Hannover to Helmstedt, Germany

We ate breakfast this morning in Hannover at a cafe near our hotel and I hit the road around 9:20. The ride out of Hannover was surprisingly quick, and it was back along canals for a significant portion of the route this morning. Given the gravel it is difficult to move particularly fast on these roads but they are scenic and mostly relaxing for sure.

Just past the intersection of the Mittellandkanal and the Stichkanal I ended up in a funny situation in which was I trapped between the canal to my left and a fence to my right. In this case, it was not a relaxing place to be! Eventually I needed to backtrack and then push my bike and crash through a dense hedge to escape. But, escape I did, and a few minutes after that I was in Braunschweig where I ate lunch. 

My afternoon ride was a really lovely 35 kilometres from Braunschweig to Helmstedt passing through the Naturpark Elm-Lappwald, and I reached the hotel at 16:16. 

Diana had already arrived by train somewhat earlier so we were already checked in at the Parkhotel Helmstedt. 

Helmstedt is a small town and not necessarily well known, but for several decades it was the most significant border crossing point between East and West Germany, "Checkpoint Alpha." It may also be the most picturesque German town we have stayed in so far. I am happy for the late evening sunsets because it gives us plenty of post-ride time to walk around and explore.

The building in the centre of the photo below is Helmstedt's town hall, and it has a restaurant in the basement.

It proved a pretty cool place to dine!

White asparagus is in season and has been advertised all along our route, so it was time to try some. In this case, you order asparagus and then chose a protein to go with it. I do not know if I have ordered a vegetable as the "feature" item of a plate before with meat on the side! The asparagus came with a generous serving of hollandaise sauce and it was wonderful. Also, I never see asparagus that thick in Canada.

I was very amused to find out that there is a bowling alley attached to the restaurant. We had a chuckle thinking about the municipal public servants enjoying games of bowling in the town hall basement. 

Osnabruck to Hannover, Germany

For the vast majority of my route on this bike trip I am entrusting Google with navigating. I am well aware this is not always ideal, but it became particularly laughable this morning when I ended up on this "trail" between two farmers fields!

Still, for 139 kilometres today (and many more in days prior), Google took me where I needed to go, even if occasionally it may not have been the smoothest or most direct route. But, much of the riding is perfect, like this bike path along the highway (and in this case over the bridge).

For about the last half of my ride in the afternoon I was riding along the Hannover-Linden canal.

Largely this road was unpaved, but not bad, and certainly it was straight and very quiet and very scenic.

Once I left the canal I was in Hannover, and then it was a matter of navigating urban bike paths (which were not quiet at all) into the city centre.

I met Diana just before 18:00 at the Kaiserhof Hotel, just across from the train station.

This was our view from the room, down onto the Ernst-August-Platz and the train station behind it.

Just like we found in Almelo and Osnabruck, Hannover has lots to see, and perhaps even more so since it is much bigger than either of those two. A poster in the hotel shares some of the tourist highlights.

This, for example, is the "new" city hall!

The city hall has a large pond and park behind it. 

And this is the "old" city hall.

I am not certain what this building is . . .

. . . but this is the state opera house.

We were back in our room before the sun was entirely gone. The hotel mini bar is complimentary, so I enjoyed a beer from the fridge while looking out over the platz as the night closed in.