Our shortest walking day. Accommodation points can be tricky - we wanted to walk further today to make tomorrow's walk shorter but it didn't work out. The next settlement, Eversen, was where we wanted to be tonight but it's only accommodation place was already booked out when we contacted them.
We had breakfast supplied by our hosts this morning, they even organised it for an hour earlier than their usual time. And it was a wonderful breakfast with enough for a packed lunch to go.
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| Leaving Bergen. |
As we walked out we passed the very striking looking church, Sühnekirche vom Kostbaren Blut - the Catholic Atonement Church of the Precious Blood. We had hoped to be able to visit the church but unfortunately it was locked.
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| Sühnekirche vom Kostbaren Blut. |
Taken from the church's website:
The church is dedicated to the memory of the victims of unjust violence from all nations and denominations in the former Bergen-Belsen concentration camp . The interior and exterior of the church reflect the suffering and death of Jesus. Particularly impressive is the large statue of Christ by the sculptor Josef Krautwald in the center of the altar wall. The altar itself is shaped like a tomb. The tower resembles a warning finger, and the church's floor plan is shaped like the cross-section of a chalice, opening toward the former Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.
Very quickly after the church we were out in the countryside.
This hedging reminded of the hawthorn hedges on our Roto-o-Rangi farm.
Once again, there were lilac blooms of every colour.
We're now walking through sections of the VRG where there's not many markers. Our first marker for today was just before our destination.
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Checking one of our apps to confirm we're on track.
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| Acres of potatoes. |
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| More potatoes going in. |
Diesten was the only settlement we walked through today. We had a lengthy stop there as there was a shady seating area.
Before long we were entering Sültze and came across the first and only marker of the day.
Because it was such a short day, we arrived in Sülze way too early to check-in at our accommodation we made use of a park bench with shade in the church grounds.
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| Fabian-und-Sebastian Kirche, a Lutheran church. |
The only supermarket is across the road from the church so we were able to buy some tasty treats that we normally can't have as we can't carry them - fresh raspberries, yoghurt drinks as well as a fruit yoghurt.
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We spent at least an hour relaxing here.
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After a while we decided to walk to our night's accommodation to see if we could check-in early only to find it locked but very soon after a car drove up and it was the owner/manager and he opened up for us - a real bonus.
Late in the afternoon we walked back to the supermarket to buy a few things for tomorrow - just as the sky darkened and rain threatened - the rain came later, luckily after we were back in our accommodation.
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| On our way to the supermarket. |
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| A very threatening sky on our way back to our accommodation. |
Sülze is sitting on a massive salt pan:
In 1354 the settlement was first mentioned in the records as Op dem Solte ("on the Salze"). In registers from the years 1381 and 1382 details of local private houses (Kötnerhöfe) were recorded, as well as the raising of a 'salt pan' tax (Pfannenzins). This is also the first time that the Sülze Saltworks is mentioned in the records.The extraction of salt by the saltworks was vital to the village for many centuries. The inhabitants secured their living by working as salt boilers (Sieder), salt drivers (Salzfahrer or Sölter) or craftsmen. The actual name of the village comes from these Salzfahrer, which in Low German is slurred to sult. This became the High German word Sülze.
Source: Organic Maps.
The saltworks discontinued in 1862.
Sülze is a village in the local borough of Bergen located in the northern part of Celle district on the Lüneburg Heath in North Germany. The infamous Bergen-Belsen concentration camp was located not far from Sülze, one of several farming villages in the borough. The general Bergen area today is economically heavily dependent on the surrounding military bases and the Bergen-Hohne Training Area to the west, which is the largest military training area in Western Europe.
Population 1,764
Source: Wikipedia
