Always after the hare.

Gradients are rare: A bike ride in the country is flat Osnabrücker comfortable nature. On Wegesrand shine quietschgelbe rape, lures homemade plum cake - and who has the bike over, simply switch to rail.

 

Quakenbrück - The rabbit is not a friend of excitement. Leisurely winds the little river through the countryside north of Osnabrück. The same applies to the entire Hasetal: The relatively flat landscape in the dandelions in the meadows and rape in a sunny yellow glow, is made as to the discovery of slowness. Cycling here is exactly the thing to them as much as possible NOTICE, rape or even smelling rabbit grazing on the lollop to see.

The rises in the rabbit Teutoburg forest and flows into the Ems in Meppen. Between the river seeks its way through pastures and rape, passing many large farms and some small cities like Bramsche, Löningen and Heart Lake. Cyclists can Hasetal not much wrong. Her motto is: "Always after the hare" - in the "hare-Ems Tour" for example, according to the signs and made up of Osnabrück Heart Lake, but also to Meppen Rheine or can be driven.

For the first time the river is still on the Osnabrück city to see. Since he appears suddenly behind a bend, as it leaves a green roof in the west, the direction. Gradients are rare - between Osnabrück and the destination Bramsche is practically only on the bridge over the branch channel several meters uphill. Bramsche worthwhile because of the already Tuchmachermuseums stop.

The town was once famous for its materials: "The Tuchmachergilde had been since the 16th century," says museum director Kerstin Schumann. To work in 1824 Bramsche 150 Tuchmachermeister. Material for the uniforms of the Prussian army was well established as blankets for the Hamburg fire brigade. "Today there are only very few companies. But we did not want the legacy of the drapers lost."

"Spun and woven"

And so is the old mill building, which is the middle of the 19th draper Century for their own purposes have taken over, now a museum, which tells her story. On a completely different story reminiscent of the battlefield Kalkriese where Arminius, with its Germanic troops exactly 2000 years Varus and his three Roman legions have defeated. It is just around the corner. For the anniversary, there are Tuchmachermuseum Bramsche the special exhibition "spun and woven: Textiles in Romans and Germans."

The permanent exhibition presents, on the other hand, such as substance was formerly manufactured - with the help of the wolf hybrid to loosen the wool, for example with the spinning and carding, as the Vorgarn is responsible, from the big spinning machine with 280 spindles make the yarn. Ursula Bart runs through the rooms and all the machines can run once, so that the visitor a better impression of them get, how they work.

Then we continue towards Bersenbrück - but not for long: early in Rieste is an opportunity for a break in a pretty little farm café. It is in a timber-housed, which is already 1627 and was built originally in the wages of people lived, like the agricultural assistants were called.

Today here Gerda Rohde. The 71-year-old, the café in her home 15 years ago set up. Old furniture is there, on the table Spitzendeckchen. Serve nuts, plum and apple pie or strawberry cake - baked everything themselves, the ideal of strengthening them go in the direction Bersenbrück.

Handcar bike instead

At the landscape through which the rabbit runs, including the Artland, often known for its centuries-old farmhouses with impressive half-timbered facade is well known, particularly where high chestnut trees and the spacious gardens are surrounded. The soils here are good, the farmers were once rich and showed the same as in bathroom or Gehrden mountains. Some courts have focused on set and offer tourist apartments.

Who is not the whole time sitting on the bike you can ride in between handcar. In Hasetal there are several routes, for example between Quakenbrück and Nortrup. Riders then climb around, but throw on. Because the trolley, here on the old train tracks in use, with muscle power by moving the pedals. Four cyclists have to do their best, the others sit in the open compartment, and can calmly enjoy the scenery.

"The course record is 25 minutes for ten kilometers," says handcar Zugchef-Jürgen Behrens. But you must not have the ambition to excel. The route leads through fields and woods, the sun shines through the canopy. The rabbit is not visible, but are glider pilots in the air and farmers with the tractor mowing the grass. The throw is not so bad.

After changing from the trolley back on the saddle, it is not far to Quakenbrück. The hare is here divided into several arms, which flow through the city and only later re-unite. Quakenbrück, with its "Artland Dragons" a real size in the basketball league, is more manageable, but it has a huge marketplace and in the middle of it a fountain with a huge bull's head.