Wolfsburg; Saturday, 06 September, 2025

I had a reasonable nights sleep, though the double-glazing of the hotel didn’t prevent the sound of some of the incredibly noisy freight trains that thundered through the station during the night occasionally waking me up, but I was still able to sleep in until my alarm went off before heading down to grab a hefty breakfast for a days sightseeing.

First stop out of the hotel was to wander back through the city centre, taking in a couple of the squares that are slightly nicer than the main shopping street before heading over towards the art gallery and then under the ring road and out past the planetarium and theatre into the woods on the outskirts of the city centre to visit the scant remains of the 13th century Rothehof, a mott and bailey castle of which just the mound remains.

From the Rothehof I headed back into town taking in a tour round the edges of the Großer Schillerteich lake before heading back into the centre and grabbing a bite of lunch before hopping on the bus out to the nearby town of Gifhorn.

Unlike Wolfsburg, Gifhorn has a history that goes back well before the 20th century and it was very pleasant to wander around the historic heart of the town with it’s old buildings and narrow alleyways. I eventually wandered over towards the Palace, the Schloß Gifhorn which houses the towns history museum, though sadly it was closed for the day as a wedding was taking place in the palace.

I continued wandering through the parkland and lakes area beyond the castle which is home to the Internationales Mühlenmuseum Gifhorn or the International Museum of wind and watermills. The museum is a large open-air display of many different types of mills, along with – for no obvious reason – a Russian Orthodox staved church. Sadly I didn’t have time to visit the museum and look around the site as all the recommendations stated needing a good couple of hours to make it worthwhile.

I also didn’t have time to visit the neighbouring Glockenpalast museum which houses a museum dedicated to bells, as well as a museum dedicated to motorbikes – clearly the museum operators of Gifhorn like to diversify. Whilst I didn’t have time to look around the museum I did have just enough time to grab a cup of coffee and a slice of very nice black forest cake in the museum café.

I spent a bit more time wandering around the area that houses the museums and castle which is located on a series of islands and lakes linked to the Ise river. After spending some time taking in the nature walks I followed the trail back towards Gifhorn Stadt railway station which is located about 1Km south of the town centre and itself is only on a small branchline. I needed to catch the train one stop to Gifhorn Süd station, about 4Km south of the town centre to make a connection with the train back to Wolfsburg.

Back in town I headed back to my hotel room to freshen up before heading out to grab a light dinner and then, after the sun had set, go for a wander back over the Stadtbrücke to take in some views of the station, VW works, Autostadt and the canal with the last of the days sun before wandering around the edge of the Autostadt site to the bus stop to pick up a bus back the two stops over the canal and to my hotel as by now my feet were really starting to notice that I’d done very nearly 25,000 steps.