, or Kaiserpfalz, a huge restored hall of the Salian dynasty, still stands above the old town, with large paintings of imperial history inside. In the market square, a clock with figures that come out to perform several times a day draws a small crowd, and the Kaiserworth, a guildhall that is now a hotel, shows a row of statues of emperors above its door. The streets are narrow, and cobbles can be slippery when wet, so take care walking in motorcycle boots.

   Goslar makes a good base for the Harz. From here, roads lead up into the mountains, toward Clausthal-Zellerfeld, Torfhaus, and the Brocken, a high peak that was once behind the Iron Curtain. The roads are good, with long curves, spruce forests, and good views, and in summer they are popular with riders, so weekends can be busy. In winter, snow comes early to the high Harz. The surrounding hills are heavily forested, though the forest has suffered badly in recent dry years.

   Fuel is straightforward, with several stations around the edges of town, and Langelsheim, about seven kilometres to the north-west, is a smaller place for supplies. The town has a wide range of cafes and restaurants, serving everything from Harz sausage and mushrooms to cake and strong coffee. Park on the edge and walk in, because the old town is largely pedestrianised. The best seasons are spring and autumn, when the crowds are thinner, and a stop in the late afternoon, when the slate roofs glow, is a pleasant way to end a day.

5. Goslar overnight option sleep

   Goslar is a place that makes you want to stay the night. The town lies on the northern edge of the Harz mountains, in Lower Saxony, with a medieval centre of timber-framed houses, slate roofs and crooked lanes that is on the UNESCO World Heritage list together with the nearby Rammelsberg mine. About forty-three thousand people live here, but the old town feels much smaller, and in the evening, when the day-trippers have gone, the cobbled lanes are quiet.

   Wealth came from the mountain. At Rammelsberg, just outside the town, miners dug silver, copper, lead and zinc for around a thousand years, until the mine closed in 1988, and the ore paid for the town's churches and merchant houses. The emperors noticed. In the eleventh century, the Salian rulers built a great imperial palace, the Kaiserpfalz, which was restored in the nineteenth century, and the town became a favourite place for imperial assemblies. The market square has a glockenspiel on the town hall, with a mechanical show in which scenes from the mining past revolve at set hours.

   For a rider, the Harz is a joy. The roads climb from Goslar through spruce forest toward Bad Harzburg and the Oker valley, with good surfaces, long curves and gentle gradients, and with a view back across the plain. In recent years, many of the spruce forests have been devastated by drought and bark beetles, and the hillsides are scarred with grey stands of dead trees, a sobering sight. Weather can change fast in the mountains, with fog and drizzle on the ridge, and in winter the roads can be icy.

   As a place to sleep, Goslar offers a wide range, from small guesthouses in half-timbered houses to modern hotels outside the centre, and most can find a place for a motorcycle in a yard or garage. Fuel is easy to find on the main roads at the edge of town, with Langelsheim a short ride away. Evening meals of Harz specialities include game, mushrooms and the region's sausages, followed by a local beer. After a long day, an early night in an old room with creaking floors is hard to beat.

6. Back to Uelzen finish

   The route ends here after 494 km.

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