Day 11 Celle to Bröckel - 24 km. Total km: 237

Leaving Celle was far nicer than our long suburban walk in. We quickly left the streets behind and walked alongside the river Aller, through trees much of the way.

The route took past or through small communities, the largest one being Wienhausen, and we're in Bröckel tonight. 

Today was bleak all day. When we set off it was 6° and never got above 11° but it felt colder than that because we had a sharp fresh breeze all day.

Leaving Celle in the cold.

I am so pleased I have my scarf.

We crisscrossed the Aller several times. 

Once again we are sharing the path with one of the many Jakobsweg routes. 

Alltencelle, the first of the communities we walked through, was the original site of Celle. It was first mentioned in 986.

St Gertrude Lutheran Church, Altencelle.

Altencelle 

We were on cycle path for much of the way from Celle to Wienhausen. 

Wienhausen was an important place with a kloster and church, and an old watermill. Unfortunately, being a Sunday all the cafés were shut, only the Eiscafe, the ice cream shop, was open. We were so cold that we couldn't really spend much time looking around. 

A confirmation service was about to start just as we arrived at the kloster and church so they weren't open for viewing. 

The Wienhausen Church and Kloster. 

The confirmation service was about to start. 

We were able to stamp our pilgrim passports as the stamp is in a special box by the church door.

The Wienhausen Watermill, first documented in 1351.

We bought hot chocolates at the Eiscafe but had to sit outside to drink them.

Making our hot chocolates. 

We were too cold to really enjoy them.

We saw the first Maypoles in Wienhausen. We expected to see to see May Day celebrations on the 1st of May but we weren't really in any village to see any, if there had been celebrations. 

After Wienhausen the path was through trees.

The sun tried to break through at one stage so we had a brief lunch stop at a picnic table - but the sun didn't last long. 

Carrying on our way past tunnel houses for strawberries and saw white asparagus being harvested.

Then we were on to Bröckel. Just as we were looking for where we are staying tonight we saw two men had heard one say, 'Zwei Pilger aus Neuseeland' - they were talking about us! 

One of the men was Torsten, our host for the night, and the other was Franz, an Austrian pilgrim who is cycling from Stade to Rome. He had just stopped to meet Torsten as he passed through Bröckel. Torsten quickly took photos of us three pilgrims as he said it's very unusual for him to have more than one lot of pilgrims here at a time.

Torsten said the first pilgrims he hosted were from New Zealand. That was 8 years ago and he hasn't had any other New Zealanders since then. We're his second lot of Kiwis. 

Franz, the Austrian pilgrim, and us.

Tonight we're staying in Torsten's very old house. It dates back to 1650 - it was originally an inn. Torsten restores antique furniture - and he's the route sponsor for this area. He said that looking after pilgrims comes from the heart. 

Torsten is very friendly and hospitable, and a very strong supporter of the Via Romea Germanica. The fantastic signage we had today was all thanks to Torsten, and he said we will have good signage again tomorrow. 

Torsten also hosts musical evenings and the Christmas market, and other village activities at his place. 

Normally we would have been sleeping in a restored shepherd's wagon tonight but Torsten has made beds up for us inside, upstairs, as he said it's much too cold to sleep outside. 

Torsten's house.

VIAROMEA HERBERGE - Via Romea pilgrim accommodation. 

1650 over his doorway. 

The shepherd's wagon we would have slept in.

A few photos of inside Torsten's house:

As soon as we arrived, and he had shown us around his house, we changed out of our walking gear and walked with Torsten to his girlfriend's cafe where we had hot drinks and a gorgeous slice of cake, which she had made. They were just what we needed. 

Torsten's girlfriend's cafe.

The slice was superb!

We were warned that there were no food places in Bröckel but found that as well as Torsten's girlfriend's cafe, there's a snack bar where we had schnitzel for dinner, and a small supermarket. We needn't have stocked up with so much food.

A print of Torsten's house on our bedroom wall.

Bröckel is a municipality in the district of Celle, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It belongs to the collective municipality of Flotwedel with its seat in Wienhausen. Bröckel lies southeast of Celle. The River Fuhse, which separates Bröckel from the neighbouring parish of Uetze flows past about two kilometers south of the village.

Population 1,998.

Source: Wikipedia