Bargfeld - Hamburg/Fuhlsbüttel

The Alster - almost no current

The first part is dedicated to the Düvenstedter Brook, a 780-hectare nature reserve. Together with the Wohldorfer Forest to the south and the Hansdorfer Brook to the east, there is a nature reserve of about 1,500 hectares in the border area between Schleswig-Holstein and Hamburg. "Brook" is a Low German word used for swamps with forest or bush coverage. The Düvenstedter Brook consists of forests, meadows, fields, ponds, flowing waters, and moors. Over 600 plant species provide habitat for a variety of dragonflies, grasshoppers, butterflies, amphibians and reptiles, mammals, and breeding bird species.

huge willows in the riverbank area

At Düvenstedt we leave the Brook and hike on various field and forest paths, following the course of the Alster river southwards, which actually flows a significantly longer distance due to its meanders. For the last 10 kilometers, we hike on the "Alster Hiking Trail" and thus go from largely untouched nature to Fuhlsbüttel in the lively metropolis of Hamburg.

Mellingburger Lock: no pilgrim hostel

Note(s)

The pilgrimage path along the southern shore of the Baltic Sea has various names, for example in Germany also "Baltic-Westphalian Way of St. James". From Poland eastwards, the name "Pomeranian Way of St. James" is common. In this documentation, we stick to the cross-border name "Via Baltica", partly because of the shortness of the name, and also because pilgrims to Rome or even Jerusalem can use it as well.

See also

"Pilgrimage on the Via Baltica": www.via-baltica-verlag.de