Bille Spring

The Billequelle is a popular destination. The starting point is the village street, from which you follow the signs to the castle ruins. A bridge leads over the remains of the old moat of Linau Castle, there you push/drive past the stones of the ruins over another small bridge and you come to a small embankment. Behind it is a paved service road. Here you keep to the right and drive towards a small forest in which the Billequelle is on the right-hand side.
Like so many other sources, the Billequelle is unfortunately unspectacular. Luckily, a stone and a sign point it out - otherwise you probably wouldn't notice them.
You don't see any water bubbling here and it's hard to imagine that a lot of water should flow from here to feed the big Bille river. But it is so and therefore it is also a highlight because all springs are wonders of nature.
The name Bille comes from the Slavic word biely, meaning "white". The spring feeds from the Koberger and the Linauer Moor. In its upper reaches, the Bille takes in many streams and small bodies of water, such as the Corbek or the Schwarze Au. After flowing through numerous places in Stormarn and in the Duchy of Lauenburg district, the Bille flows into the Elbe at the Brandshof lock.
The river is 65 kilometers long, 42 kilometers of which run through Schleswig-Holstein and 23 kilometers through Hamburg.
Up to Bergedorf, the upper Bille forms the border between the districts of Stormarn and Lauenburg in many places, which in turn corresponds to the historical border between the settlement areas of the Saxons and the Wends (Limes Saxoniae).burg-linau.de/billequelle.htmlndr.de/ratgeber/reise/hamburg/Die-Bille-Hamburgs-unkenner-Fluss,bille102.html

After a long restoration, the path to Linau Castle has been clear for a long time, and so is the path to the Billequelle, because the only way to the spring leads past the castle.
The way to the Billequelle looks blocked, but it is not. You can push past the castle over the small bridge, then continue to the right along the moat and continue on the road to the Billequelle.

On June 27th, 21 I wanted to go to the Billequelle, which was unfortunately not possible: One (paved) path through the building was blocked with a fence ('no passage') and the other path behind the 'Burg Linau' was impassable because the small wooden bridge was obviously boarded up because of the risk of collapse. Well, you could have walked through the knee-deep mud, the numerous mosquitoes would certainly have liked that, but better not by bike. Pity !