Corona diary: At the Gifhorner Schweiz

Christina/ February 28, 2021/ The daily grind

It is located between Harz and Heide: The Gifhorner Schweiz. Another synonym is the “Tor zur Südheide” (Gate to the Südheide). This is exactly the place we want to explore today on a hike. From an online portal we downloaded a description of a corresponding hiking trail, called “through the Heide at Gifhorn”. We modify the course a little bit. Sure, february is not the ideal month to visit the Südheide. Despite we discover some interesting things along the path.

The city of mills: Gifhorn
We start our tour on the market place of Gifhorn. It is market-day. We take a look around. Christian enjoys a coffee to go while we try to orientate ourselves. Gifhorn is well known for its international mill museum which I visited last year.

Right at the city limits we follow the Wilscher Straße. As we do not have a handy nor a GPS-track with us we stay on this way even though it is not very pleasant. However things are getting better at Wilsche and the adventure Südheide starts. We allow ourselves a little break and take a look at the town map.

The most beautiful village is Neubokel
The road “An der Masch” leads us into the forest. From now on the path to Neubokel is signposted. We discover information signs of the Südheide Marathon which I did not know of so far. Will it take place this year?

After a short while we reach Neubokel and are surprise. Our first glance hits a farmer sittin on his tractor preparing a field of asparagus. Just right behind the field we spot some very well renovated farmhouses made of bricks. From a distance the ensemble looks like an open-air museum. It is no accident that Neubokel once received the title “most beautiful village”. I have to admit that the award is well deserved if you take a look around here, where even the horses are having their fun:-)

A bit later on we learn that the village had the status of an emirate at the beginning of the 20th century. How come? Until the seventies oil was produced at this place.

Homemade potato soup
Before we go back to Gifhorn we walk a little bit towards Winkel and come across the asparagus-farm Kuhl. We spot a so called “Regiobox” (vending machine) with regional products such as home-made potato soup. We learn that the soup is made of potatos from organic production and filled into cans by hand! You can get hold of these products seven days a week and twenty-four hours. Therefore forget about the nocturnal drive to the gas station, here is where the action is.

trong>Our hearts are saddened
Our hearts are saddened at the city limits of Neubokel on sight of the selection of fancy cake which will however only be available tomorrow. Tough luck. We reached the Landcafé Neubokel, which is unfortunately closed today. That’s why we withdraw from the place empty-handed. We head back to Gifhorn, this time through the forest.

All good things come in threes
We are back in Gihorn. We pass by a bakery. We are thirsty for coffee-to-go. Whereas Christian is already waiting with his coffee in front of the shop the shop assistant is still struggeling with my Café Crème. Actually it is no big deal because she usally only has to press the correct button on the coffee machine. Well, the first try goes wrong, the paper cup is flooding. On the second try I realize just in time that the girl pours milk into my coffee, I hate milk and it is definitely not part of a Café Crème! She tells me that she did not do this very often so far. Well, I like her, she is cute somehow. Okay, third try and it works out finally. She presses the right button, leaves out the milk and the plastic cap as the coffee is directly poured into my thermo-cup. The salesperson grins sheepishly. I wish her a nice weekend and leave the store.

Back on the Wilscher Weg we go back to the city centre and our car.

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