Walking-tour: From Bienenbüttel to Lüneburg
A German folks song asks whether I need to leave the town and go away. And the answer is: Yes, I have to go to Bienenbüttel. A friend of mine told me about the nature-oriented hike alongside the river Ilmenau from Bienenbüttel to Lüneburg. During that walk different dependent seas like the Dieksbach, the Hasenburger Mühlenbach and the Göxer Bach are being crossed. And at the end the beautiful old town of Lüneburg is luring with its redbrick Gothic. Sure I am already curious. Off I go. However what we suddenly discover on our way is a big surprise to us.
A dialogue in a threesome
We start our tour which is about 20 kilometres long at the train station of Bienenbüttel. At first we cross the pedestrian walk of the town and turn left at the church. From there we make another left turn down to the river Ilmenau where the canoe trips and the sculpture walk starts. Whereas we are only moderately excited by the sculptures (maybe it is because we are no art connaisseurs) we are taken by the beautiful nature.
We cross the Ilmenau for the first time and follow a narrow path. However the car noise next to us coming from the federal highway to Lüneburg gets louder. That beclouds the meditative silence a little bit. As we cross the river for a second time we leave the noise behind and follow the sculpture way until we reach a bench standing at the shore of the river Ilmenau. We take a break. But hey, there is somebody sitting on the bench already, the tin man. It is a sculpture called “dialogue at the river”. Well, I know that “iron men” are popular with women but this specimen is not very attractive on the one hand and on the other hand there is already the three of us. Could be a little bit crowded, couldn’t it? Well, it does not matter, the guy sticks to his bench and we are moving on.
Deutsch Evern: Home of luxury
Just a few minutes later we are facing our first challenge: the Dieksbach crossing. There is only a tree trunk for the crossing. Can we manage it? Yes, we can. I get a slight surge of adrenalin, I am fully awake now. I am all there by now and that’s good because we are in for a surprise. Robert told me that this part of the route is boring and we have to walk on tarmac. Well that is only part of the truth. We are reaching the town of Deutsch Evern. I think to myself: Deutsch Evern, what a funny name. Until now I only new Deutsch Mokra which belongs the Ukraine. Okay, my guess was that Deutsch Mokra with its dusty dirt roads and Deutsch Evern have nothing in common. And I realized that instantly when we reach the street “An der Ilmenau”. I take it that this is the villa quarter of the town.
Well according to Robert’s information I expected nothing but definitely not this accumulation of palace-like buildings with huge estates. We sit down on a bench opposite a “Dixieland villa” and let the scenery sunk in. I discover that the house belongs to an asset manager and immediately we have to think of a scene from “Wolf of Wall Street” when Matthew McConaughey in his role as “old timer” of the stock exchange trading explains whippersnapper Leonardo di Caprio how the finance business really works. I just say “Fuck the clients”. And as a hint: “Move the money from the client’s pocket in your pocket.” I guess some house owners of Deutsch Evern really listened closely to this advice.
And yes, I can’t help myself. I instantly fall in love with one of the houses and imagine my walk-in closet, my private library with wing chair and my beautiful big garden with swimming pool. Sigh, I guess I would like to be a bachelorette here.
The devil’s bridge at the Ilmenau plain tract
Enough. We still have some kilometres to go. Now we reach the most beautiful part of the walk: the Ilmenau plain tract of Lüneburg. At first we take a look at the “international craftsman bridge”, a project of 50 craftsmen coming from different countries. The outcome is this bridge leading over the Hasenbacher Mühlenbach since 2018. Shortly after that we reach the devil’s bridge, a really nice place close to the Ilmenau. The bridge was built in 1893 and was then not very popular with the citizens. Due to its coat it was called “black bridge”. Well, I do like it.
Red brick Gothik and red roses
We are almost there. Only two or three kilometres left and we have reached the outskirts of Lüneburg. We take a rat run into the old part of the town. A friend of mine told me the day before that the daily soap called “Rote Rosen” is filmed and merchandised here. That becomes clear right at the beginning when we come across the red roses terrace at the restaurant Mama Rosa.
We move on towards the Stintmarkt but turn right into the Salzstraße am Wasser. This part is more quite. We sit down at a bar and order some coffee. We make plans for the rest of the day but only until it starts raining heavily. We take shelter in an entrance and finally reach the “Platz am Sande”. We sit down for some dinner and enjoy the atmosphere after the rain when the sunshine illuminates the red brick gothic houses around us.
