7 – (GER 7) – Celle – Rietze

Celle – The city was founded, with the name of Kellu (Riverside) in 966. The castle of Celle was the residence of the Dukes of Brunswick-Lunemburg for nearly three and a half centuries, from 1378 to 1705. During the First World War, it took the role of internment centre for captured enemy officers. The city lies on the banks of the River Aller, at about 40 km from Hannover, 60 km NW from Braunschweig and 120 km South from Hamburg Celle, it deserves a visit, especially for its castle and the streets of the historical city centre, with its well preserved half timbered houses. Leaving behind the castle, we take the central Stechbahn and Zollnerstrasse, having got to the bottom of the street, we turn right and then left, we cross the bypass and take the Stentor. Continuing along the Fischerdeich, we skirt ther sprts ground , following the Aller Deich for 500 m and turn left to arrive on the bank of the River Aller, which we follow for 300 m. We now continue straight on up to Antecelle where we take the An der Gertrudenkirche. We turn left on road K74, we cross the River Aller, turn right on the Osterloher-Landerstrasse which in 1,6 km will take us to Osterloh. We cross the town along the same road, we cross again the River Aller, turn left then right, we cross the  Maschweg and we arrive on the Alte Poststrasse; we turn left and cross the Bockelskamp. Out of the village we take the Celler Strasse on our left and in less than 2 km we shall be in front of the Kloster Park of Wienhausen with its marvellous Abbey: one of the hidden gems of Europe. Surely viewing the abbey is worth a digression. Only the north side of the medieval Monastery is preserved; The church is completely covered with paintings, and must be seen by all those who care about art. Furthermore inside there is a great collection of medieval tapestries. Having visited the Abbey, we go back on the Celler Strasse, which becomes L311, and follow it in its course around the town centre for 700 m, then we turn right on the Appelweg which takes us to cross and then skirt woodlands up to arriving, on the Buerskoppert Strasse in 2 km. Upon arriving at the first houses of Sandingen we turn right, 200 m and turn left taking the Fasanenweg; we cross the village of Siedlung, continuing through the fields for 1,3 km, we then turn left toward  Karoweg, 800 m and we shall find ourselves n the edge of a vast tract of woodland which we cross for an extent of 1,5 km. We shall now be in the open country and here we turn right and cross road 214 to enter Brockel which we traverse walking the Hauptstrasse. We follow this road up to highway L387; carrying on for 300 m, we turn right and walk through the fields for 2,7 km where we turn left, then right we cross road 188; finally we turn first left , then right through the locality of Abbeile. Non we follow the Abbeileweg for 3 km, still through the same arable land, and arrive  on road 444; now we turn right, we cross a stream and we enter Eltze still walking on the 444. At the crossroad after the centre, we turn left on the Plockhorster Strasse which in 1.7 km will take us to Plockhorst, which we skirt on the left. We shall cross, again on the left, the Alter postweg, and walking through a series of ponds we arrive at Eickenrode, which we skirt by going right along the Alte Postweg, then we go left on the Lehmkuhlenweg. At the crossroad we carry on straight on the Brandheid, on for 700 m up to meeting on the right the Lobbenbuttel which in its turn, across endless and skirting woodlands or fields for a distance of 1,6 km, leads, turning left, on the Wasserreihe; arriving at the fork we keep on the left and taking the Kuhihaus and we will be in Rietze.