I wish I could get lost sometimes, but I seem to have too good a sense of direction for that. Once, years ago in Venice, I threw the street map away (the free ones they give you in tourist information places) and tried to lose myself in the alleyways far from the touristed areas. But it didn't work. I think, on Luneburg Heath (Lüneburger Heide), there is a good chance I, or anyone, could get lost if you don't have a map or GPS on your phone. It's pretty wild out there and I got a taste of it when I did part of a hike in the Rother walking book for Lüneburger Heide. It is at Haverbeck near Bispingen, which is near the A7-E45 highway, somewhat north of the larger town of Soltau and south of Hamburg.

The 4 hour long hike was easily divisible into two shorter parts (I had a long trip later by road back to the Ruhr area and it was a Friday). If you go to the Rother wanderbooks website (in German only) you can find this hike offered for free on the Lüneburg book - Rother offers one single hike which can be downloaded for free from each book, a nice gesture. The lower loop of the hike looked short, but there was a considerable distance to walk, along small trails and it was very windy with a brilliant blue sky. The area to the West of the road had been a closed area for the British military and this helped preserve a huge part of Luneburg Heath with no development whatsoever. However, practice manoeuvres of tanks left many marks which are still visible to this day.

I stayed in Bad Bevensen, which is in the countryside some distance south of the town of Lüneburg itself, which I did not visit. I have written a separate chapter about Bad Bevensen, which I approached from the south, skirting around Celle (which has an active air base) and Uelzen. The drive led through Eschede, which I immediately remembered as the site of the worst rail accident in post war Germany. 102 people died in that wreck and I was surprised to see no monument to the disaster, although I spent very little time in Eschede itself. The painter Albert König came from Eschede, but I did not manage to get to the museum due to the bizarre opening times. As for Bad Bevensen, it was a typical spa town on the Ilmenau river with hot salt springs, saunas, swimming baths and treatments for all the ailments you can dream of. The spa is surrounded by lovely parkland with flower beds, works of art, and nearly all buildings in the sleepy streets seem to offer accommodation, supplementing a series of 1970s hotels.



A view over the countryside on Lüneburg Heath near Bispingen


Wetlands beside the trail on Lüneburg Heath


Here you can see the real heathland of Lüneburg Heath


You can really feel solitary and lonely on Lüneburg Heath


A hut on the walking trail which offers protection from the sun and constant wind


Lüneburg Heath reminds me a bit of Caithness, Scotland, with the wind sweeping across the grassland


Here, the hiking trail was broad and well defined


However, there are more trees on Lüneburg Heath than in Caithness, Scotland