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.
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Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
513 km from Isernhagen Farster Bauerschaft to Großgoltern, about 7 h 56 of riding. It goes by way of Bergen, Müden Örtze, Hermannsburg heath road and Celle. The climbs: Externsteine rock sight and Detmold ridge road. Long stretches are under trees.
For 61 km this is German Timber Frame Road Central Section, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it — expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast.
36 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.
Langenhagen, on Hannover's northern edge, is known for its airport, and the occasional rumble of jets overhead is a reminder that this is the city's door to the outside world. The district's flat suburbs, business parks and long, straight roads belong to the plain, but Hannover itself has more to offer than most visitors expect. Between 1714 and 1837 the rulers of this small German electorate were also kings of Great Britain, from George I onward, and the baroque gardens at Herrenhausen, once their summer residence, are among the grandest in Germany, with a spectacular fountain that shoots up to about seventy metres.
Read the complete Hannover north gate write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Hannover north is where the day begins. Next is Bergen food stop.
Bergen is a small town on the southern edge of the Lüneburg Heath, close to the sandy plain that the army has used for training for more than a century. It has little to show by way of fame, but it is a useful, friendly, ordinary place with a sensible set of services, and for riders crossing the heath it makes a natural break. The town's surroundings are pine woods, heather and sandy fields, laced with quiet lanes.
Read the complete Bergen food stop write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Bergen food stop is where this day stops to eat. Next is Müden Örtze photo stop.
Müden is one of those villages that photographers find without being told. It sits where the little Örtze river winds through the southern Lüneburg Heath, a clear, sandy-bottomed stream running between alders and meadows, and it is surrounded by thatched half-timbered farmhouses, old oaks and a small church. Several of the buildings have the typical heath style, with low eaves, brick infill and a big roof of reed or straw, and the whole thing looks as though it has been waiting for a painter. Many painters did indeed come, and the village has attracted artists for generations.
Read the complete Müden Örtze photo stop write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
90 km in you reach Müden Örtze photo stop. Next is Hermannsburg heath road.
Hermannsburg is a surprise in the middle of the heath, a village with a missionary history that stretches all the way to southern Africa. In the middle of the nineteenth century a local pastor named Ludwig Harms founded a mission here that trained and sent out farmer-missionaries, and over the following decades the Hermannsburg Mission sent hundreds of workers to Africa and India. Places in South Africa were named after the village, and a few of them still carry it, which is a strange thing to come across in a quiet corner of Lower Saxony. A museum and a large church recall the story.
Read the complete Hermannsburg heath road write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Hermannsburg heath road, early in the day. Next is Celle.
Celle is a town that looks like it has been preserved in a jar. More than four hundred half-timbered houses, with carved beams, painted inscriptions and crooked upper storeys, line the streets of the old centre, and the whole place has survived with very little damage because it escaped bombing in the Second World War. About seventy-one thousand people live here, on the banks of the Aller, at the southern edge of the Luneburg Heath.
Read the complete Celle write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Next is Burgdorf return road.
Burgdorf is a solid, practical town of thirty thousand people on the eastern edge of the Hannover region, where the farmland begins to turn into heath and pine. The name means castle village, and the place grew around a medieval fortress that has since vanished. Today it is a commuter town, with a brick-built centre, a pedestrian precinct and a good supply of shops, bakeries and filling stations, and it is the sort of place you stop at when you need to take care of practical things.
Read the complete Burgdorf return road write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Burgdorf return road comes up 224 km in. Next is back to Hannover north.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Hannover north gate write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back to Hannover north closes the day. Next is Hannover west escape.
Hannover has a reputation for being flat, grey and efficient, which is mostly unfair, though to be honest the first twenty kilometres west of town will not change your mind. The starting point here sits on the Calenberg lowland, a farming plain of big fields, hedgerows and straight roads, just outside the built-up edge and close to the villages of Großgoltern and Egestorf. The Deister ridge lies not far to the south-west, and that low range of wooded hills is the first real promise of curves for anyone leaving the city in that direction.
Read the complete Hannover west escape write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
You start here, at road level. Next is Bückeburg.
Fuel is available here and in the neighbouring villages, and the main street has bakeries and cafes. The country around it is flat and fertile, with the Weser some kilometres to the west and the low ridge of the Bückeberge to the south.
Read the complete Bückeburg fuel gate write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Next is Bad Iburg forest return.
The hills here are not high, no more than three hundred metres or so, but they are steep, well wooded and cut with small valleys, and the road in from the plain climbs through beech forest with a satisfying series of bends. The town has fuel, bakeries and several inns, and it is a pleasant place for a late lunch.
Read the complete Bad Iburg forest return write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Bad Iburg forest return is where this day stops to eat. Next is Externsteine rock sight.
The Externsteine are a row of sandstone towers that rise from the Teutoburg Forest like fingers, some nearly forty metres high, weathered into strange shapes and standing apart from the surrounding hills. They are among the most famous natural monuments in Germany, and a place where history, legend and politics have mingled for centuries.
Read the complete Externsteine rock sight write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Externsteine rock sight is the summit of this stretch. Next is Detmold ridge road.
Detmold has a giant looking over its shoulder. On a hill in the Teutoburg Forest above the city stands the Hermannsdenkmal, a copper statue of the Germanic chieftain Arminius, who defeated three Roman legions in the year 9 AD, raised on a stone base and holding a sword to the sky. It was completed in 1875 after decades of work, in the first flush of German national feeling, and at about fifty metres is among the tallest statues in the country. The exact site of the battle is still debated, and most scholars think it took place farther north, at Kalkriese.
Read the complete Detmold ridge road write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
You top out here; the road stops climbing. Next is Lemgo old-town stop.
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 stop sits at 537 km, late in the day. Next is Back to Hannover.
The last hour of a long ride is often the quietest, and the approach to Hannover from the west has a calm of its own. The point lies in the Calenberg country, near the villages of Großgoltern and Groß Munzel, with the dark ridge of the Deister to the south and the flat plain of the Leine stretching away to the north. Egestorf, five kilometres away, has the nearest shops and fuel, and Barsinghausen is just beyond.
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 north gate → Bergen food stop is 58 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Bergen food stop → Müden Örtze photo stop is 17 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Müden Örtze photo stop → Hermannsburg heath road is 6 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hermannsburg heath road → Celle fuel gate is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Celle fuel gate → Burgdorf return road is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Burgdorf return road → back to Hannover north is 19 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back to Hannover north → Hannover west escape is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Hannover west escape → Bückeburg fuel gate is 47 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Bückeburg fuel gate → Bad Iburg forest return is 101 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Bad Iburg forest return → Externsteine rock sight is 98 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Externsteine rock sight → Detmold ridge road is 12 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Detmold ridge road → Lemgo old-town stop is 15 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Lemgo old-town stop → Back to Hannover is 77 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.