Corona diary: Wilhelm Busch takes us into the New Year

Christina/ January 1, 2021/ Culture

New Year’s Eve 2020 is as different as the rest of the years wars from anything else. Hiking instead of having a party is today’s motto. We choose the “Wilhelm-Busch”-hiking trail around Mechtshausen for this thursday. The weather is quite okay: there is some sunshine from time to time and later on we have some snow grains. After the hike we visit cloister Brunshausen and take a quick look at the old town of Bad Gandersheim.

A farm café at Wolperode
We meet at the church of Wolperode. Just opposite of it is the inviting farm café of the family Sprengel located. We’d love to stop here for a bite to eat, but it is closed of course.

The start of our tour is a little bit tricky. We need some help from a local post man. We find our way and a couple of minutes later we have reached Ackenhausen. There is a sign with a red little man walking. Oh, that looks promising. Is it for us? We follow the sign and reach a street called “An der Wanne”. We ascend to the edge of the forest. Now we see the first signposts and the red-white-red marking of the round lap between Wolperode and Mechtshausen.

From now on we are on the right track. We reach the so called Brunhäuser Hai, a hamlet and use it for a lunch break. The cloistr Brunshausen used to have a forest ownership, later on the place became a fenced meadow.

Where is the castle ruine of Wohlenstein?
Everything has worked out fine for us so far but it seems our fortune has come to an end. The following is a reconstruction of events that took place that day respectively the false decesions we took that day. It was exactly at the crossing above Mechtshausen where we decided to take the wrong path. We should have visited the village first and than go to the castle ruins.However we decided to do it the other way round and missed Mechtshausen and the Wilhelm Busch house by that.

At first we ask two strollers for directions. The guy tells us that we can go straight and make a detour through Mechtshausen or go straight up to the ruins. We go straight, at the next crossing we make a right turn instead of a left one. After a while we realize that we are going in circles, we have been here before. We are at the Brunshäuser Hai once again. Lucky enough we meet another couple and ask again for directions to the ruins. We follow the directions and go straight. At another crossing we see a signpost. However, the sign has fallen down. Is this still the right direction? We miss again. We go back and give it one last chance and finally succeed. We reach the castle ruins, only the donjon is left.

Sparkling wine
We discover a very nice hut opposite the donjon and sit down for another break, this time with sparkling wine. It is New Year’s Even and no party in sight. So, let’s celebrate here a little bit. Here is to 2021. After the break we descend to Bilderlahe. From there we follow the path to the Hebersiedlung. Next we reach the refuge above Wolperode and just a little bit later we are back at our cars.

Cloister Brunshausen
On our way back to Seesen we make two stops, one at cloister Brunshausen and another one at the old town of Bad Gandersheim. The cloister has a nice café and a well-known sculpture path. The café of course is closed so we take a look at the sculptures of Bernhard Löning. We might come back for the café on a better day after the lockdown.

Our next goal is the market square of Bad Gandersheim, known for its collegiate church and the market where the annual dome festival takes place, except this year.

This New Year’s Eve there is hardly anybody on the street, we can therefore enjoy the half-timbered houses on our own. What a remarkable finish of this stressful year.

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