CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. 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.
From Seelze it runs 439 km to Pattensen; allow about 6 h 53 of riding. On the way it passes Springe, Hameln old-town river stop and Rinteln Weser overlook. The climb of the day is Bad Münder ridge road. Much of it runs through woodland.
Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast. For 19 km this is German Fairy Tale Route, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it.
Hannover's western edge is mostly rail yards, canal bank and green fringe, and it tells the city's industrial story more honestly than the old town does. The Mittelland Canal, the long artificial waterway that links the Rhine and the Elbe, passes near Seelze, and barges move quietly along it all day, a calm, almost hypnotic sight. The Leine river is close too, with its wide floodplain, and the city's factories once clustered along both.
Read the complete Hannover west edge write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Hannover west edge is where the day begins. Next is Springe.
Springe is the small, practical town at the foot of the Deister, the long wooded ridge that rises southwest of Hanover and gives the city its nearest bit of real hill country. It is not a place most people plan a day around, and that is fine. It is where the plain ends and the hills begin, and the first sign of that is a sudden change in the road, from straight and flat to curving and shaded.
Read the complete Springe fuel gate write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Springe is the fuel stop for this leg. Next is Bad Münder ridge road.
Between the Deister and the Weser lies a small cluster of low, forested ridges, and the road above Bad Münder runs along the edge of one of them. The land here is part of the Weser Uplands, a modest country of beech woods, limestone outcrops and small spa towns, and the name Süntel belongs to the ridge just beyond. It is not high, but it is steep enough on its flanks to make for lively riding.
Read the complete Bad Münder ridge road write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
This is where the road stops climbing. Next is Hameln old-town river stop.
Everyone knows the story, and in Hameln you cannot get away from it. In 1284, according to the legend, a stranger in a coloured coat came to town to rid it of rats with his pipe, was cheated of his fee, and led the children away instead. The tale is probably built on some real event, maybe an emigration or a catastrophe, but nobody knows which. The town has embraced it with enthusiasm: rats in the shop windows, rat-shaped bread, a summer play staged in the street and a mechanical glockenspiel show at the Hochzeitshaus that draws a crowd every day.
Read the complete Hameln old-town river stop write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Hameln old-town river stop, early in the day. Next is Rinteln Weser overlook.
Rinteln is a Weser town that sits in a narrow bend of the river, with the ridge of the Weser Hills on one side and low farmland on the other. The overlook is up on that ridge, where the road leaves the town and climbs through trees to a spot with a good view of the valley. From it you can see the river wind through the meadows, the town's church spires and red roofs in the bend, and the next line of hills in blue haze behind.
Read the complete Rinteln Weser overlook write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Rinteln Weser overlook sits at 145 km, about halfway. Next is Bad Nenndorf coffee return.
Bad Nenndorf is a spa town that never grew into a resort, and that suits it. It sits in the Schaumburg countryside west of Hanover, at the foot of the low wooded ridge of the Deister, and its trade is sulphurous water. Springs here were developed as a bath in the late eighteenth century under the rulers of Hesse-Kassel, and a park of old trees, colonnades and bathhouses survives from that period. The smell of the water is distinctive, and the baths are still used for health treatments, particularly for joint and skin complaints. The town is quiet, tidy and slightly formal.
Read the complete Bad Nenndorf return write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Bad Nenndorf coffee return is where this day stops to eat. Next is Back to 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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back to Hannover closes the day. Next is Hannover south edge.
Pattensen is a small town on the southern fringe of Hannover, in the Calenberger Land, where the flat plain of the city meets the first gentle swells of the hill country that runs south toward the Weser. Its old centre has half-timbered houses and a medieval church, and the streets have a sleepy, slightly farm-like atmosphere even though the suburbs of the city are barely a few kilometres away. For a rider wanting to head south, this is the right place to start, because the main roads out of the city are behind you and the quiet roads begin almost at once.
Read the complete Hannover south edge write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
You start here, at road level. Next is Hann. Münden three rivers, 36 km on.
Hannoversch Münden is where two rivers lose their names. The Werra and the Fulda meet here, and from this point on the water is called the Weser, which flows north for more than four hundred kilometres to the North Sea. The town sits at the meeting point, with water on three sides, and has so many half-timbered houses, more than seven hundred, that it feels like a stage set, with carved beams, painted gables and a cobbled main street.
Read the complete Hann. Münden three rivers write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Hann. Münden three rivers sits at 290 km, about halfway. Next is Weserstein photo stop.
There is an old verse on the stone: where the Werra and the Fulda kiss, they lose their names, and from the kiss the Weser flows, German to the sea. The Weserstein stands on the tip of the land where the two rivers meet, in a small park on the edge of the old town of Hann. Münden, and it has been put up for a long time, so the stone has the patina of weather and moss.
Read the complete Weserstein photo stop write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Weserstein photo stop comes up 326 km in. Next is Göttingen food stop.
Göttingen is a university town that has never been shy about it. The Georg-August University was founded in 1737 and became one of the leading centres of science in Europe, and the roll of people who studied or taught here includes the mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss, the physicists Max Planck and Werner Heisenberg, the Brothers Grimm, and a long list of Nobel laureates. The student population gives the city a lively, young feel, with bicycles everywhere.
Read the complete Göttingen food stop write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
A break here. Next is Northeim.
Northeim is a Hanseatic town that gets passed by, which is a pity. It sits on the Leine river, in the broad valley between the Harz mountains to the east and the Solling hills to the west, and it has a long history, with its origins in the early Middle Ages and a time as a member of the Hanseatic League. The medieval counts of Northeim were once powerful in the region, and one of them, Otto, became Duke of Bavaria in the eleventh century.
Read the complete Northeim fuel gate write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
A pump at 399 km in. Next is Einbeck return road.
Einbeck is where bock beer began. In the Middle Ages the town was one of the great brewing centres of the Hanseatic League, and its strong, dark beer was exported across northern Europe. When Bavarian brewers copied it, the name Einbecker was heard as ein Bock, a billy goat, and so a beer style got its name. The town still has a brewery, and the goat appears on the labels.
Read the complete Einbeck return road write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Food at 435 km, roughly 9 hours into the riding.
Hannover is not the first name that comes to mind when riders talk about great destinations, and it would probably say that is fine. It is a big, calm, practical city of half a million people on the northern edge of the German hills, where the flat North German Plain begins to roll up toward the Deister and the Weser Uplands.
Read the complete Hannover write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Finish at Back to Hannover. That is the ride.
Hannover west edge → Springe fuel gate is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Springe fuel gate → Bad Münder ridge road is 9 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Bad Münder ridge road → Hameln old-town river stop is 18 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hameln old-town river stop → Rinteln Weser overlook is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Rinteln Weser overlook → Bad Nenndorf coffee return is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Bad Nenndorf coffee return → Back to Hannover is 26 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Back to Hannover → Hannover south edge is 22 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hannover south edge → Hann. Münden three rivers is 131 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Weserstein photo stop → Göttingen food stop is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Göttingen food stop → Northeim fuel gate is 27 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Northeim fuel gate → Einbeck return road is 22 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Einbeck return road → Back to Hannover is 69 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.