Motorradtour Rotenburg (Wümme)

Mit dem Motorrad durch den Landkreis Rotenburg (Wümme)
Zwischen Hamburg und Bremen liegt eine Region, die als Motorradreiseziel kaum bekannt ist – zu Unrecht! Auf rund 250 Kilometern erkunde ich den Landkreis Rotenburg (Wümme): vom historischen Rotenburg über Lavendelfelder, Moore und Seen bis hin zu besonderen Cafés und Erinnerungsorten.

Ob du einfach cruisen, Kultur entdecken oder die norddeutsche Natur genießen willst – diese Tour hat für jeden was dabei.

📍 Alle Stopps & GPX-Daten findest du hier: https://ride4awhile.com/motorratouren/

Lass mir gerne einen Kommentar da – oder abonnier den Kanal für mehr Motorradtouren!

00:00 Tourüberblick
00:30 Rotenburg (Wümme)
03:56 Lavendelfeld Stapel
06:46 Oste-Café Eitzmühlen
07:37 Gedenkstätte Lager Sandbostel
09:22 Bremervörde / Vörder See
10:46 Tister Bauernmoors
13:05 Melkhus Fintel
14:06 NORDPFAD Dör’t Moor / Großer Bullensee
19:07 Kantor Friedrich Helmke: Mein Rotenburg

#motorradtour #rotenburgwümme #niedersachsen #bikelife

I live in a region that is not known as a motorcycle destination, but is still worth a trip: the Rotenburg Wümme district, between Hamburg and Bremen. I have planned 250 kilometers for you, with plenty of options for a short or longer break. Good morning and welcome to the Rotenburg Wümme market square. This is where my tour starts and ends. On Wednesdays and Saturdays, there is even a lovely weekly market here that you can visit. But before we get started, I’ll show you the town. As you have just seen, the district town of Rotenburg Wümme is located in the Elbe-Weser triangle. Not including the surrounding and incorporated villages, it has a population of just over 21,000. Three rivers flow through the town: the smaller Rodau and Wiedau rivers , and the larger Wümme, which also finds its way into the town’s name. The town is quiet and manageable. Lovingly organized city tours, an augmented reality app that brings the city’s history to life, and much more reveal a city that only appears somewhat sleepy at first glance. Those with an eye for art and architecture will also find something to their liking in several places: for example, in the Rudolf Schäfer House, where this very church painter lived and worked until his death in 1961. The house can be visited for changing exhibitions. The town church and the Kantor Helmke House opposite are important examples of neo-Gothic architecture in Lower Saxony. The latter now houses the adult education center and the town library. There is no longer a castle in Rotenburg. But the hedges surrounding the fortress walls of the former castle are still clearly visible. Very little is known about the castle’s appearance. It was built around 1198 by the Diocese of Verden as a border fortress against the Diocese of Bremen. More people then settled around the castle, and the town of Rotenburg developed. At the end of the 17th century, after a turbulent history, the castle was demolished, and over time, several other buildings were built on the site where the local history museum, along with several other outbuildings and a beer garden, now stands. Now I’m finally back on my motorcycle, and despite the early morning hours, it’s already very warm. If the name Rotenburg sounds familiar, you might be thinking of the historic Rothenburg ob der Tauber in Bavaria. However, there are also Rotenburg an der Fulda, Rothenburg/Oberlausitz, Rothenburg (Saale), as well as Rothenburg an der Oder in Poland, and a Rothenburg in Switzerland. Perhaps I should visit all of the Rothenburgs in one trip? That would certainly be a nice tour. But back to the Rotenburg (Wümme) district: If you’re looking for peace and relaxation, this is the place for you. Forests, fields, moors, and small, agricultural villages characterize the region. For me, the landscape often has something of the mystique and special lighting atmosphere of the paintings of Otto Modersohn, who lived and worked just a few kilometers from the district, in Worpswede and later Fischerhude. Anyone interested will find the Otto Modersohn Museum in Fischerhude, just half an hour from Rotenburg Wümme. This stop isn’t included in my tour data, but all the other stops you see in this video are. As always, you can find the tour as GPX data on my website. One of the many similarities between Provence and the Rotenburg Wümme district: the lavender fields, or at least a lavender field. The lavender field and the adjacent herb garden are used to produce various natural products and attract many people and insects as visitors during the flowering season. Since, as is often the case, I’m out and about early, I only share the magnificent view with thousands of insects already hard at work. You can’t really say that the district is particularly winding. But there are numerous small roads and countless avenues and forests that draw you into the landscape like green tunnels. Motorcycling here is more about relaxing, gliding along. It’s an ideal area for choppers and cruisers. I’ve lived in this district for about 13 years. I grew up in southern Lower Saxony near Hildesheim. After graduating, I moved to Bremen and later to the countryside here. You could almost call the district sleepy, but that’s definitely not always the case. Every year in June, between 60,000 and 80,000 music fans flock to the district when the Hurricane Festival transforms the Eichenring near Scheeßel into a giant open-air stage and, not infrequently, a massive mud fight. It’s almost a tradition that early summer brings all sorts of weather for the Hurricane Festival. A month later, the Tarmstedt Exhibition, the largest agricultural fair in the north, attracts around 100,000 visitors annually. There are also dozens of other events, all worth seeing but not quite as many people. Even though there’s a lot on offer, I think the district is more suited to relaxation. For example, in one of the wonderful country cafés here. For example, I can recommend the Oste-Café Eitzmühlen, located directly in a watermill on the Oste River. It’s still a bit early in the day, so unfortunately I can’t sample any of the homemade cakes or tarts. A little later, I stop at a more somber place: the Sandbostel Camp Memorial. This was once the site of the Main Camp 10 B (Stalag XB), a prisoner of war and concentration camp reception camp during the Nazi era. Built from 1939 onward, the camp housed tens of thousands of prisoners of war—initially Poles, later Belgians, French, Soviets, Italians, and many more. More than 313,000 prisoners from over 55 nations passed through the camp, whose living conditions were often characterized by hunger, disease, and violence. In the spring of 1945, Sandbostel also became the final destination for approximately 9,500 prisoners from the Neuengamme concentration camp. In the final days of the war, many of them died of exhaustion, illness, or brutal violence. On April 29, 1945, British troops liberated the camp. After the war, the site continued to be used for a variety of purposes: as an internment camp, prison, emergency refugee center, and Bundeswehr depot until an industrial park was established. In 1992, the remaining buildings were listed as historical monuments, in 2004 the Sandbostel Camp Foundation was established, and an official memorial has existed on the site since 2007. The permanent exhibition opened in 2013 and provides information about the history of this place. Bremervörde marks the northern tip of the district, which was the district seat of its own district until 1977. Here, at Lake Vörde, you can also relax and unwind . If you’re a water enthusiast, you’ll also find great canoeing and other outdoor activities on the two rivers Wümme and Oste in the district. From Bremervörde, I head south again. My next stop is the Tister Bauernmoor. A 570-hectare raised bog that has been a nature reserve since 2002. Here, I briefly change vehicles and board the moor railway, which takes me through the moor to a viewing tower. The station café also invites you to stop for coffee and cake. There are several stops along the tour where the volunteer train driver recounts the history of the moor and peat extraction with rich anecdotes. It’s easy and quicker to reach the viewing tower on foot, but I’ve always wanted to try the moor railway, and this way, I was able to capture a few pictures for you. If you’re here during the crane migration at sunrise or sunset, you can observe thousands of these birds and will probably be accompanied by the occasional amateur photographer or ornithologist. Besides cranes, the trained eye will also spot ospreys, red kites, and much more. If you fancy a visit to the zoo or some currywurst and fries in the adjoining restaurant, I’ve also included the Lauenbrück Country Park in your tour dates. But even if you skip this stop, like I did, you won’t have to go hungry for long. My next stop is a rarity that’s most common in In northwestern Lower Saxony there is a Melkhus (milk house). They are all painted a uniform green and are located on farms where dairy cattle, mostly cows, are kept. Here, specialties such as milk, yogurt, buttermilk, ice cream, and similar products from the farm itself and the surrounding area are often offered. Coffee and homemade cakes are also often available: you can’t get much more rural idyll than this, and neither can delivery routes for products be shorter. Motorcycling without mountains is also possible, as you can see. What can also work without mountains is hiking. There are 24 hiking trails here in the district. They are called Nordpfade (Northern Paths). The shortest is about five to six kilometers long, the longest is around 32 kilometers. I’m on a medium-sized one here: “Dör’t Moor,” 12.5 kilometers. However, you can also just do a short loop, which is about half the length. The Nordpfade (northern paths) are all designed as circular routes and are mostly very close to nature and well signposted. If you like using Komoot, you can find all the Nordpfad trails plus various other hiking and cycling trails under the account “Touristikverband LK Rotenburg.” You can also take a look at the Nordpfad trails and all the other things you can discover in the district on the website. The hiking trail begins and ends at the large Bullensee lake, which is quite nice because you can walk in right to the middle and still stand there. There is a cordoned-off area here; it’s a bit deeper there, so you can swim properly, but otherwise you can stand in the middle of the lake and keep your pants on. Overall, the district has a lot to offer that you might not expect at first glance. Even if you don’t want to come by motorbike, you should still find more than enough to do during your vacation. As I said, you can download my tour from my website. The tourist association has also developed nine road bike tours that might also be interesting for motorcyclists, because motorcyclists and road cyclists are often looking for similar things: beautiful, secluded roads with nice places to stop for a break along the way. I ride a racing bike myself, and in that spirit, please be considerate of one another and let everyone enjoy nature as they can and wish. The final kilometers include a short stretch of legal gravel road so that my touring enduro can get a bit of dusty as it should be. My tour is drawing to a close. I’m so glad you joined us. Please leave me a comment and subscribe. I’ll say in advance: see you soon, take care! But to end with the poem “My Rotenburg” by cantor Friedrich Helmke from 1904: My Rotenburg, you little town on the Wiesenthal, my hometown so trustful, when I see you, my heart always laughs and rejoices loudly, wreathed in forest, murmuring around the river, framed by gentle hills, my hometown, to you my greetings, my Rotenburg so beautiful! My hometown, to you my greetings, my Rotenburg so beautiful! I wandered into the wide world, to the blue sea and there, where the rock reaches towards the sky, bold and noble: I was not lured by the play of the waves or the glow of the Alps, you always remained the goal of my longing, you place in the green forest! You always remained the goal of my longing, you place in the green forest! My Rotenburg, as long as my heart beats in my breast, as long as a limb still moves, I am and I will remain yours! And when I finally lay me to rest, then happily bury me in my coffin and cover my final chamber with the earth of my homeland! And cover my final chamber with the earth of my homeland.