July 1st

I am for a week in Hamburg with my friends, former colleagues from my German occupational therapy life and first of all, with my godchild. But today I have a afternoon all for my self and off I am into a special area only an hour from the metropolis  of Hamburg.

German Landscapes – I am in a nature park in the North that is so sparse that it could remind of open areas in Canada. Meadows with heather, juniper bushes, sheep, sheds.  Germany is inhabitated very densly. To have an open area like that is bathing the eyes and souI in green. The German railway had provided me with an easy connection into the Lueneburger Heide and I was prepared for an afternoon of solitude. Unfortunately the bus never came or I had missed it. I started talking to some guys on the street corner and we discovered that they were occupational therapists as I was. They spontaneously offered to drive me to my travel destination. What a beautiful flow of life! We had a great talk and I arrived safely. Then I rented a bike and disappeared in the forest and moor.

 

Soon I was on the ancient salt route:  

The Old Salt Route was a medieval trade route in northern Germany, one of the ancient network of salt roads which were used primarily for the transport of salt and other staples. In Germany it was referred to as Alte Salzstraße.

Horse-drawn carts brought the salt from Lüneburg to a crossing of the Elbe river to Lübeck, a major seaport on Germany’s Baltic coast. However, for the most part, the historic trade route was composed of unsurfaced, sandy and often muddy roads through heathland, woods and small villages, making the transport of salt an arduous task. In addition, the route was somewhat dangerous, since the valuable cargo attracted thieves, bandits and marauders of myriad ilk. The dangers faced by those who make the long trek and the fact that only relatively small quantities of the precious crystalline substance could be carried in any single journey, made moving salt via overland routes very expensive. In 1398, though, the Stecknitz Canal, one of the first manmade waterways in Europe, was completed, making it possible to transport much more salt in a single shipment and to do so with much greater ease and safety. That change helped merchants satisfy the salt requirements of an ever growing demand.^[4] In the 16th Century, for example, about 19,000 tons of the product were carried from Lüneburg to Lübeck each year.

(source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Salt_Route)

I even climbed the Wilseder mountain  (more a hill), of 169 meters, the tallest hill in the area and enjoyed the view.

 

Later back in the village I returned the bike and the owner of the rental who also runs a guesthouse and a horse cart business gave me a ride to the next train station. German hospitality! I really felt home and in my element!

 

Back in Hamburg I watched the full moon rise over the harbor – here an attempt to give you an impression: