Schaumburg and Steinhude Easy Scenic
A 108 km loop from Hannover north-west edge
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Why this ride
Shorter, civilised and good when the weather window is thin. 108 km round from Garbsen-Mitte - plan on about 2 h 15 of riding. On the way it passes Wunstorf, Steinhude water stop and Stadthagen. Rehburg forest road is the high point. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Roadbook
- Hannover north-west edge
start
Garbsen is a big, flat suburb of Hannover, made mostly of new housing, shopping streets and industry, and it has no pretensions beyond being a practical place to start. The Mittelland Canal runs close by, carrying barges between the Rhine and the Elbe, and the whole area lies on the edge of the North German Plain, where the sky takes up most of the view. That, however, is the point. Within twenty minutes you are among fields, woods and moorland, and the city has gone.
The goal is Steinhuder Meer, the largest lake in Lower Saxony, which lies about thirty kilometres to the north-west. It is wide, with a surface of some thirty square kilometres, and astonishingly shallow, only about three metres deep at the most, so that on a calm day it looks like a large silver dish laid on the land. In the middle sits Wilhelmstein, a tiny artificial island with a fortress that Count Wilhelm of Schaumburg-Lippe built in the 1760s as a military school, one of the odd little relics of German princely life. Boats cross to it from the village of Steinhude, whose narrow lanes of low houses are full of smokehouses selling eel, the local speciality, which you may like or loathe.
The riding is gentle. The roads around the lake run through reed beds, birch woods and bog, with plenty of long, flat straights and the occasional bend. Further west, the Rehburg Hills rise to a modest height, a ridge of forest with a few sweeping gradients and quiet roads through beech woods, an unexpected relief after the flatlands. This is relaxing country rather than a technical challenge. The best months are May to September, with wind off the lake a constant, and early morning mist over the moor in autumn.
The moors around the lake are a nature reserve, and in spring and autumn the birdlife is remarkable, with cranes, ospreys and great numbers of geese passing through. Garbsen and nearby suburbs offer all the fuel stations, supermarkets and bakeries you could want, so fill the tank here, since the villages near the lake are small. On sunny weekends the shores and lanes are full of cyclists and families, so allow time. A plate of smoked eel or a simple Matjes herring with potatoes, eaten by the water, is a fitting reward.
- Wunstorf fuel gate
fuel
Wunstorf has an airbase and a lake, and neither is what you expect from the name. The town, with about forty-two thousand people, lies on the Leine west of Hanover, and the nearby military airfield is home to the German Air Force's transport aircraft. The lake is the Steinhuder Meer, a short ride to the north, the largest lake in north-west Germany and so shallow that you can nearly wade across it. It is a popular place for sailing, with the little town of Steinhude on its southern shore selling smoked eel to visitors.
Wunstorf began around a convent founded in the ninth century, and the old collegiate church still stands, a plain stone building. The town is a practical stop, with fuel stations, supermarkets and bakeries, and the roads converge here from Hanover, Nienburg and the Weser. It is a good place to fill the tank at the start of a ride, with a quick coffee before you set off.
The country around the Steinhuder Meer is flat, with moors, meadows and reeds, and the roads run straight and quiet, with wide skies and wind as the main hazard. A nature park surrounds the lake, with trails and birdwatching points, and in spring and autumn the migrating birds are a draw. The ride is gentle, and it makes a good warm-up for the hills to the south and west.
Weather in the plain can be changeable, with a cold wind off the lake in spring and autumn. Summer is warm and pleasant, but weekends bring a lot of traffic from Hanover, so go early. A smoked eel sandwich at the lake, a bag of fresh strawberries from a farm stall and a quiet hour on the shore are the pleasures of a day here. Steinhude is also known for the little sailing boats called Auswanderer, flat-bottomed and low in the water, a reminder that the lake is shallow enough that hardly anyone can drown in it.
- Steinhude water stop
swim
The Steinhuder Meer is the largest lake in Lower Saxony, and it is a curious one. It is about thirty square kilometres in area but very shallow, no more than three metres or so in most places, and that gives it a warm, brownish water and a character more like a vast pond than an alpine lake. The shore is low and reedy, with sandy beaches in some places, woods and meadows behind, and the whole place feels relaxed, a favourite for Hanoverians who want to sail, swim, or eat fish in the sun.
In the middle of the lake lies a small artificial island, Wilhelmstein, a fortress built in the 1760s by Count Wilhelm of Schaumburg-Lippe. The count was a military innovator, and he established a military school on the island, where Gerhard von Scharnhorst, later a leading Prussian army reformer, studied. The fortress can be reached by boat, and its circular walls and small buildings are a charming and slightly absurd place to visit. The village of Steinhude, on the southern shore, has a harbour and a lakeside promenade, with half-timbered houses and fishing nets drying.
The speciality is smoked eel, caught in the lake and smoked in small smokehouses in the village. It is rich, oily, and delicious on dark bread, and a few stands and cafes sell it along the waterfront. Whitefish and pike-perch are also on the menu, and the cake in the cafes is substantial. The lake is also a bird reserve, with a large wetland on the western side that attracts migrating ducks, geese, and waders.
For a rider, it is a place for a gentle stop: parking near the harbour, an hour or two on the shore, and an ice cream or a fish roll in the sun. The roads around it are flat and quiet, with long straights and gentle bends, and the surface is generally good. Fuel is available in Wunstorf, about seven kilometres away, and in Hagenburg, a smaller place nearby. Weekends in summer are crowded, with day-trippers from Hanover, so go early or on a weekday. Swimming is possible from the beaches, and the water is shallow and warm, though it can be murky.
- Rehburg forest road
pass
The Rehburg hills are a gentle ridge of wooded sandstone that rises above the flat country west of Hanover, and the roads through them are among the quietest and most enjoyable in the region. They are not high, only a few hundred feet above the plain, but they feel like a different country, with beech and oak forest, steep little valleys, and the smell of leaf mould and pine. The roads wind through the trees in gentle, flowing bends, and the light, filtered through the canopy, flickers across the surface.
The area has a long history of healing and prayer. Bad Rehburg, a small spa town on the edge of the hills, was a fashionable resort in the nineteenth century, famous for its mineral springs and its peaceful parks. A few kilometres away stands Loccum Abbey, a Cistercian monastery founded in the twelfth century, with a fine Romanesque and Gothic church of brick and stone. It has been a Lutheran institution since the Reformation, and it remains a working religious community, with a seminary and an academy. Its cloisters and church can be visited, and the atmosphere is quiet and calm.
Riding here requires respect for the conditions. The roads are narrow, with sudden bends, and leaves, mud, and gravel can appear on the surface, particularly after rain or forestry work. Deer and wild boar cross at dusk and dawn, so keep your speed sensible after the light fades. Traffic is light, mostly local, with a few weekend visitors and cyclists. The best season is autumn, when the beech leaves turn gold and the forest is full of colour, though spring has a freshness of its own.
Rehburg-Loccum, about half a kilometre away, has fuel, a supermarket, bakeries, and cafes, so it is the natural place for supplies. Wölpinghausen, a smaller village about six kilometres away, has limited services. Take a break at a cafe in Rehburg, perhaps with a slice of cake and a coffee, and enjoy the quiet. The Steinhuder Meer is only a short ride to the east, and makes a pleasant addition to the day. In winter, frost lingers on the shaded roads, and snow is possible.
- Stadthagen coffee stop
food
Stadthagen is the capital of a country that no longer exists. For centuries, the town was the seat of the counts and princes of Schaumburg, a small state between Hanover and the Weser, and the Renaissance castle, built in the sixteenth century, still stands at the edge of the old town, with carved gables. The mausoleum of the princes, in the grounds of the St Martini church, is decorated with a bronze sculpture of the Resurrection by the Dutch sculptor Adriaen de Vries, one of the masterpieces of its period in Germany.
The town has about twenty-three thousand people, and is a practical stop, with fuel, supermarkets, bakeries and cafes. The market square has a Renaissance town hall and many half-timbered houses, and coal mines operated here until the 1960s, a part of the town's past that is recalled in a small museum. The ridge of the Deister, a wooded range of hills, rises to the south, and Bückeburg, with its palace, lies a short ride to the west.
The roads around Stadthagen are flat to gently rolling, with farmland and woods, small villages and a calm atmosphere. This is the northern edge of the German uplands, and the roads head south toward the Deister and the Weser hills, climbing in gentle bends through beech woods. The surface is mostly good, though some of the minor roads are patched, and traffic is light.
The weather is mild, but changeable, with rain showers at any time of year, so carry a waterproof. Summer is warm and pleasant, and the autumn colours in the Deister are lovely. A coffee at one of the cafes on the market square, with a slice of local cake, is a good way to spend a break, and the town is quiet in the evening. If you walk out to the Deister edge, you will find old mining relics half hidden in the beech woods, and the contrast between the tidy town and the overgrown pits is oddly moving.
- Bad Nenndorf return
food
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.
There is a darker chapter in its past. After the Second World War a British interrogation centre operated in the town, and the treatment of prisoners there caused a scandal back in Britain. It is a reminder that even peaceful spa towns have layers of history. Today the town is calm, and the surroundings, with farmland, small villages and castles such as the one at nearby Rodenberg, are good for relaxed riding.
The road system around Bad Nenndorf is a web of secondary roads that run through the lowland between the Deister and the Weser hills. The surface is generally smooth, and bends are gentle, passing through villages with half-timbered houses and brick churches. Traffic is light outside commuter hours, and the main risk is agricultural machinery in the harvest season. To the south, the Deister ridge, about twenty kilometres long, offers forested roads and walking trails, while to the north the Steinhuder Meer, the largest lake in Lower Saxony, is a popular day out.
For the rider, the town is a handy break. It has about ten thousand people, so fuel stations, bakeries and cafés are plentiful, and it is a good place for a coffee or a late breakfast before heading on. A walk through the spa gardens takes ten minutes and is an easy way to loosen up. Spring and early autumn are the best times for the ride, when the fields are green or golden and the light is soft. In summer, cafés set tables in the park, and in the evening the town falls quiet, so there is no need to hurry.
- Back to Hannover
finish
Seelze sits on the western edge of Hannover, where the Leine river and the Mittelland Canal run almost side by side across a flat plain, and its principal claim on the map is as a railway town. A huge marshalling yard has long dominated its southern flank, and the freight trains that rumble in and out give the place a faintly industrial rhythm. The countryside beyond is quiet, with fields, poplars and farm tracks, and a long, low line of woodland on the horizon.
That line is the Deister, a wooded ridge about fifteen kilometres to the south-west, which was once a centre of coal mining and is now a favourite of local walkers and mountain bikers. A little farther north, the Steinhuder Meer, the largest lake in Lower Saxony, is a shallow, reed-fringed expanse, popular with sailors and with flocks of migrating birds. Wunstorf, a small town nearby, has a Romanesque abbey church and an air base that occasionally brings giant transport planes low over the roads.
The ride that ends here has visited two great gaps in the hills. The Porta Westfalica is where the Weser breaks through the Wiehengebirge and the Wesergebirge, and a huge monument to Kaiser Wilhelm I, completed in 1896, stands on one side of the gap, with a view over the valley and the plain beyond. The Solling is a quiet upland forest further south, a landscape of beech and spruce with narrow roads and almost no traffic.
The riding in the Seelze district is flat and plain, and the main hazards are farm vehicles, cyclists and wind. In summer, the evening light on the fields is excellent, and the mist rises from the Leine in the early morning. Speed cameras guard some of the larger roads, and road works are common in the area.
Fuel is easy in Seelze and Letter, with stations on the main roads and supermarkets in the centre. Cafes and bakeries are found in most of the villages. Hannover's city centre is only a few kilometres away, so a last coffee in the old town, around the Marktkirche, is an option.