Hamburg · Northern Heath, Aller Valley and Celle

A 262 km loop from Hamburg south

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Why this ride

Heather country, timber-framed streets and calm bends for a full day. 262 km round from Harburg - plan on about 5 h 20 of riding. On the way it passes Wilseder Berg heath roads, Soltau, Celle old-town sight and Uelzen Hundertwasser station.

Roadbook

1. Hamburg south gate start · 20 m

   Harburg, on the southern bank of the Elbe, is the part of Hamburg that visitors usually skip, which makes it a good place to leave from. The district grew up around an inner harbour and a long tradition of industry, and today it holds a mix of old brick warehouses, a technical university and the modern bridges and motorways that thread over the great river. A short way north, the port of Hamburg, one of the largest in Europe, spreads over islands and docks, with cranes standing against the sky and container ships passing so close to the river's edge that they seem to float over the roofs. On the far side, the Elbphilharmonie, a glass concert hall built on a brick warehouse and opened in 2017, shines like a crystal wave.

   South of the river, the land begins to rise, but only gently, into the Harburg hills and then onto the Lüneburg Heath, a sandy plain of heather, juniper and birch woodland. The heath is at its best from mid-August to mid-September, when the heather blooms purple across the open ground, and flocks of Heidschnucken, the grey, horned heath sheep, graze between the trees. The highest point is the Wilseder Berg, at 169 metres, a modest summit by any standard but a favourite with walkers. The roads that cross the heath are quiet and gently curving, shaded by oaks and pines, and the little brick villages have thatched farmhouses and old stone walls.

   Further east, the Göhrde forest and the Wendland, a region near the old inner German border, have unusual round villages, called Rundlinge, in which farmhouses stand in a circle around a central green, a layout inherited from Slavic settlers of the Middle Ages. The Elbe valley here is wide and quiet, with dykes, meadows and the occasional ferry across the water. Riding on these small roads is slow, pleasant and rewarding, though the surfaces can be rough after winter, and deer are a constant danger.

   Services around the start are no trouble, with large stations in Harburg and the neighbouring town of Seevetal, plenty of food options and parts shops. Once into the heath and the Wendland, stations are rarer, so fill up beforehand. Weather off the North Sea can change quickly, with wind and showers, so keep a waterproof handy. In autumn, early morning fog on the heath is atmospheric, though it deserves caution.

2. Wilseder Berg heath roads scenic · 169 m

   There is a certain humour in calling a hill of 169 metres a mountain, and the people of the Lüneburg Heath enjoy it. The Wilseder Berg is the highest point in the whole of north-western Germany's lowlands, a rounded dune-like summit of sand and heather that the last ice age left behind, and the view from the top, across a rolling sea of heath, juniper and distant forest, is wide enough that you stop thinking about the height. The hamlet of Wilsede at its foot is closed to cars, which is how it kept its thatched barns and its little museum of heath life. You can ride to the edge of the reserve, park, and walk in.

   What matters for a rider is the web of small roads around the reserve, which connect Egestorf, Bispingen and Schneverdingen. They are quiet, mostly smooth and almost entirely free of hairpins, and the pleasure is in the rhythm: a gentle rise over a heath ridge, a swing through a sandy pine plantation, a village green with an old oak and then open sky again. Do not expect a technical challenge. Do expect cyclists, horse riders and the occasional carriage, and a strong sense of being in a landscape that does not hurry. Sand can blow onto the tarmac at corners and after rain the dark leaf litter under the pines is slippery.

   The heath is protected, and it has been for a long time, as one of Germany's first nature reserves, set up in the early 1920s when the old way of grazing was beginning to die out and the open ground was being planted with forest. Heidschnucken sheep still graze it, and they are the reason it looks the way it does. In the Totengrund, a hollow near the hill, the old pastureland is especially fine, and in late summer it glows purple when the heather is in flower. Early in the morning in September, when mist lies in the hollows, it is quieter than the weekend peak. The nearest fuel is in Bispingen or Schneverdingen, the larger of the two, and there are plenty of small cafés and farm shops in between where you can buy heather honey and heath sheep sausage.

3. Soltau fuel gate fuel · 57 m

   Soltau is a working town on the western edge of the Lüneburg Heath, a place of around twenty thousand people on the little Böhme river, and a stop here is for fuel, a sandwich and a look at your map. I say that with affection. The riding you came here for is out on the heath and the Aller valley, and Soltau gives you the services to do it without worry. There are several filling stations on the through roads, supermarkets with decent bakery counters, and a pedestrian centre where you can sit outside and drink coffee on a sunny day without anybody asking you for anything.

   It is also a town with an odd mix of roles. Its best-known attraction is an amusement park, the Heide Park, which pulls families in from Hamburg and Hanover every summer, and the signs for it appear on every road for miles. Outside the park season, and outside holidays, the traffic is mild. The town is in flat country at about sixty metres above sea level, and the land around it is a patchwork of pine plantation, farmland and the remains of heath, with the occasional dune. The soil is thin and sandy, and that is why heather and Scots pine have always done well here.

   For a rider the approach from the south or east is much like the rest of the region: long straights through forest, gentle bends over streams and a lot of cyclists. Be careful with the animals. Roe deer cross these forest roads at dawn and dusk, and a bike does not survive a collision with one. In the autumn there is also the matter of mud and wet leaves where tractors have used the lanes, so slow down when the surface looks dark. The best seasons are late spring, when the birch and beech leaves are fresh, and September, when the light is low and the heath is still in colour.

   If you need more than fuel, the smaller villages around Soltau, Neuenkirchen and Wietzendorf among them, have inns serving the usual heath dishes, such as lamb, asparagus in season, and plain cakes.

4. Celle old-town sight sight · 40 m

   Celle is a town that was almost forgotten and so was saved. It sits on the Aller river at the southern edge of the Lüneburg Heath, a handsome ducal residence of seventy-one thousand people, and its old town escaped the bombing of the Second World War, leaving hundreds of half-timbered houses in perfect shape, with carved beams, painted inscriptions and gables leaning over the cobbles.

   The dukes of Brunswick-Lüneburg lived at the castle in the centre of town for centuries, and its Baroque theatre, the oldest in Germany still in use, remains a lively place. A sad story is attached to the castle: Caroline Matilda, the young queen of Denmark, was exiled here in 1772 after a court scandal, and died of fever three years later at the age of twenty-three. The castle is open to visitors, and her rooms are among the sights.

   Celle is also a horse town. The state stud, founded in 1735, breeds Hanoverian horses, and each autumn its stallions are paraded in a famous show in the stud's yard, drawing crowds from across Germany. The countryside around the town is flat and green, with riding stables beside the roads, and the horses are as much part of the landscape as the pines.

   For riders, Celle makes a good stop for lunch or a night, with a good choice of cafes and restaurants around the square, and a pleasant walk along the Aller. The roads north and east, through the heath and the Aller valley, are quiet and flat, with long straights, an occasional bend around a village and sandy verges. The surface is mostly good, but watch for sand on the corners. Adelheidsdorf, six kilometres away, has fuel and a small centre. In late summer the heather flowers, and the whole area glows purple, and if you can, time your visit for August or September.

5. Uelzen Hundertwasser station photo · 43 m

   A railway station is not what you would expect on a list of highlights, but Uelzen is not an ordinary case. The town's main station was rebuilt in the late 1990s to a design by Friedensreich Hundertwasser, the Austrian artist who hated straight lines, and it opened in 2000, the year of his death. The result is a joyful mess: coloured columns, tiles in shining patterns, golden onion domes on the roof, trees growing out of windows and a floor that undulates beneath your feet. It looks as if a child had been allowed to design a station and had been given a big budget. Inside there is a normal functioning railway. Outside there is a line of motorcyclists taking photos, because this has become a kind of pilgrimage for people on two wheels.

   Uelzen itself is a calm town of about thirty-five thousand people on the Ilmenau, at the eastern edge of the Lüneburg Heath. It was a Hanseatic member in the Middle Ages and it has some good brick churches and old timber houses, and in the surrounding countryside there are sugar beet fields, potatoes and the straight, flat roads of the north German plain. The Elbe Side Canal runs by the town and has a large ship lift, which is a minor attraction for people who like engineering. Fuel, groceries and cafés are easy to find in the centre, so it is a very good place for a reset.

   The riding here is mostly about the connections. The roads to the north and south are straight, with long views across open fields, and the main risk is wind rather than curves. If the wind is from the west, it can be a long day on a light bike. There are quiet lanes through forest and farmland on both sides, and in spring the verges are full of wild flowers and, in a good year, the fields of rape that turn the landscape bright yellow. The old trading route between Lüneburg and Magdeburg ran through this region.

   Take your photo from the forecourt, and if the sun is behind you the colours are strongest. A weekday morning is calmer. The staff are used to people who come to look and not to travel, and the cafés in the station building are a pleasant place for a coffee.

6. Lüneburg food stop food · 17 m

   Salt made Lüneburg, and the town looks as though it knows it. For more than a thousand years the brine springs under the old town were boiled down into white gold, which was carted to Lübeck and shipped across the Baltic to preserve herring, and the profits built a city of tall brick gables, grand merchant houses and a town hall that grew by accretion across six centuries.

   The salt that made the city also threatens it. The ground has sunk in places, as the brine was pumped out, and a few streets near the old salt works lean at odd angles, with houses tilting and church towers bent. The effect is surreal and charming, and it adds to the sense of an old town that is constantly shifting. The old harbour district, with its brick crane and its gabled warehouses, is the prettiest corner, and a cafe by the water is a good spot for a coffee.

   Lüneburg is also the gateway to the Lüneburg Heath, a wide landscape of sandy hills, junipers and purple heather that is one of the best known in Germany. The heather blooms in late August and September, and the heath sheep, the Heidschnucken, graze among the shrubs. The town's cuisine reflects that: roast Heidschnucke, buckwheat cakes with local cranberries, and heather honey. The roads around the heath are straight and quiet, with the surface mostly good and the traffic light, and a ride at dawn, with mist over the heather, is a memorable experience.

   Reppenstedt, four kilometres away, is a large village with supermarkets and fuel. The Elbe is a short ride to the north, with its dike roads and ferries, while to the south the heath rises gently towards the Wilseder Berg, the highest point in the region. The old town is partly pedestrian, so leave the bike on the edge and walk in. In the evening, the brick glows in the low sun, and the lanes fill with students from the university. Stay for dinner, and linger.

7. Back to Hamburg finish · 20 m

   Harburg is the part of Hamburg that most visitors never see, and that is its charm. It sits on the south bank of the Elbe, across the water from the centre, and for centuries it was a separate town in another state, a port, a manufacturing centre and a river crossing in its own right. Today it is a district of Hamburg with a university of technology, old warehouses converted into offices and an inner harbour with a mix of rusted cranes and new apartments. Beyond lies the Harburg Hills, a low wooded ridge, and then the heathland of Lower Saxony.

   Riders who come back to Hamburg from the heath know the end of the day well. The roads from the Lüneburg Heath run north through pine woods and farmland and into the suburbs, and then come the Elbe bridges, with the vast container port spread out on either side, a steel landscape of gantry cranes, stacked boxes and ships that are bigger than any building you have ever seen. The Köhlbrand Bridge, a long cable-stayed span, carries traffic high above the harbour at night, and the lights below are an unexpected pleasure. The traffic is heavy at rush hour, so plan your return time.

   Hamburg is Germany's second city and its biggest port, and the harbour has shaped its character for a thousand years. Merchants of the Hanseatic League made the city rich, and the title Free and Hanseatic City is still in its official name. The people are known for a dry, reserved humour and an indifference to weather, and there is a local saying that there is no bad weather, only the wrong clothes. A Fischbrötchen, a bread roll with pickled herring or smoked salmon, is the standard quick lunch.

   Fuel is plentiful in Harburg and on the main roads in and out. Parking is tight in the centre, so look for garages on the edge. The best time to ride the heath is late summer, when the heather blooms purple, and the best time to see the port is at dusk, from the harbour promenade, when the lights come on and the ferries cross in the dark.

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