Lower Saxony Mill Tour

And in many places, enjoy a freshly baked stone oven bread, a fruit cake and other delicacies made from ground grain. Along the Lower Saxony Mill Tour, you will discover 23 historic mills that are maintained by dedicated mill enthusiasts.

Most of them are powered by the force of water, as nothing was closer: In the Teutoburg Forest and Wiehen Hills, the sources of numerous streams and rivers, which once set almost 200 mill wheels in motion, bubble up. Today, they shape the landscape along the 400-kilometer circular tour. Thus, the Mill Tour follows the river Hase for a good distance.

Time and time again, one of the mill streams will lead you to the next technical monument. For example, the "Venner Mill Stream" to the early medieval "Linnenschmidt Water Mill", which is part of a historic ensemble in the town center: The Venne Homeland and Hiking Club maintains a bakery, a blacksmith shop, and a café on two museum islands, which is open on Sundays during the summer months. Here and at other stops on the Mill Tour, you will experience not only the history of technology but also the everyday culture changing over time.

This is also the case at "Knollmeyer's Mill" in Wallenhorst-Rulle, where you will receive your "Hobby Miller Certificate" after a two-hour course for groups. If you want to toast to that: By the cool flow of the Nette, which drives the mill wheel here, there is a beer garden in the shade of old trees.

Not every mill grinds flour. This is impressively demonstrated by the "Wind Art" that crowns the historic graduation tower in Bad Rothenfelde. It achieved what electric drives do today, pumping the brine up. From above, the salty water trickles over the massive blackthorn walls. Another liquid is important in the Ostenwalde Mill in Melle-Oldendorf. Here, massive millstones have been squeezing oil from beech nuts, flaxseeds, and rapeseeds since the 15th century.

One of the few windmills on the tour is in Groß-Mimmelage: A historic sawmill still splits tree trunks at Everding's Windmill today, while next door, particularly romantic weddings put together what humans should not separate. A cinema in the style of the 1960s shows cinematic and documentary mill films. And the snack bar at "Grandma Plush" café completes the nostalgic experience. In contrast, the Clothmaker Museum focuses on technology. Because the impressive industrial monument emerged from a medieval mill village in the heart of Bramsche.