Ith Hils and Leinebergland Switchbacks
A 147 km loop from Hannover south
Open this ride in the planner →
Why this ride
Shorter, sharper and better than it looks on a motorway map. Out of Pattensen and back again: 147 km, roughly 3 h 02 in the saddle. On the way it passes Coppenbrügge Ith road, Alfeld and Elze. The climb of the day is Eschershausen Hils road.
Roadbook
- Hannover south gate
start
South of Hannover the flat plain starts to fold, and the small town of Pattensen, on the Leine, marks the place where the ride leaves the city for the hills. The land here is the Calenberger Land, a fertile farming country of wheat and sugar beet, with big brick farmhouses and low ridges on the horizon. Beyond it rise the limestone ridges of the Leinebergland, the Ith and the Hils, long, forested crests with cliffs and old quarries, and they are the reason the ride exists.
The Ith is a thin ridge about twenty kilometres long, with limestone cliffs, beech woods and caves, and its roads climb from the valley in a series of bends and hairpins that are a pleasure on a quiet morning. The Hils is a wider, wilder upland, with dense forest and few villages, and the roads that cross it are often narrow, shaded and damp. Surfaces vary, with sections of smooth asphalt and others scarred by forestry lorries, and leaves and mud can make corners slippery in autumn. Watch for deer at dawn and dusk, and for cyclists on sunny weekends.
Near Pattensen stands a very odd building indeed, the Marienburg, a fairy-tale Gothic Revival castle with turrets, battlements and a courtyard, built in the 1860s by King George V of Hanover as a gift for his wife, Queen Marie. The kingdom was annexed by Prussia soon after, and the royal family never really lived there, which gives the whole place a slightly melancholy air. The castle sits on a hill above the Leine valley and can be seen from the road for some distance.
Pattensen has nearly fourteen thousand people and offers fuel stations, bakeries and a couple of restaurants serving German standards such as schnitzel and asparagus in season, from late April to June, when the whole region is mad for it. The larger city of Hildesheim lies to the south-east, with a Romanesque cathedral and famous rose bush, and Hannover is close behind you. Ride on a weekday if you can, because the best roads get busy with motorcyclists on Saturdays and Sundays. Spring and autumn are good, and the first frosts bring a dangerous sheen to shaded bends.
- Coppenbrügge Ith road
scenic
The Ith is the sort of ridge that makes a rider look twice at the map. It is a long, narrow limestone wall about twenty kilometres from end to end, rising steeply from the farmland to a crest of nearly four hundred and fifty metres, and it runs northwest to southeast like a great fold in the earth. The slopes are covered with old beech forest, and along the crest are cliffs and rock outcrops that attract climbers, with caves and potholes in the limestone below. The villages at its foot, Coppenbrügge among them, look up to it with a faint air of respect.
Coppenbrügge itself is a small town with an old history, once the seat of the counts of Spiegelberg, whose castle ruins stand on a hill above the centre. The family died out in the sixteenth century, and the lands passed to Brunswick, but the ruin and the market square speak of the time when this was a small capital in its own right. The surroundings are peaceful, and a few rock formations and caves in the woods have names and legends attached to them.
The road along the Ith is a pleasure for riders who like quiet. It climbs from the valley in a succession of curves through beech wood, with the light flickering through the trees, and then follows the crest or runs just below it with glimpses of the plain on one side. The tarmac is generally good, but some stretches are narrow, with tight corners and little warning, and leaf litter and moss collect in the shade. On weekends, walkers and cyclists use the road, particularly near the car parks that serve the rock climbing areas. It is quieter on weekdays, and the best time of year is early autumn, when the beech leaves turn.
The forests on the Ith hold wildlife, including deer, wild boar and, in the crags, peregrine falcons. The limestone supports a rich plant life, with orchids in the clearings in late spring. Services are in Coppenbrügge, which has about eight thousand people, with fuel stations, a supermarket and a few places to eat, and Springe lies a short way north with more. Fill up before the climb, and carry a drink. The ridge is a place for slowing down.
- Eschershausen Hils road
pass
Eschershausen is a small town at the foot of the Hils, and its main claim to fame is a writer. Wilhelm Raabe, one of the great German novelists of the nineteenth century, was born here in 1831, and his books about small-town life, with their humour and melancholy, are still read, particularly the Chronicle of Sparrow Alley and The Hunger Pastor. A modest museum in the town honours him, and the place has a quiet pride in its son. You do not need to have read a word of his work to enjoy the town, but the connection adds some weight to the plain streets.
The Hils itself is a broad, forested ridge of Lower Saxony hill country, running between the Leine and the Weser, and the road over it from Eschershausen is a long, steady climb through beech and spruce forest. The highest point is just under five hundred metres, which is not alpine, but the ridge is exposed to the weather and the temperature on top is noticeably cooler than in the valley. The forest is dense and quiet, with few buildings, and you pass long stretches without a house in sight.
The road is a good one, with a smooth surface for the most part and long, flowing bends that suit a relaxed rhythm. At the top, the road flattens and runs along the ridge for a few kilometres, with glimpses through the trees of the countryside below. Traffic is light, apart from timber lorries and the odd cyclist. In autumn, leaves and wet needles lie on the corners and demand care, and in winter, ice can linger in the shaded sections long after the lowlands have thawed. Mist is common on the ridge, and visibility can drop quickly.
Services in the forest are nonexistent, so the best approach is to fill the tank and stock up beforehand. Stadtoldendorf, about five kilometres away, has about six thousand people, with fuel stations and supermarkets, and Holzminden, farther west on the Weser, is larger. The area is also full of small monuments to the past, including the ruined monastery at Amelungsborn, founded in the twelfth century, and fine old half-timbered villages. Early on a weekday in October, with mist in the valleys and colour in the trees, this is a quietly splendid road.
- Alfeld food stop
food
Alfeld has a secret that surprises many visitors: a factory building that changed the history of architecture. On the edge of the town stands the Fagus Works, a shoe-last factory designed by a young Walter Gropius in 1911, with great sheets of glass wrapped around the corners of the brick structure, so that the building seems to float. It was one of the first buildings to use a curtain wall of glass, and it is a forerunner of the Bauhaus style that Gropius would found in the 1919. The works still produce shoe lasts and are a World Heritage site, with a visitor centre and guided tours that explain how the place worked.
The town itself is a quiet, handsome one on the Leine river, with a marketplace framed by half-timbered houses and a remarkable town hall from the sixteenth century, with elaborate carved decoration and a stepped gable. The old streets are quiet, the squares have fountains and benches, and a number of the timber houses have long inscriptions along the beams. It was one of the first towns in the region to adopt the Reformation, and its churches carry that history.
As a food stop, Alfeld is easy. It has about nineteen thousand people, so fuel stations, supermarkets and bakeries are close at hand, and there are several cafés and restaurants around the market, with tables outside in good weather. Local fare is plain Lower Saxon, with sausage, potatoes, cabbage and cake. Parking a motorbike near the market is simple, though the cobbles are rough and slippery when wet. The roads leading into town are quiet and pleasant, running along the Leine valley between wooded hills, with long views over meadows and fields.
Riders passing through often use the town as a base for the surrounding hills, since the Sieben Berge, a ridge of wooded hills to the west, offer curving roads through beech forest, and the Hils rises to the south. The weather here is changeable, with sudden showers possible, and a waterproof layer is wise. If you are interested in architecture, allow at least an hour for the Fagus Works, since a rider rarely gets a chance to stand in front of a building that altered modern design. A coffee and a slice of plum cake in the market, after the tour, makes a gentle afternoon.
- Elze fuel gate
fuel
Elze is a modest town on the Leine, between Hannover and Hildesheim, and it exists in a rider's day for one good reason, which is that it has petrol stations. That is not meant as an insult. A small, level-headed Lower Saxon town of nearly ten thousand people, set in the broad river valley with farmland on one side and wooded hills on the other, Elze does what a fuel gate should do, quickly and without drama. Pumps sit along the main roads, a supermarket and a few bakeries are in the centre, and you can be on your way again in ten minutes.
The surroundings are more interesting than the town. The Leine valley here is a broad, flat trough of fertile land, bordered to the west by the long wooded ridge of the Sieben Berge, a line of hills that gives the area its horizon, and to the east by the low plateau around Hildesheim. In the fields you see sugar beet, wheat and rape, with the occasional church spire or farm cluster. The river itself is slow and tree-lined, and a footpath follows it for a long way. A short walk along the bank clears the head and gives a view of ducks and herons.
The roads that leave Elze toward the hills are a pleasant relief after the straight roads of the valley. They climb through beech woods in gentle bends, with the surface mostly smooth and the traffic light. In autumn the leaves lie thick on the corners, and in winter frost lingers in shaded sections. Weather comes from the west and can change fast, so keep a layer handy. The region is not famous for dramatic scenery, but it is a quietly attractive stretch of countryside, with small villages, old churches and half-timbered farms.
If you need more than fuel, Alfeld and Gronau, a few kilometres away, offer more choice, and Hildesheim, about twenty kilometres to the northeast, has a famous old centre and a cathedral with a thousand-year-old bronze door. But if all you want is a full tank and a coffee, Elze is the place. Do the checks on tyres and chain while the pump runs, and take the chance to stow the jacket liner. The morning light on the river is a decent consolation prize for such a practical stop.
- Marienburg castle view
stop
The castle of Marienburg looks as if a Hollywood studio had been told to build the perfect German fairy-tale palace, and in a sense it was an act of devotion: King George V of Hanover, who was blind, had it built in the 1850s and 1860s as a birthday present for his wife, Queen Marie, on a forested hill above the Leine valley. The architect, Conrad Wilhelm Hase, packed it with towers, turrets, pointed windows and steep roofs in the neo-Gothic style, and the result is a skyline of such romantic excess that visitors often assume it is medieval.
The irony is that the royal family hardly enjoyed it. In 1866 Prussia annexed the Kingdom of Hanover, and George and Marie went into exile in Austria, so the castle spent much of its life as a symbol of a vanished kingdom. It stayed in the hands of the House of Hanover for generations, and for years the question of who owns what has caused a sharp family quarrel and a lot of legal paperwork.
The view from the road is the thing. You see the castle from the valley, across fields and meadows, with its towers rising above the trees, and the best photographs are taken in the soft light of early morning or in the low light of evening. The roads here, around Nordstemmen and Elze, are gentle and well surfaced, with long curves through farmland and a pleasant roll over low ridges. The nearby hills are part of the Leine uplands, where the river flows north towards Hannover.
Nordstemmen, a town of thirteen thousand, is the closest place for fuel and food, only two kilometres off, and Elze is a little further. Bakeries and cafés are plentiful. If you decide to go up to the castle, be prepared to walk the last stretch, and to share the path with coach parties in summer. Visiting hours are limited in winter, so check before you go. The photograph from the valley, though, is free, and available whenever the sun is out.
- Back to Hannover south
finish
back to Hannover south closes the day.