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.
Short, sharp hills and villages that reward tidy lines. Out of Groß Munzel and back again: 175 km, roughly 2 h 53 in the saddle. The stops in between: Rinteln, Extertal hill roads and Lemgo old town. The climb of the day is Barntrup ridge. The line favours views over speed.
26 km through ground somebody thought worth listing. The road passes it rather than bypassing it — speed drops and stays down. Park rather than crawl through.
For 30 km this is German Fairy Tale Route, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it. Expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast.
The Deister is a long, wooded ridge that rises abruptly from the flat country west of Hannover, and this starting point lies at its northern foot, in the farmland between Groß Munzel and Großgoltern. Barsinghausen, a town of fourteen thousand about seven kilometres away, is the gateway to the hills. Coal was mined in the Deister until 1957, and traces of that industry survive in the old shafts and railway embankments that you find in the forest.
Read the complete Hannover west escape write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Hannover west escape is where the day begins. Next is Rinteln.
Rinteln lies on the Weser, in the hills of Lower Saxony where the river cuts through a gap in the wooded ridges, and it has the look of a town that was prosperous in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and was then left in peace. Half-timbered houses with carved beams line the old market square, and the town hall and the Nikolai church stand among them. The architecture belongs to what is known as the Weser Renaissance, a decorative style with gables, bay windows and carved ornament that spread along the river in that period.
Read the complete Rinteln fuel gate write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Rinteln is the fuel stop for this leg. Next is Extertal hill roads.
South of Rinteln the land rises into the Lippe hills, and the Exter valley runs up through them in a quiet, winding way. The area has a name among riders for its relaxed and flowing roads, and it is easy to see why: the lanes follow the folds of the land, climbing gently through beech and oak woods, dropping to small streams and passing through villages of half-timbered houses with red tiled roofs. It is a landscape on a human scale, with no big peaks or dramatic views, just mile after mile of green.
Read the complete Extertal hill roads write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
62 km in you reach Extertal hill roads. Next is Lemgo old town.
Lemgo is one of those German towns where the old centre survived intact, a mass of half-timbered and stone gabled houses in the Weser Renaissance style, grouped around a market place and a clutch of churches. The town of about forty-two thousand people lies in the Lippe region in eastern North Rhine-Westphalia, on the edge of the Teutoburg Forest, and was once a member of the Hanseatic League, which explains the wealth of building from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
Read the complete Lemgo old-town stop write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Lemgo old town, about halfway. Next is Barntrup ridge.
Barntrup is a small town in the Lippe uplands, and the ridge above it gives one of the pleasanter views in this part of Germany. The land here is a series of long, wooded ridges separated by wide, farmed valleys, and the road along the top gives views over the patchwork of fields, with villages scattered between. It is a landscape of modest scale, but with a calm beauty that grows on you the longer you ride.
Read the complete Barntrup ridge write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Barntrup ridge tops the climb. Next is Hameln coffee return.
Everyone knows the story, and Hameln has not tried to hide it. According to the legend, in 1284 the town was overrun by rats, and a stranger in colourful clothes offered to rid it of them in return for payment. He played his pipe, the rats followed him into the Weser and drowned, and the town refused to pay. So he played again, and this time the town's children followed him out of the gate and were never seen again. The Brothers Grimm wrote it down, Robert Browning wrote a poem, and the Pied Piper became one of the best-known figures in European folklore. The historical record does record some tragedy in 1284, though what actually happened is still a mystery.
Read the complete Hameln food stop write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Hameln coffee return is where this day stops to eat. Next is Back to Hannover.
Coming back into Hannover from the west, the city rises out of flat farmland a little too modestly, with the green mass of the Deister ridge behind you and the tower of a power station somewhere ahead. Hannover does not shout. It is a city of half a million people that was flattened by bombing in the Second World War and rebuilt with more sense than glamour, and the best of it is tucked into corners you have to know about. The Maschsee, a big artificial lake dug by hand in the 1930s as a work programme, is the place the locals walk, run and sail on summer evenings.
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.
Use Hannover west escape → Rinteln fuel gate as clean positioning. Keep it tidy, ignore impatient traffic and save the enthusiasm for the good road ahead. The value here is not drama; it is arriving at the riding section with space, fuel and concentration intact.
This Rinteln fuel gate → Extertal hill roads stretch is for rhythm and scenery. Keep your head up, let the view breathe, and resist turning every open bend into a target. Stop once properly rather than half-stopping everywhere.
Extertal hill roads → Lemgo old town is the technical section. Hairpins, gradients and mixed traffic can stack up quickly; use low drama inputs, stay wide of centre lines and expect buses or riders appearing exactly where optimism says they will not.
This Lemgo old town → Barntrup ridge stretch is for rhythm and scenery. Keep your head up, let the view breathe, and resist turning every open bend into a target. Stop once properly rather than half-stopping everywhere.
Barntrup ridge → Hameln coffee return can flow quickly, but only if you keep village limits and junction sightlines sacred. Fast connectors are where rides get untidy when fatigue creeps in.