Windmill mecca
Maybe MariaJoy will be the only one who reads this page but if so, at least I have made someone a bit nostalgic ;-)
Gifhorn is a small town in a triangle with Braunschweig and Wolfsburg, and I only went there because of my Wolfsburg family, but I am glad I did. It is certainly not Germany's most exciting or picturesque area by any means but if you find yourself in the area, do stop and have a look at the majestic windmills or just go for a boat trip on one of the three rivers in the area, just like me and my cousin in this picture - very tranquil.
The rivers meeting here is in fact what gives Gifhorn its place on the map at all, as a centre in this agricultural region in the southern and less wild part of Lüneburger Heide, the huge moorland area. It simply became a good place for the salt road from Lüneburg to Braunschweig to meet the corn road from Magdeburg to Celle.
All the water makes the landscape rural and it reminds me a bit of southern England but without its Downs. Birds and rabbits and then the windmills. They were established here early on and it is not hard to see why. I am no expert at the town centre, but remember some nice half timbered buildings there too.


Russian Orthodox Church