Land Niedersachsen Travel Forum

We may be doing a home exhange with someone in Bucholz (Aller). Its about 30km north of Hannover. We would be doing this at Christmas time.

Does anybody know anything about that area and what would be fun to do at that time of the year?

We like art, museums, old buildings, shopping, music, food, hiking, skiing, history.

If you like old buildings, the gorgeous town of Celle nearby is a must. Have a look at VT pages of it :)

As for history, there is modern history in the form of Wolfsburg near Hannover. It was founded around an old existing castle village because Hitler needed somewhere for his new car factory and so, decided that this place near the Aller river was perfect. A town quickly grew up with what has now become a huuuuge factory - Volkswagen. You can visit the Autostadt exhibition which is fascinating even for non-car lovers and in the old castle area, there is a town museum showing life for prisoners of war who were sent to Wolfsburg to work for the factory and dig a canal along the factory...See more on my Wolfsburg page.

Braunschweig is another city with a mix of old quarters and new (war damaged). As for Hannover itself, try asking VT member Sabsi who grew up there - at least check her pages.

I just saw that you like skiing too. Try a daytrip to the Harz mountains. There are several gem towns there (Goslar and Quedlinburg are World Heritage towns and Wernigerode is also pretty) but Goslar is probably the closest for you and also the gateway up the mountains where you have skiing areas like St Andreasberg and Torfhaus. My pages only show it in summer unfortunately but Torfhaus has a ski rental kiosk etc. so there is definately action even if the Harz are not the Alps.

Verden and Bremen are also very nice -- Verden is a small country town with a big-roofed cathedral. Lots of cosy half-timbered houses, there should be a very romantic christmas market. Prepare yourself for a very tranquil area that has a slightly melancholic touch during wintertime. Hannover has an excellent modern art museum with a couple of Picassos. Do also make a trip to Hamburg!